By David Herd

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RANGERS V HIBS LEAGUE CUP SAT 20 SEPTEMBER 17:45

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RANGERS V GENK EUROPA LEAGUE THU 25 SEPTEMBER 20:00

Welcome to the latest edition of the website’s weekly preview feature.

Saturday was a day that has been coming, and the venomous response of the home crowd to the shambles they were watching was absolutely no surprise. Russell Martin was not a man wanted by many fans when appointed, the vast majority of the opinion he was just a bad fit for our club. Despite us all hoping he proved us wrong, the truth is that things have been as awful as most feared, and actually even worse and even quicker than anyone imagined. The team is an absolute mess in all areas of the pitch. A defence that is easily played through, a midfield that is shapeless and lacks both creativity and aggression, and an attack that rarely looks threatening until things get desperate. We look badly coached, and have players who look utterly confused about what they are being told to do, and utterly terrified not to do whatever that is. Four points from fifteen and three goals scored is nothing short of scandalous.

TV, radio, newspapers and podcasts have been filled this week with opinions about Russell Martin, and why most disagree with the new regime at Ibrox who are determined not to sack him yet despite the evidence in front of our eyes. It would just be repeating all that, and writing something I know everyone agrees with if I decided to use this preview to call for his head. Instead, I think there needs to be a discussion on those who appointed him, and those who have the power to sack him.

It’s just a matter of time before Russell Martin is removed, it will never work, there is no way he can come back from this. But, once the inevitable happens, that doesn’t automatically mean good times ahead. As big a worry for me as Martin’s hopelessness is the direction above the current man in the dugout.

The strategy being implemented at our club by CEO Patrick Stewart and Sporting Director Kevin Thelwell involves a head coach and coaching team rather than a manager. It involves stats based recruitment and identifying development projects with high potential profit. All wrapped up in corporate buzzwords like culture, development, harmony, and growth. What that does is it shows little thought is being given to several factors that have forever been vital at our club.

Leadership. Mentality. Will to win. Desire. Pride.

All things that aren’t measured in xG, successful passes, or duels won.

It’s an approach that can work at Brentford or Brighton where there is no expectations of trophies, no past history of silverware, no demands of victory every week, and acceptance of taking time. Rangers already have a culture. Those in charge need to understand that they will fail unless they embrace it, and embed it at the centre of their strategy for success.

It was summed up by a great man who died well before I was born when Bill Struth spoke of what it meant to “Be a Ranger”. But the importance of what Jock Wallace called Character should never be underestimated or ignored. Every successful team still needs it. We are crying out for it to return. Whoever succeeds Martin needs to both understand and demonstrate those characteristics. For me, it’s no coincidence that the last time we won the title we had a manager who had them.

I fear that until this is understood, the demonstrations and the empty seats are destined to continue.

I predicted a win over Hearts, I really should have known better. I did get one bit right, though, as I said at the end of my prediction that “it needs to be a home win, or the Head Coach could be in for a very loud and very unpleasant experience.” It was certainly that!

RANGERS 1 HIBS 1 (TO GO TO PENALTIES)

Saturday has all the hallmarks of a new low in a season of despair. There will be protests outside and inside the stadium. There will be abuse and insults flying. And given our recent performances, there’s a pretty good chance there will be another defeat to suffer. All in front of a gloating away support who will fill their allocation of around 2,500 and who will revel in our misery. And also revel in the sight of more empty seats than there has been at a competitive Ibrox match for years.

There are some who claim that the more empty seats there are, the more likely our players will actually play better. While it’s a theory I certainly don’t subscribe to, it’s also a theory that is a waste of time anyway as players just need to be able to cope with the expectations and impatience from the stands. I can’t see Hibs not scoring, but the law of averages surely suggests we will finally score too. Maybe driven more by the heart than the head given the utter dross we have been watching, but I reckon Saturday could be the first League Cup penalty shootout ever at the stadium. If it is, then it could go either way.

RANGERS 1 GENK 1

Belgian teams seem to have started this season well in European competition. Brugge wiped the floor with us, showing mercy after going 6-0 up with 40 minutes to play. USG got a great win away in Eindhoven in the Champions League on Tuesday night. And now we face the relatively unheralded Genk, a team possibly best known by Rangers fans as a club briefly managed by Alex McLeish. They also have the former Celtic striker Oh in their attack, and are a team who were top of their league after the regular season last year, but then were overtaken in the play-off matches. They won 5-1 away to Lech Poznan to qualify for the Europa League phase, and will be no easy task even if we were playing well.

It will be a night with a depressing number of empty seats, but I have a feeling we will at least avoid defeat. Rangers have the players to be able to compete at Europa level, they just need properly organised and properly motivated. I can’t see this as being one of those special Thursdays under the Ibrox floodlights, but I can see a first point on the board in the competition.

It feels wrong to give out this award for the past seven days, absolutely nobody who played on Saturday deserves any kind of praise. There wasn’t a Man of the Match announced at the game, quite rightly. Maybe I should give it to Nico Raskin for staying in his seat till the 89th minute.