Rangers suffered their first defeat of the season in Europe and it probably came at the worst possible time.
I’ll try not to sound too defeatist as we are still well in with a chance of making the knockout stages but last night was a bitter pill to take.
We were so good going forwards but we left the backdoor open for way too long and, eventually, Spartak Moscow punished us.
Certainly, it should teach a few of the lads a lesson of what it takes to perform at this level and Steven Gerrard will also be well aware of that.
Indeed, he spoke about levels after the game:
????️GERRARD: "Football is about levels and if you don’t defend properly and you don’t do the basics well enough, high-level players and high-level teams normally punish you and that was the case tonight, so we are disappointed with the result."
READ MORE: https://t.co/Px6hTVwXPn pic.twitter.com/rAJj0Vlflr
— Rangers Football Club (@RangersFC) November 8, 2018
Certainly, he is spot on.
You cannot defend like that and expect a result in Europe – it was just suicidal.
We have to move on, then, and hopefully results will pick straight back up after what was indeed a tough night in the Russian capital. Let’s see how fans have responded to the comments:
Our defence is a shambles
— David boyd (@IBoyd1966) November 8, 2018
They weren’t a high level team though, they were woeful but we just happened to be worse disappointing night
— Barry Binnie (@BigBazzaB) November 8, 2018
I agree. I think they were very poor.
— PeteWhalen (@peterjames73) November 8, 2018
Stevie needs to stand up himself at the moment. He has players to work with, you can’t just hammer them all the time. You can’t just threaten to replace them all either. Big game Sunday.
— . (@Beesh24240265) November 8, 2018
The defending was actually laughable at times. You’d actually need to try very hard to defend that bad. And we won’t qualify now
— Michael Reid (@RFC54WATP1) November 8, 2018
Flanagan is never a left back and if Gerrard can’t see that then ….he’s in big trouble.
— Scottish and British (@samboardman99) November 8, 2018
Allan MacGregor to be captain!!!
— Ally Stewart (@AllyStewart1989) November 8, 2018