Russell Martin’s eighth match of a Rangers reign already riddled with doubts proved close to a living nightmare. Championship promotion races and playoffs, the ill winds of struggling in the Premier League have nothing on the fever-dream pressures of failing to turn around one of Glasgow’s giants.
Martin may be a believer in his own processes but in an environment where snap decisions are often sustained, he does not have long to set them in place. The chances of Rangers playing Champions League football rather than the Europa League are an outside chance after a first-half performance of rank ineptitude, the tone and probably the two-legged tie set by a horrible opening 20 minutes in which three soft goals were conceded. So early in his stewardship, Martin is still in the experimental phase and until a revival in the second half the experiment looked likely to be abandoned some time soon.
Jayden Meghoma was making his debut at left-back, the Brentford loanee familiar to Martin from Southampton. James Tavernier, club captain, was benched, with another Premier League loanee, Max Aarons at right-back. Christos Tzolis, reportedly high on Crystal Palace’s list should Eberechi Eze depart, and a scorer for Greece at Hampden Park in March, was earmarked as Brugge’s danger man, veteran Hans Vanaken as the roving playmaker. They did not take long to hit their straps.
