The reason why Russell Martin was afforded an opportunity at Rangers in the first place was the inability of others to solve long-standing issues.
Philippe Clement briefly improved matters after inheriting the mess left by Michael Beale but then began leaking oil.
Barry Ferguson had some moments of promise. Just not enough of them to earn the gig on a permanent basis.
Martin was hired after convincing the new American owners that things would be different on his watch.
He was backed to the hilt in the summer transfer window with a net spend of around £20million. There’s scarcely a trace of evidence to suggest the faith in him was justified.
At the start of October, Rangers have won just five times in 16 fixtures. They’ve yet to win back-to-back matches. Martin’s side are eighth in the Premiership table and have lost their two opening fixtures in the Europa League. It’s been staggeringly bad to this point.
Manager Russell Martin has been unable to sort out his side’s defensive deficiencies
Rangers’ midweek defeat in Austria was their sixth of the season in all competitions
Otar Kiteishvili took full advantage of dreadful defending to double his side’s advantage
You don’t have to dig too deep to discover why matters have got worse, not better, under the 39-year-old.
As a defensive unit, the team are about as sturdy as blancmange. Addressing this issue should have been top of Martin’s list of priorities.
For him to stand any chance of succeeding, he had to find a way of making the side hard to beat. It was screaming out at him. Yet, he’s singularly failed in that regard.
The issues have been particularly pronounced on the road. When Martin took charge, the last time Rangers hadn’t conceded away from home was in a 3-0 win for Clement’s side at Ross County on December 8.
Martin’s now had seven away games to put that right. Some 14 goals have been lost in that sequence and there’s not been a clean sheet among them.
Giving opponents an average of two goals of a start is the equivalent of trying to climb a hill with lead in your boots. Little wonder supporters are watching these matches through the cracks in their fingers.
Thursday’s defeat in Graz was just the latest in a growing list of calamities which the manager’s army of critics are feasting on.
Tomi Horvat’s opener stemmed from a Rangers throw-in and owed everything to the visiting players showing the mobility of stakes in the ground as possession was lost and the Austrians played through them.
The furious supporters have repeatedly called on the club to relieve Martin of his duties
The second, from Otar Kiteishvili, was even worse. The visiting defence were completely blinded to the danger posed by the Georgian as he ran across and beyond the backline to control the ball and bury it following a smartly taken free-kick. It was jaw-dropping stuff.
These are the fundamentals of the game. Unless you get to grips with them, you cannot make progress. There’s now a large enough body of work to suggest nothing is going to change any time soon.
‘Yeah, frustrating,’ said defender Derek Cornelius. ‘We don’t start the match well at all. We find ourselves down 2-0 pretty quickly.
‘It’s not necessarily from what they’ve done. It’s more so what we’ve done to ourselves.
‘We try to react in the second half, but ultimately we fall short.’
Football is fundamentally a simple game. If you can keep the ball in the opponent’s half, they cannot score.
The defensive limitations of Martin’s side are being routinely exposed because they spend large chunks of matches on the back foot, fighting fires.
This stems from cheap turnovers in advanced areas. In the blink of an eye, the opposition have effortlessly played through them and are threatening Jack Butland’s goal.
New arrival Derek Cornelius says it’s too easy to blame the manager for Rangers’ failings
When you give up so many chances, it’s inevitable that you’ll lose goals. As things stand, on average Martin’s side are needing to score twice away from home just to get a draw. Being so error-prone and open is no recipe for success.
While they look anything but a well-drilled unit, the suggestion that the players aren’t being given the right information before they step on the park is quickly shot down.
‘No, I think we have clear instructions,’ Cornelius added. ‘I think it’s an easy way out as a player to just say it’s a manager or it’s this reason, it’s that reason.
‘That’s the easy way out because then you’re deflecting responsibility from yourself.
‘Ultimately, it’s us on the pitch and we need to be performing.’
You don’t need one hand to count the number of 90-minute performances the side have delivered since Martin took charge. You need one finger.
It came in the home win against Viktoria Plzen when everything went to plan for the duration. Otherwise, the side have played in fits and starts or not at all.
Thursday’s was the latest performance which fell into the bracket of too little too late.
Djeidi Gassama produced a sublime finish against Sturm Graz to give his team a lifeline
Two goals down at the interval, a moment of magic by Djeidi Gassama halved the deficit.
For a spell, Rangers played with purpose and aggression. Sturm Graz looked rattled but dug in and rode out the storm.
What did it say about the game plan that Martin’s side looked more potent when they’d fed it to the shredder and were playing a game of chaos ball?
As the manager threw on substitute after substitute, it became a shapeless mess. At one point Nico Raskin was playing centre-half. Mikey Moore was then spotted as the most deep lying outfield player on the pitch.
Naturally enough, Martin would have taken a point if Graz had conceded late on amid all the confusion, but it was desperation on a stick.
‘I think it’s normal that when you’re chasing a game you leave yourself a little bit more vulnerable in the back because you’re trying to go after the goal and maybe we’re not sitting back as much,’ Cornelius reflected. ‘So, maybe that’s part of the reason why maybe it looked chaotic.
‘I think this is just something that we need to bring in every game. We need to come with that intensity, that hunger to win a match, really.’
Another defeat brought yet another post-mortem and some familiar themes.
Martin believes the players’ mentality is a key reason behind their early season struggles
Martin has never really done collective responsibility — his tactics seem to be above scrutiny — and he wasn’t about to change his tune.
He questioned his players’ mentality and concentration levels.
‘You have to be bright,’ he stated, before going on to add: ‘I’m not coming out here and blaming anyone.’
Anyone blaming Martin entirely for this bin fire has a short memory. There’s a reason why he’s the sixth man to hold the position in the past four years.
Instead of plugging the leaks, though, he’s opened the taps. Rangers are now up to their necks in it.
