Rangers: ‘Red flags for Danny Rohl as side routed in first game’

And so it begins for another Rangers head coach. More timidity to observe, more vulnerability in defence, more powder-puff stuff up front, more wide men running in ever decreasing circles.

Another defeat, another performance that along with zero goals and zero points had zero positives.

In the last few seasons, Rangers, for all their other faults at the time, went toe-to-toe with Athletic Bilbao, Benfica, Red Bull Leipzig and Borussia Dortmund.

Now they’re getting routed by Brann, Norway’s third best team.

The collapse in standards has been stark. It’s not just ability that these Rangers players lack, it’s character, it’s stomach for the fight. Memo to Danny Rohl – are you absolutely sure you know what you’ve let yourself in for here?

Before Brann scored their easy first, their soft second and the third that turned a pitiful debut into a mortifying one for Rohl, there was a moment (the first of many) that will have sent a chill up the spine of the new Rangers boss.

The German preaches speed and intensity, pressing and hunting, and he saw plenty of it, but not from any of his players.

His players were the same as before. The same as the dog days under Russell Martin, the same as the demise under Philippe Clement, the same as the downfall in the Michael Beale months.

What he’d seen from his team to that point was lack of organisation and lack of belief, but at least they were level. They were a touch lucky to be 0-0, but they were – and then they should have been ahead.

The chance missed by Youssef Chermiti was a glaring one, a rare piece of Rangers accuracy in the cross from Nico Raskin, but a poor attempt from the young striker, a tame header from a brilliant position. Nine minutes later, the deluge began.