Soccer
Rangers ‘not ready’ for Europa League – Derek McInnes
Derek McInnes admitted Rangers are not yet good enough for top European competition after exiting the Europa League qualifiers with a 3-2 aggregate defeat to Jagiellonia Bialystok.
The Light Blues had lost 2-1 in the first leg in Poland last week but captain Lawrence Shankland levelled the tie with a penalty on 19 minutes at Ibrox – only for the visitors to deservedly score in the 65th minute through attacker Nik Prelec for the 1-1 draw which took them through to the play-off.
McInnes has not won in four games since taking over as boss in the summer and he described the angry reaction from the Gers fans at full-time as “justified.”
Rangers, who finished third in the William Hill Premiership last season, reached the Europa League final in 2022 but will take on Jablonec, from the Czech Republic, in the Conference League play-off round.
The former Rangers midfielder said: “The club’s built for the Europa League and Champions League. And that’s the intention, to get there.
“But I’m not sure the team’s quite ready for it at the minute. And it pains me to say that, to be honest. It does.
“We need to get more quality. We need to try and get more confidence into the team. But there wasn’t an outcome that we wanted.
“It wasn’t good enough. What we served up throughout the second half wasn’t good enough. We’ve got to be honest with that, we’ve got to own it.
“Last season, I think it was aimed at strong 45 minutes. It wasn’t followed up. It was just playing in stages and playing in parts of the game.
“And we have to be honest, it’s been a continuation of that this season already. In the four games we’ve played, we’ve had some good moments but it’s not been good enough. And it’s certainly not a strong enough 90-minute performance.
“But for us to lose the goal that we do, where it’s your set-play – I think the first forward pass that they play is in the bottom left-hand corner in front of Copland Road.
“And for it to end up scoring at the top right-hand corner in front of the Broomloan stand is just madness.
“It’s inexplicable how we don’t make a foul, how we don’t stop their flow and attack. How we don’t just sanitise that whole situation.
“There’s no lack of bodies. It’s lack of intelligence. It’s lack of doing the right thing, to be honest. Just make a foul and stop the attack.
“And I think once they equalised, it was so difficult. Because the players lost more confidence. The situation becomes a bit desperate. And I just thought we lost all our composure after that. That for me is not great to watch.”
