Rangers were beaten 3-0 by Norwegian side SK Brann
Furious Rangers captain James Tavernier has slammed the “disgraceful” showing in Norway that ruined new Ibrox manager Danny Rohl’s debut match in his fresh role.
However, the livid skipper acknowledges it’s not the German manager’s responsibility to discover the passion and commitment within the woeful squad he’s taken over from Russell Martin.
Rather, Tavernier demands that each of his teammates must have a serious self-examination and question whether they’re truly giving their all for the Ibrox club.
The straightforward response at present is they fell well short during their Scandinavian mauling in Bergen.
Freyr Alexandersson’s Norwegian side aren’t precisely among Europe’s footballing elite, reports the Daily Record.
Yet they comfortably brushed aside a Rangers team that brought shame to the shirt.
Out-paced, out-battled and ultimately outplayed, Tavernier couldn’t conceal his revulsion following a loss that leaves the Gers at the foot of the 36-team Europa League standings.
The Bergen supporters ruthlessly taunted Rangers as they bellowed ‘You’re f*****g shite’ after netting their third goal of the evening.
And Tavernier wasn’t inclined to disagree.
“It’s just a disgraceful performance, it’s as simple as that,” fumed the incensed defender.
“In all the years I’ve been here, you know, with the consistency of poor performance that we’re putting in, I’ve not experienced it before.
“Some of us show our aggression after the games, after we get beat.
“You expect all the lads to take that in. But individually, we all have to look at ourselves much, much harder because it’s not good enough.
“You can get instructions from managers, but we simply have to put that on the pitch.
“We were just second-best. Be it first ball, second balls, there was just not enough fight.
“And I shouldn’t be saying that for a player of a club like Rangers. That should be the given.
“You should want to fight, to go for every ball.
“Even if it’s a scrappy game, you’ve got to make it a scrappy game, but it’s just far too easy at this minute playing against us, and that’s the hurtful thing about this all.”
The 1500-strong group of travelling Scottish supporters made the journey to Norway’s west coast hoping to witness Rohl’s appointment trigger an immediate improvement in their side’s fortunes.
Instead, they witnessed the same chaotic display that led to Martin’s dismissal.
And with Rohl planning significant changes, Tavernier maintains those highly-paid underperformers should be concerned about their place in the former Sheffield Wednesday manager’s future plans.
He said: “Everybody should be. You should be playing for the shirt. It’s an honour to come and play for this club.
“You want to make history playing for this club, but that’s nowhere near the required standard that were shown tonight.
“And yes the manager has come in. We’ve only had only a couple of days on the training pitch, he can only give certain instructions, but we have to put that on the pitch.
“But it’s happened throughout the season.
“With games like last weekend, we put in a performance for 45 minutes, but we can’t make that consistent for 90 minutes.
“Today, we created a couple of chances in the first half. But then we conceded.
“We knew when we came in at half-time that we can obviously get back into this game.
“But then we conceded two more bad goals from ourselves, so we’re just shooting ourselves here.”
When questioned whether he believed Rohl could assist the players in raising their determination levels in the changing room, Tavernier responded: “He can give us the best opportunity, but it comes within as a player to fight, to give it your all, that’s within.
“I don’t think that’s something that’s taught. I think you’ve either got it or you haven’t, and we’re just clearly not showing that at this moment in time.”
Tavernier found it difficult to control his fury – though he confesses he’s uncertain whether his teammates share his feelings.
“Oh, I’m raging, this is what I’m saying, it’s the first time I’ve been in this position, being at this club, and the amount of consistent games were on a certain basic levels, we’ve not been performing,” he said.
“And that’s what’s making me rage.
“The amount of chats that we’ve had after games, you want it to sink into the players’ heads.
“But it just isn’t at the minute, and that’s what I’m raging at.
“Are they as angry as I am? I hope they are, I’m obviously not in their heads, but I hope they are, because we need to fix this, and the only way we can do this is by everyone playing for the shirt, chipping in and giving it their all.”
Amongst those who will need to drastically raise their standards is Youssef Chermiti.
The striker set the club back £8million when he joined from Everton in the summer.
However, he’s yet to offer any indication whatsoever that he will eventually justify that substantial fee after squandering one of Gers’ limited scoring opportunities with a feeble first-half header.
Rohl, though, believes it’s unfair to single out the Portuguese youngster having selected him ahead of Bojan Miovski.
He said: “Before I go into this question, I think this is exactly the part, we can speak now about individual performance.
“But our performance as a group was not good today, and I think this is what I will try.
“I took him today because I saw a very high last line, and he has power, he can go deep, I think that was the reason why I took him.
“Yeah, but again I come back to the key message today, important is the team performance.”
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