What now for Danny Rohl’s Rangers as title hopes fade?
The former Sheffield Wednesday boss can only take so much responsibility for Rangers’ campaign. When he arrived to replace Russell Martin in October, Rangers were 13 points behind Hearts and eight behind Celtic following a serious summer squad overhaul.
By mid-April improved form was keeping Rangers within a point of Hearts and ahead of Celtic, but not before recent defeats pulled them into third place. Overall, Rohl has a league average of 2.22 points per game; That’s higher than Derek McInnes at Hearts (2.11), but below Martin O’Neill’s 2.5 points in his Premiership matches in charge of Celtic this season.
Only a win at Celtic Park on Sunday, coupled with a points concession from Hearts at Motherwell the night before, will give Rangers hope in their final two games of the season. Sunday’s defeat would move Rangers into third place for the first time since 2018.
Rangers’ 3-1 win at Celtic Park in December was the last game of Wilfried Nancy’s short tenure with the home team. Rohl will need to beat O’Neill for the first time this season to secure a second victory at the home of their city rivals.
The German had only been in charge for a few weeks when he took Rangers to Hampden to face interim boss O’Neill’s Celtic, and despite a brave recovery with 10 players following Aasgaard’s first-half red card, his Ibrox side went down 3-1 after extra time.
In the March Scottish Cup quarter-final with Celtic, O’Neill had been back in charge of Celtic since January. Rangers pressed on without the end product and Celtic won on penalties after 120 goalless minutes at Ibrox.
“When it’s over, it’s over, and that means it’s not over because we still have three games to go,” Rohl said.
“The last two games have put us in a really difficult situation. We’ve worked so hard to get to this point and then you lose twice, very tight 2-1 and 3-2 and that’s not good enough at the moment.
“What I demand from my group now is to show personality and courage in the next three games and that is what we need to do.”
Another significant player turnover is expected, with captain James Tavernier announcing his departure this summer, six players coming to the end of their loan spells and players such as goalkeeper Jack Butland about to enter the final year of their contracts.
“We will analyze the season; we will analyze what was right, what was wrong, what we need to improve, and I am completely convinced that we will start again from the summer,” said 37-year-old Rohl. he said.
“How we make decisions in moments is a part we really need to improve.”
