For so many years, the Europa League offered Rangers supporters a safe space away from their domestic trials and tribulations, but even that is no longer the case.
On Thursday night, Russell Martin suffered yet another defeat, with his side defeated 1-0 at the hands of Genk in their league phase opener.
Only 38,000 were in attendance at Ibrox, around 12,000 below capacity, as supporters voted with their feet against the manager and CEO Patrick Stewart, considering the Gers currently sit second bottom of the Scottish Premiership table, ahead of Sunday’s trip to Livingston.
In the Europa League meantime, former Celtic striker Oh Hyeon-gyu was the main character of the evening, seeing a penalty saved by Jack Butland, missing at least two guilt-edged opportunities, before eventually scoring the only goal of the night, poking home at the back post, getting on the end of Patrik Hrošovský’s ball across.
From a Rangers perspective, most of the heat will be on the under-fire manager, but many of his players simply aren’t pulling their weight, one in particular not having any discernible positive impact on the night’s proceedings.
Mohamed Diomandé's costly red card
Rangers are finding winning football matches difficult enough right now with the full complement of 11 players, let alone ten.
In the quarter of an hour before half time, referee Matej Jug took centre stage, making three key decisions that all went against the home side.
The most outcome-altering was of course the red card, with Mohamed Diomandé dismissed for a foul on Zakaria El Ouahdi.
The Ivorian did win the ball, but his foot then bounced off the top of the ball and into El Ouahdi’s calf, thereby deemed a dangerous tackle.
Mere moments before, the Ibrox faithful thought their side were going to be given a penalty, Joris Kayembe seemingly set to be penalised for a handball, but the referee instead adjudged that James Tavrnier had committed a foul, which Ally McCoist said, speaking on commentary for TNT Sports, was the “biggest cop out you’ll see all night… he’s invented a shove there to take the easy way out”.
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Even after the sending off, there was still time for Jug to award Genk a penalty in first-half injury time, following video review, but Oh’s attempt was saved by Jack Butland, eliciting the loudest cheer of the night.
Nevertheless, they were never truly able to recover from the loss of Diomandé and, even though he clearly didn’t mean to put in a dangerous challenge, he did ultimately, as McCoist put it, “cost his team”.
However, another Rangers starter offered even less on Thursday night, bringing into question why so much was paid for his services.
Rangers' anonymous attacker
Martin made just one change to his Rangers team that beat Hibs in the League Cup quarter-finals on Saturday, with Bojan Miovski, who actually scored his first goal for the club in that one, dropping to the bench, with Youssef Chermiti handed a first start for the club.
The 21-year-old joined the Light Blues for a reported fee of £8m, potentially rising to £10m, from Everton on deadline day, despite having scored zero goals in 24 appearances for the Toffees.
In fact, his most recent senior goal came for Sporting CP against Paços de Ferreira on 7 May 2023, underlining why this enormous fee raised so many eyebrows.
Well, as Chermiti seeks to change public perception of him in Glasgow, he didn’t do a very good job of it against Genk, as the table below outlines.
Shots
Zero
6th
Accurate passes
10
12th
Key passes
1
3rd
Duels contested
15
2nd
Duels won
5
4th
Possession lost
10
4th
Touches
24
11th
Sofascore rating
6.3
14th
As the table documents, Chermiti essentially had no impact on Rangers as an attacking force on Thursday, touching the ball a mere 24 times, nine fewer than the dismissed Diomandé, as well as five less than Oliver Antman, who was introduced as a half-time substitute. That return was also less than the aforementioned Butland, who recorded 45 touches.
Of course, it isn’t easy playing the role of a lone striker, especially when your side are down to ten men, but the Portuguese youngster lost possession ten times, as well as winning only five of 15 duels, not mustering a single shot, which simply isn’t good enough.
It is obviously unfair on the youngster, but when you cost as much as Chermiti has, big things are expected.
That fee will only prove to be value for money if he fires Rangers to league titles and scores crucial goals in European competition, so the fact that it is over two years since the striker scored a goal for anybody has to be alarming.
The most galling fact is that Martin left a proven goalscorer in Miovski, one who literally scored a goal less than a week ago, in reserve, watching on like the rest of the Rangers support, wondering how on earth this team are ever going to score a goal.
Reports suggest Martin now has three games to save his job, all away from home, facing Livingston, Sturm Graz and then Falkirk on the road in the next ten days, so, if he is to remain in situ during the international break, he must ditch Chermiti and get Miovski back up front.
