On Friday morning, as Rohl, Nico Raskin and Mohamed Diomande spoke about facing Hearts, there was a whole load of fighting talk from the three adopted Bears.
Tynecastle was going to be “on fire” said the manager, the contest was “do or die” said Raskin, a must-win game said Diomande. Rohl said his team is facing four cup finals from now until season’s end and that they’ll be ready for whatever the league leaders and their crowd throw at them.
The problem here is a week ago Rohl said much the same thing in the build-up to the Motherwell game. It was five cup finals at that point.
In his preview of that match, he stressed Rangers needed to keep believing on the back of four straight wins and 15 goals scored. “We have to run, we have to fight,” he said of the imminent arrival of Motherwell to Ibrox. “(We have to) let the opponent know what it feels like to be at Ibrox at the moment.”
When Motherwell passed them to distraction to open a 2-0 lead in the first half, everybody could see what it felt like to be at Ibrox. Noisy and angry.
Rangers were not just outplayed, they were outthought. Motherwell had a surgical precision about them. They were a class above a Rangers team that’s had £40m spent on it in under 12 months – about double Motherwell’s entire turnover for three seasons combined.
It was the third time in seven games Rangers fell two goals behind – they got a 2-2 draw against Livingston, roared on to beat Falkirk 6-3 but got caught by Motherwell, losing 3-2 in the end. Can a side with such a weakness in its make-up be trusted to win on Monday?
There is a soft underbelly to this Rangers team. They can deliver pockets of really good stuff and goals in clusters, but their unimpressive moments have put them in the last chance saloon.
On Friday, Rohl and Raskin spoke about the character they’ve shown to fight back from a near-death experience under Russell Martin, the guts it has taken to make themselves contenders. But their hopes are hanging by a thread heading to Edinburgh.
Of course, there is pressure all round. Heaps of it. With their backs to the wall, Rangers will surely come out swinging. Hearts will have to hold their nerve. Celtic finding a winner against Hibs sets things up perfectly for Tynecastle.
Rohl says he knows what to expect from Hearts and their supporters, but does he really? Does anybody? Expecting the unexpected has been a sensible policy this season. So, onwards we go into the fun and the chaos, with pulses quickening all the while.
