Gordon Smith: Rangers are in a real mess from top to bottom

THERE has been a major inquest into what went wrong for Rangers against Celtic last Sunday.

That is no surprise. To lose 4-0 to their great rivals in the Scottish Cup semi-final was a huge disappointment – and it could even have been much worse.

For me, the blame can be apportioned into three areas.

At the top.

Dave King made a big mistake in the run-up to the game with his letter to season-ticket holders. His comments cast doubt on the future of Graeme Murty in the role of manager, and undermined him in the present. The players will have recognised that, and it may well have had an effect on their performance.

In the middle.

Murty, who would have been forgiven for feeling a bit low in the wake of King’s words, got his team wrong, badly wrong.

This was the biggest game of the season for Rangers, one which presented them with an opportunity to prevent Celtic pulling off what would be a historic double Treble.

His top priority had to be stopping Celtic playing their game.

For me, the best way to do that would have been to go with three at the back, five in midfield and Kenny Miller playing off of Alfredo Morelos up front. This set-up would have allowed Kenny to shut down Scott Brown when Celtic were in possession and prevent them building from the back, as they like to do.

At the bottom.

Too many of the Rangers players simply did not perform to anywhere near their capabilities.

In my experience, when that happens there is usually something going on in the background. In this case, I believe it might have been their lack of confidence in the manager, who they felt no longer held the confidence of those above him.

But they are professional sportsmen and this reflects poorly on them. They were representing the club, the fans and themselves.

The one point I would make, though, is that I remember a team-mate telling a manager –who was berating us at half-time for a poor display – “You are making us look worse than we are because the formation doesn’t suit us at all.”

The manager took his advice on a different way to go and we got much better in the second-half.

The circumstances involving the subsequent suspensions of Lee Wallace and Kenny Miller are disputed, with the Players Union involved.

We will leave that issue until we know what the facts are.

What Rangers supporters will be most concerned about is whether there is reason to believe there can be progress under the current chairman and directors?

My answer is a conditional yes. Why? Because I honestly do not believe the gap between Celtic and Rangers is as pronounced as the statistics would have you think.

The proviso I would make is that, to get closer, they must get the right manager in place for next season.

Murty’s time in charge is finished. He should be put back to taking the Under-20s now, and his assistant, Jimmy Nicholl, a vastly-experienced coach, handed the reins of the first-team until the end of the season.

In fairness to Murty, he took the reins following the shocking appointment of Pedro Caixinha. And before him, Mark Warburton didn’t exactly work out, either.

How much difference can the right manager make? Just look at Kilmarnock.

They had three points from eight games before they appointed Steve Clarke. Last weekend, they won their sixth game in a row.

Need another example? When Celtic appointed Martin O’Neill to be their manager back in 2000, he was given little or no chance of competing with Dick Advocaat, then in charge of Rangers.

The rest is history.

So it can be done, but there must be a new direction and clear leadership to see it is followed through.

At the top, in the middle and at the bottom.