If Danny Röhl did not know he had a big job on his hands already at Rangers, he certainly knows that now.
On Thursday night, the Glasgow outfit were swatted aside 2-0 by Roma at Ibrox, the club’s seventh successive European defeat, leaving them rock bottom of the gigantic Europa League table, still yet to get off the mark.
Having also been beaten by Brann and then Celtic in Sunday’s League Cup semi-finals, Röhl has become the first ever permanent Rangers manager to taste as many as three defeats across his first five games in charge.
In his press conference after the game, the German insisted that this job was not bigger than he first thought but, even though he currently has the fans onside, this can quickly turn, as Russell Martin found out, lasting only 17 games in the Ibrox hot seat.
So, with a game against Dundee at Dens Park next up for the Light Blues on Sunday, which regular starter should be on borrowed time, as Röhl targets an upturn in both performances and results?
Rangers' catastrophic summer spending
Earlier this year, 49ers Enterprises completed their takeover of Rangers, which was supposed to commence a new era of success on Glasgow’s south side.
Well, they inarguably got the appointment of manager Russell Martin wrong, while a huge amount of money was spent in the summer, albeit not very well, as the table below documents.
Lyall Cameron
Dundee
Compensation
Joe Rothwell
Bournemouth
£400k
Emmanuel Fernandez
Peterborough
£3.5m
Thelo Aasgaard
Luton Town
£3.5m
Nasser Djiga
Wolves
Loan
Djeidi Gassama
Sheff Wednesday
£2.2m
Mikey Moore
Tottenham
Loan
Oliver Antman
Go Ahead Eagles
£3m
Jayden Meghoma
Brentford
Loan
Bojan Miovski
Girona
£2.6m
Youssef Chermiti
Everton
£8m
Derek Cornelius
Marseille
Loan
Cyriel Dessers
Panathinaikos
£3.5m
Hamza Igamane
Lille
£10.5m
Rıdvan Yılmaz
Beşiktaş
£2m
Jefté
Palmeiras
£6m
Robin Pröpper
Twente
£1.5m
Václav Černý
Beşiktaş
End of loan
As the table documents, Rangers spent over £23m in the summer, while recouping a similar amount, all of which has made the squad substantially worse.
£8m, potentially rising to £10m in add-ons, was splashed to bring in Youssef Chermiti from Everton, who has scored just one goal for the club to date, replacing Hamza Igamane who departed for Lille for a similar amount, but has been on fire in Northern France, netting seven times for les Dogues already.
Similarly, Bojan Miovski has so far been a sub-par replacement for last season’s top-scorer Cyriel Dessers, who netted 29 times across all competitions, while star attacker Václav Černý simply has not been replaced, with teenager Jayden Meghoma appearing out of his depth, which isn’t ideal considering both senior left-backs Jefté and Rıdvan Yılmaz were sold.
Speaking on TNT Sports after Thursday’s defeat to Roma, Rangers legend Ally McCoist asserted that it will take at least three transfer windows to fix Rangers current predicament, asserting that he hopes the board back Röhl, noting that recruitment has to be a concern, given what sporting director Kevin Thelwell has delivered so far.
For now, Röhl has to work with the players in his squad and is under pressure to deliver results, so which of the summer recruits is on borrowed time?
The Rangers summer signing Danny Röhl must axe
They say first impressions are the most important, which is not ideal for Nasser Djiga.
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After arriving on a season-long loan from Wolves, aforementioned sporting director Thelwell backed the new defender to “flourish”.
Well, the Burkinabé international marked his home Premiership debut by being sent off against Dundee during a dismal 1-1 draw at Ibrox.
Nevertheless, mistakes happen and the 22-year-old former Crvena zvezda defender is only young, we’re sure he will learn.
Well, ten days later, Djiga’s catastrophic error presented Romeo Vermant with the opening goal just three minutes into the Champions League play-off tie, a two-legged affair Club Brugge would go onto win 9-1.
As a result, Djiga then spent a few weeks left in reserve, but has started the last three matches, with Röhl switching to a back three, seeking extra defensive solidity.
Nevertheless, Graham Falk of the Scotsman was not impressed with his performance against Roma, labelling the centre-back ‘unconvincing’, adding that he ‘completely lost his man’ for the corner from which Roma opened the scoring, concluding that he is one of many ‘poor summer signings’,
Mark Atkinson of the Scotsman meantime documented his ‘really difficult’ afternoon for the defender against Celtic at Hampden last Sunday, while Gazzetta dello Sport described him as the ‘worst’ player on the pitch after that game.
Against Roma, Djiga started in the back three alongside captain James Tavernier and John Souttar, meaning Derek Cornelius and Emmanuel Fernandez, who has made just three appearances for the club to date, were left in reserve.
Thus, even if he does stick with this back three shape, Röhl does have alternative options to the ticking time bomb of defensive errors that is Djiga.
Fernandez, who has played just one minute since August, and Cornelius, who has been generally impressive, are surely better options, starting at Dens on Sunday, facing the side Djiga has already been sent off against, so the Wolves loanee must improve if he’s to remain in the first-choice XI.
Fewer touches than Butland: Rohl must axe Rangers man who lost the ball 11x
Rangers have now lost four out of four in the Europa League, and Danny Röhl must drop the flop who lost the ball 11 times against Roma on Thursday.
ByBen Gray
