{"id":331875,"date":"2025-08-10T00:53:19","date_gmt":"2025-08-10T00:53:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/331875\/"},"modified":"2025-08-10T00:53:19","modified_gmt":"2025-08-10T00:53:19","slug":"russell-martin-oversees-unwanted-36-year-first-as-he-bemoans-rangers-lack-of-mentality-amid-struggles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/331875\/","title":{"rendered":"Russell Martin oversees unwanted 36-year first as he bemoans Rangers’ lack of mentality amid struggles"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rangers continued their dismal start to the Scottish Premiership season by drawing 1-1 at home to Dundee.<\/strong><\/p>\n

A James Tavernier penalty in stoppage-time salvaged a point for the Gers at Ibrox<\/a> after the visitors led early in the second half.<\/p>\n

\"Rangers<\/a><\/p>\n

4<\/p>\n

Rangers are fifth in the table after another drawCredit: Getty<\/p>\n

Russell Martin’s side finished the match with ten men as Nasser Djiga was shown a straight red card for a last-man foul.<\/p>\n

And the result has left Rangers with just two points from their first two Scottish Premiership<\/a> fixtures this season.<\/p>\n

It’s the first time since 1989 that the Scottish giants have not won their opening two league matches.<\/p>\n

Rangers came so close to avoiding making unwanted history as Cyriel Dessers netted with just moments remaining to make it 2-1.<\/p>\n

However, after a VAR review, the goal did not stand due to Dessers being offside in the build-up.<\/p>\n

Out of all 20 shots they took against Dundee, the highest total in a Premiership match this season, only five were on target.<\/p>\n

They also attempted 709 passes, their highest total in a single league match since the beginning of last season.<\/p>\n

What did Russell Martin say after Rangers drew with Dundee<\/strong><\/p>\n

Speaking to BBC Scotland, Martin said: “I’m disappointed we didn’t win the game, disappointed that we conceded a really poor goal.<\/p>\n

“There was just general lethargy and no speed in the first half. There wasn’t enough intent to disrupt them until we went down to ten men.<\/p>\n

“The mentality was much better in terms of aggression and speed with and without the ball, but it shouldn’t take that.<\/p>\n

\"Tavernier<\/a><\/p>\n

4<\/p>\n

Tavernier saved Rangers from a dreadful defeat at IbroxCredit: Getty\"Martin<\/a><\/p>\n

4<\/p>\n

Martin is yet to fully get a tune out of his sideCredit: Getty<\/p>\n

“I’m pleased with the response of the team when we went down to ten men and we could’ve won the game in the end but the mentality has to come from the very first kick of the match.<\/p>\n

“In hindsight, I should’ve made some changes to inject that energy in the team but I explained my decision before the game and maybe I could’ve changed that now the game is finished.<\/p>\n

“We’re learning about the group all the time, so that’s a lesson learnt today. We have to make sure that aggression is there all the time.<\/p>\n

“The fans have lacked the success they want for quite some time so I understand the frustration. I didn’t get too high on Tuesday so we’re not going to get too low today.<\/p>\n

“We’re going to give the fans something to cheer about and we will get better and better. We didn’t lose today and we will improve, it’ll just take some time.<\/p>\n

“Nico Raskin was great when he game on, he tackled more than the whole team. We need at attack everything, it took us too long to attack the game tonight.”<\/p>\n

\"Rangers'<\/a><\/p>\n

4<\/p>\n

Rangers’ next league game comes at St. Mirren on August 24Credit: Getty<\/p>\n

Saturday’s result follows their 1-1 draw against Motherwell on the opening weekend of the 2025\/26 campaign.<\/p>\n

Martin has overseen five fixtures in all competitions since he was announced as the new Rangers head coach in June<\/a>.<\/p>\n

And he’s been no stranger in hitting the headlines after being sent off in a pre-season match<\/a> against Middlesbrough following after a half-time dispute with match official John Beaston.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Martin told his squad to drop their ego following their draw to Motherwell last week.<\/p>\n

League form aside, Rangers lead 3-0 against FC Viktoria Plzen in the third round of Champions League qualifying.<\/p>\n

‘I learnt a lesson’ – Celtic fans phoned Martin O’Neill after shock Rangers claim<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rangers continued their dismal start to the Scottish Premiership season by drawing 1-1 at home to Dundee. A…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":331876,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[18866,13,12,5074,119105,28104,1638,14],"class_list":{"0":"post-331875","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"tag-dundee","9":"tag-headlines","10":"tag-news","11":"tag-rangers","12":"tag-rangers-vs-scotland","13":"tag-russell-martin","14":"tag-scottish-premiership","15":"tag-top-stories"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115001740856438406","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/331875","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=331875"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/331875\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/331876"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=331875"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=331875"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=331875"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}