Rangers inquest starts in the dressing room as Russell Martin home truths tackled head on

James Tavernier has refused to shy away from the brutal takes from his boss after defeat to Hearts

Bushwhacked by Progres Niederkorn, clobbered by Queen’s Park, dismantled time and time again by Celtic.

You have to say that James Tavernier has endured more than his fair share of brutal lows in a blue jersey.

So when he claims things at Ibrox have never been quite as bad as they are right now, there can be little doubt about the sheer scale of the disaster currently unfolding at Rangers.

The Gers skipper has become something of a walking, talking internet meme the longer his 10-year stay in Glasgow has gone on.

As captain of the club, it’s been his job to front up and explain why things have gone so wrong so regularly.

The trouble is that he’s had to trudge out before the cameras so often that his stock reply of “well it’s disappointing” has now become a personal catchphrase.

The 33-year-old managed to avoid a repeat of that robotic slogan and all the other cliches he has fallen back on down the years on Saturday night as he was yet again asked to perform the post-mortem duties on this latest devastating defeat to Hearts.

If anything, this was a Tavernier we have rarely seen in these grim circumstances - raw, blunt, exasperated.

He admitted to being “embarrassed” by the start to the season that has seen Martin’s men fail to win any of their first five games of the season and confessed the Gers squad felt “ashamed” as they found themselves sitting 10th in the table.

It might have been bad before, but this is worse than ever.

“It's not good enough. Plain and simple, it's not good enough,” he groaned.

“For all the years I've been here, I've never had a start to the season like this, so it's not good enough as a team, as players.

“We have to do much better than this.

“Is it harder to lift myself up after all these repeated disappointments? No, I'll always continue to keep fighting, no matter what situation I'm in. It's about me, the senior boys, everybody. We all have to drive that.

“And no matter what disappointment is happening right now, we have to respond.

“But like I said, it's the worst since I've been here. And we just have to get better.”

Russell Martin is refusing to call it quits but if it were down to the seething Ibrox support, he’d have been binned long before now.

Among the stinging questions put to the beleaguered boss and his skipper by representatives of the Rangers fan media was an accusation that some players no longer appeared to be playing for the manager.

Tavernier didn’t answer it directly but insisted that no matter who was positioned in the dugout, those taking to the filed had a duty chiefly to represent the club and its fans with pride and effort.

“First and foremost, the players have to play for the shirt, they have to play for the badge, they have to play for the fans, they have to play for the club.

“Whichever order you put it in, that way it all comes together. We all have to play, first and foremost, for the club.

“And as a team, it's not good enough. Plain and simple.”

Having bemoaned the packed fixture list which had seen his side squeeze 11 games into the space of just 42 days, Martin was hoping some extra time on the training field during the international break would finally allow his new-look side to click.

Instead, it was a repeat serving of the same shapeless, sluggish mess that the fans had been treated to before the Premiership went into its brief September shutdown.

It took a half-time chorus of boos to spark any kind of life from the the team.

Martin complained decisions went against him. He certainly had a point after Lawrence Shankland bagged the first-half opener after handling the ball in the build up while a Derek Cornelius equaliser was harshly chalked off for a foul on new Hearts keeper Alex Schwolow.

But none of the excuses the fact that for 45 minutes Rangers were simply rotten.

The fans have seen this team waste entire halves of football week after week with their laboured, lethargic approach, only managing to build up a head of steam once they’ve fallen behind.

It was an accusation that was thrown at Philippe Clement’s side too and Martin nor Tavernier seem any closer to solving the issue either.

The captain said: “It's hard to pinpoint why that is, because a lot of changes have been made since last season to this season.

“It's like what I said before, it's about when you cross that line, you have to earn the right to get a foot in the game.

“I felt obviously the first goal was handball, but that's still no excuse to put the performance in first, to not even really test their keeper.

“Thelo Aasgaard hit the crossbar but we're not creating enough chances in the final third, and on the transition, we're conceding too many chances.

“So, I said after the game, we all have to go home, look ourselves in the mirror, and we can't afford to keep on doing this, because in all these years I've been here, it's never been this bad.

“And we have to really stick together and start putting in performances and winning games, simple as that. If the performance is not there, then we have to win the game, simple. So, yeah, that's what we have to do.”

Martin tried to absolve his tactical approach from the blame - instead throwing his players under the bus by claiming it was “the emotion” and the failure to “manage anxiety” that were the sole reason why Gers are now sitting only a point above the relegation slots.

Asked if that was fair, Tavernier said: “There's obviously a lot of new players in this team. It's probably the first time in their career that they've maybe experienced this kind of frustration, and it's understandable frustration that's coming from the fans.

“Because all the fans want us to do is to win games and show that we are doing the right basics in the game.

“But right now, it's like a light switch, we're not doing it constantly. And that's the frustrating part of me looking into it.

“We all have to look at ourselves.”

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