Kevin Thomson: Rangers players should share fans' pain

Pedro Caixinha's gameplan, as Rangers sank to a 5-1 defeat by Celtic, was unclear. Picture: Getty

There cannot be too many Rangers fans looking forward to next season. An Old Firm defeat is hard enough to take, never mind two comprehensive reversals in the space of six days. I know from speaking to them after Saturday's 5-1 defeat by Celtic that the fans are feeling the pain.

The players have to feel that as well. There’s a difference between that and kidding on the pain hurts when on social media or whatever.

If the pain really does hurt and it burns the belly they will come back for pre-season feeling doubly 
determined.

There are reports the Rangers players aren’t too happy about the short summer holiday they are 
getting because Pedro Caixinha wants them back at the start of June.

I was the same when I was a player.

You hated it when the gaffer cancelled a day off or you got called in on a Sunday because he was not happy.

But now I’m retired and can have as many holidays as I want. That will be the same for the Rangers players soon enough.

Scotty Brown has had ten days’ holiday for the last umpteen years and yet he has six winners’ medals in his back pocket.

Would the Rangers players really be that bothered about having only nine or ten days off if they are sitting with a championship medal or a couple of winners medals? I’d say no. It’s a small sacrifice.

The fans, the club, deserve players who are absolutely committed. You have to buy into what the manager wants. These current players don’t really have a leg to stand on just now anyway.

I noticed on Twitter that yesterday was the ninth anniversary of getting to the Europa League final with Rangers after we beat Fiorentina on penalties in 2008.

That was one of those games when you dug deep; you went the extra mile in extra time and earned the reward. I played left-back a lot of that night because big Sasa Papac was knackered. I was playing centre midfield and trying to help him by covering the left-back area.

We had to grind it out to the extent your lungs feel like they cannot take any more. But the reward was what we got at the end of it: a European final. it was worth every agonising yard. We found a way to combat Fiorentina’s good players.

When I have watched Celtic v Rangers games this season it’s made me think of the times we used to play teams better than us in Europe, such as on the road to that final in Manchester. It felt like they were fitter than us, stronger than us, faster and better on the ball than us. But we found a way.

When I watch Celtic in these games, they look fitter, faster and have more quality.

I could not see what Caixinha’s gameplan was on Saturday. To my eyes, Celtic’s weakness, or their least strong area, is the back four. Their threat is the way they go forward.

They get three or four players running into the box at every counter attack.

Whenever they win the ball back, they play a clever pass and Callum McGregor, Stuart Armstrong, Scott Sinclair, Leigh Griffiths and Patrick Roberts are all pouring forward, with Scotty Brown backing 
them up.

The way to counteract this is to get men behind the ball. At times 
Celtic had four or five players lining up to score.

You can pick holes in near enough every goal.

Caixinha will stand or fall by his summer recruitment. He has to do what Brendan Rodgers has done at Celtic. Rodgers brought in players who have not taken much time to settle and he has galvanised the ones already there.