Rangers: Russell Martin tells some players to ‘drop their ego’ after Motherwell defeat, but has he gone in too soon?

“Some of them have to drop their ego. When you want to just jog around and do what you want to do, there’s a big problem.”

Russell Martin has already said the Scottish Premiership is where his Rangers team will really be judged, and he has wasted no time in letting the players know what he thinks after more dropped points on the opening day.

The new head coach refused to use their Champions League exploits for the draw with Motherwell at Fir Park, telling Sky Sports they were “lucky to get a point” as the fans booed them at full-time.

“We were nowhere near where we need to be, and I’m extremely disappointed and hurt by that,” he said.

“They were braver than us, they were more aggressive than us.

“There is a default here at this football club, and it’s not one person’s fault at all.

“The default is to revert to type, which is when it’s going really well, everyone’s all in and it’s really good. When it’s not going well, you protect yourself a little bit and self-preservation stuff.

“When you want to just jog around and do what you want to do, there’s a big problem.

“Some of them have to drop their ego, I’ll look at us tactically and accept my responsibility in it.

“But today, it’s not really tactical, it’s a mentality problem, and we got more than what we deserved actually.”

“We need work out who really wants to be all in and who doesn’t.

“But Europe is not an excuse. This club demands to play in Europe. We’ve qualified for that, so we’re going to be playing in Europe a lot and we’re going to have games after the European games a lot, and we have to manage them way better than today.”

Martin has made eight summer signings and he is hopeful of adding more, but he has also warned players they will not be staying to make up the numbers.

“Cyriel [Dessers] is the only one that we’ve actually had a bid for and he comes on and he runs so hard. Some of them need to have a look at him and set that example.

“There will be people left behind if they don’t want to come. They’ll be left behind because they need to understand really what playing for this football club will take and what it means, and not just when it’s having a nice time.

“I know what we’re coming into, and I understand the fans’ frustration.

“We are only one game in, and it is a work in progress. We need to work out quickly who really wants to listen, who will really fight, who will really run when the going gets tough.”

Has Martin gone in on his players too soon?

The Sky Sports pundits assessed Russell Martin’s scathing full-time verdict at Fir Park.

Chris Sutton:

“He’s gone early. Is he right to do that? I think on balance he probably is.

“He understands the culture up here, he understands that he has to win. He’s gone very early with this, but it’s a bit desperate, first game of the season – just sort of easing himself in to absolutely machine gun the dressing room in the way that he did.

“For him to do that first game of the season, he sees them every day in training, he must think they’re rank rotten. He must do, because why wouldn’t there be a bit more balance there?

“When have you ever seen a manager come out and fillet the team – and we all think he’s right, by the way – but when have you ever seen a manager do that first game of the season? I said before, everybody has a good pre-season, everybody’s happy in pre-season, everybody tells you it’s been wonderful.

“Now the season has started, he has to win, but that was extreme.”

Kris Boyd:

“For a long period of time a lot of Rangers managers have sugar-coated a lot of things. When you listen to Russell speaking there, he’s annoyed.

“The alarming thing for me would be that he’s calling them out so early on.

“He has to be ruthless. There’s been far too many players who have ran all over the top of managers at this football club.

“He singled out one or two players in terms of they’ve done OK but there was a load of them there today that were miles off it, and it’s the same thing again.”