Rangers 2-2 Club Brugge: Things can only get better at Ibrox as Russell Martin sets about building dream team

On a weekend when the headlines have been dominated by a certain band from the 90s making their long-awaited comeback, it was another song from the same era that felt more in keeping with events at Ibrox.

Things Can Only Get Better by D:Ream, the song used by Tony Blair and Labour for their election win in 1997, became the mood music for Russell Martin’s first day in office at Ibrox.

Certainly, most supporters who headed along to this opening pre-season friendly against Club Brugge would have been left with a feeling that the only way is up from here.

Rangers were booed off at half-time, by which point they were 2-0 down after Brugge had struck two early goals inside the opening quarter of an hour.

There were aspects of the performance which were very raw and unpolished. As they head off to a training camp at St George’s Park in England this week, Martin and his players clearly have a lot to work on.

In all fairness, Rangers showed a significant improvement in the second half against a Brugge side who reached the last 16 of last season’s Champions League.

They should be encouraged by the way in which they were able to fight back, with second-half goals from Mohamed Diomande and young Findlay Curtis pegging the Belgian side back for a 2-2 draw.

But with a Champions League qualifier against Panathinaikos now only a fortnight away, Martin is clearly still in the process of moulding this squad and getting his message across.

On and off the pitch, there is still a lot of improvement required if Rangers are to give themselves the best chance of progressing against the Greeks.

Teething problems were always to be expected given the huge turnover of players in the summer and the fundamental changes Martin wants to implement to Rangers’ style of play.

But, in the first half here, certain players retained from last season looked wholly out of sorts in Martin’s new system.

Chief among them was Robin Propper, whose lack of pace and mobility was evident last season even in a low-block system.

So with Martin asking Rangers to push up and hold a high line near the halfway line? There is simply no way Propper can play at centre-back in this system.

Not to mention the fact that his distribution is nowhere near good enough for Martin’s possession-based style of play.

The sooner Rangers can offload the 31-year-old Dutch centre-back and recoup some money for him, the better for all concerned.

Propper was replaced at half-time by James Tavernier, who slotted in as the right-sided centre-back in the back four.

That was one of five changes at the break as Martin looked to assess some of the options throughout the squad in various positions.

Max Aarons was the only one of Rangers’ five new summer signings who started the match, with Manny Fernandez coming off the bench on 60 minutes as Martin made another string of changes.

Connor Barron captained the team, whilst Cyriel Dessers and Hamza Igamane did not feature amid transfer speculation linking them with moves away from Ibrox.

Thelo Aasgaard, Lyall Cameron and Joe Rothwell, the three other new signings, were in the stands and were greeted by the crowd at half-time.

They will need to be integrated into the squad sooner rather than later with a view to the Panathinaikos game.

Rangers lost the opening goal after 10 minutes when Propper ventured forward with the ball and was dispossessed, allowing Brugge to break forward on the counter.

From a Romeo Vermant cutback, Hugo Vetlesen saw his initial effort saved by Liam Kelly before he pounced to thump home the rebound.

Just four minutes later, it was 2-0. After the ball had been headed out to the edge of the box, Ludovit Reis met it flush on the volley and sent it flying into the top corner.

It was a magnificent finish and sections of the Ibrox crowd actually rose to applaud the quality of the strike from Reis.

Although there was a decent enough crowd of almost 30,000 inside the stadium, you could have heard a pin drop as supporters came to terms with what they were watching. It could have been 3-0 had a shot from Christos Tzolis not come crashing back off the post. Rangers were rattled and hanging on.

Just 50 days after last season had finished with a 2-2 draw at Hibs, it felt like the optimism for a fresh start under Martin was draining quickly as a smattering of boos echoed out at half-time.

But credit to Rangers for turning it around after the break. They were much more cohesive in the way they pressed Brugge high up the pitch and won the ball in some good areas.

On as a sub at half-time, Diomande curled a good finish low into the bottom corner on 51 minutes to start the comeback.

Rangers were starting to get a lot more shots away on goal, with Diomande and Danilo both going close to an equaliser. 

The leveller came just two minutes before the end as Nedim Bajrami fed Curtis and the 18-year-old winger, who was the only player to play the full 90 minutes, slotted low into the far bottom corner.

In the end, Rangers were decent value for the draw given the way they fought back in the second half. Against a Champions League team, they caused problems.

But Martin will know that there is still much to be done if his team are to compete against the likes of Brugge on a more regular basis in the new season.