Barry Ferguson has work to do based on Rangers’ performances so far under his management.
Okay, there was a huge amount of fight shown in the second half at Kilmarnock. But that came after a woeful first 45 minutes and was followed up by a drab home defeat to Motherwell.
The Gers team are currently the opposite of what Ferguson promised when he got the job – no sign of the aggressive, attacking football he was going to deliver.
Fergie insists he still has a plan to save things between now and the end of the season, and he will need to.
Fenerbahce will provide a much sterner test on Thursday nigh and fans are calling on the manager to drop Jack Butland for Liam Kelly after his blunder.
But there are also issues in defence with Clinton Nsiala and Robin Propper having suffered in recent weeks and James Tavernier moved inside to help out.
Steven Naismith identified the defence as a ‘red flag’ going into the Europa League tie, although he is giving the team a chance of a result.
Boyd says Rangers must play John Souttar and Leon Balogun
The good news is that Ferguson has said John Souttar is fit and available again and he expects him to make a big difference to the side.
Nsiala and Propper were both poor against Kilmarnock. The latter kept his spot for Motherwell but it was his turn to be hooked after a bad start.
And with Leon Balogun making his return from the bench, Kris Boyd insists the Nigerian and Souttar simply have to be the centre half pairing that starts in Turkey.
That’s because he says Propper has been “miles off it” for some time now.
Speaking on the Scottish Sun’s Go Ballistic, he said: “John Souttar is back, Balogun came on at the weekend. I think that has to be the central pairing.
“Nsiala got the brunt of it last Wednesday night. Robin Propper is miles off it and has been for a period of time.
“Yes, James Tavernier went into centre-back but I think in the heat of the moment when the game has already started, it’s an easier thing to do is move from that right hand side in there.
“At the weekend it didn’t work. With Yilmaz at right-back, and I know it’s worked against Celtic in the past, the balance was all wrong for Rangers.”
Propper’s Rangers struggles
Propper was one of several Rangers players culpable for conceding to Motherwell. He took far too long to get out after a ball was cleared, remaining yards behind any of his teammates, and played Luke Armstrong onside to slide in the opener.
He was arguably just as poor as Nsiala at Kilmarnock and it could have been either of them hauled off.
And Propper’s struggles were already well known, indeed he admitted himself that he’s not suited to dealing with the direct and aggressive play of opposing teams.
