Arthur's Column // 13th October 2022

For Rangers to lose 7-1 to any side at Ibrox is an embarrassment. There is no getting away from that. I accept Liverpool is a quality team and they have a number of world-class footballers.

But that is no excuse for what happened in the second-half on Wednesday night.

I was at the game and I couldn't believe what I was watching. The way the team collapsed in the second 45 minutes was quite unbelievable.

Yet, at half-time, I was very proud of the team for the way they performed. Scott Arfield scored a brilliant goal but Liverpool equalised.

However, I felt the team passed the ball well and showed enough composure.

In an attacking sense, the final ball wasn't always good enough but we were competitive and it was a big improvement from the week before at Anfield. But then the roof fell in. Sure, the loss of Goldson was a blow but Rangers should never be considered as a one-man team.

I felt we didn't defend strongly enough and we needed to show more aggression. At times, it was like boys against men.

I'm sure Liverpool wouldn't have believed how easy it was for them. They didn't need to work that hard for two or three of their goals.

When I played in the Champions League for Rangers more than 20 years ago, we rarely lost at Ibrox. We made it a fortress.

Giovanni was a part of that and he was an outstanding midfielder. He has been heavily criticised in recent weeks and some Rangers fans want him sacked after the Liverpool result. I understand their frustration and disappointment but I don't agree with anyone who says Giovanni should lose his job.

His remit is to win the SPFL League title and they are still very much capable of doing that, come May. As a player, Giovanni was successful at Feyenoord, Rangers, Arsenal and Barcelona. My goodness, he won the Champions League.

He knows his stuff and is a quality coach. I would ask the Rangers fans to stick with him and get behind him. It starts on Sunday away to Motherwell.

I would also urge the Rangers players to show more leadership on the park and take more responsibility.

When I played with Giovanni at Rangers and things weren't going well during a particular period in 90 minutes, we would sort it out amongst ourselves.

We would communicate and make little tweaks here and there.

We would give someone a boot up the backside if it was required or an arm around the shoulder.

We tried to find solutions to any problems on our own.

We didn't always look at the technical area. It should be the same nowadays.

The players need to show more. It's not all down to the manager.