Russell Martin launches into extraordinary rant at Rangers players after first league game

Rangers boss Russell Martin launched a furious tirade at his players after starting off the Scottish Premiership season with a disappointing 1-1 draw against Motherwell, telling them to "drop their ego".

The Gers took the lead through captain James Tavernier but put in a sluggish display and were lucky to keep the score a 1-0 until the end of the game, when Emmanuel Longelo scored a deserved equaliser in the 87th minute.

There has been a lukewarm reception to Martin's appointment after he was sacked by Southampton last season prior to their relegation from the Premier League and his poor start will not have helped his cause.

Rangers had previously secured their place in the next round of Champions League qualifying following a midweek victory over Panathinaikos, but Martin was fuming with his players' efforts on this occasion as he accused them of "jogging" against Motherwell and said there was a big "mentality" problem at the club.

"I think we were lucky to get a point,” Martin said. "Motherwell played great, we were nowhere near where we need to be, I’m extremely disappointed and hurt by that.

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"I’ve said to the players … there is a default here at this football club, to revert to type,” Martin told Sky Sports. “When it’s going really well, everyone’s all in … when it’s not going well, you protect yourself a little bit, self-preservation.

"You have to be all in, all the time. We had too many on the pitch today who just did what they wanted to do. When you want to just jog around, there’s a big problem.

"Some of them have to drop their ego. I’ll look at us tactically and accept my responsibility but today wasn’t really tactical, it was a mentality problem. We got more than we deserved today."

Rangers have a huge task in front of them to catch rivals Celtic in the title race, having not won the Premiership since 2021 and Martin said he had to get to the bottom of why his side were making so many "crazy decisions" - and warned that some stars "wouldn't play very much" if they didn't up their game.

“Today, we go ahead and play some OK stuff," he said. "Every time we get in the final third, we turn the ball over and make crazy decisions. They’re either selfish decisions or they’re based on anxiety, so we need to get to the bottom of that. Because there was far too much stuff that we haven’t worked on or haven’t seen.

“It’s not me digging them out. I take full responsibility for it. But that hurts me more than anything. Too much ego, too much self-preservation, and you’re either all-in all the time or you’re not. And if you’re not, you just won’t play very much."

Rangers will quickly switch their attentions to a Champions League third qualifying round match against Viktoria Plzen on Tuesday, with Martin knowing a bad result will further pile pressure on his position.

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