Ally McCoist resisted joining a radio rental Rangers fan who called for Giovanni van Bronckhorst’s head as the Ibrox strike legend admitted his old club’s derby shocker came amid a “reasonable” start to the season. But McCoist did say his biggest concern was how similar the manner of the 4-0 drubbing at Parkhead was to the defeat on Van Bronckhorst’s first visit to the home of their fierce rivals back in February.
McCoist was on his usual talkSPORT breakfast slot as co-host Laura Woods played a call from a furious punter. He fumed: “He’s got to go. It's easy to raise your game for big European nights but it's about the bread and butter. When he took over we were six points clear, and we lost the league.
"We've got £40m in the bank from the Champions League, £20m from Bassey. For me, he's a bit of a mouse. I think the players aren't playing for him, that's what I'm seeing. I think he's a bit of a mouse." But McCoist said: “It’s a little bit harsh. The first thing I have to say is that it was an extremely disappointing performance. I was there commentating on it. The first thing you have to say - as difficult as it is - you really have to congratulate Celtic were were by far and away the better team.
“The two wide boys were excellent - Jota out of this world, his finish was superb and Abada on the other side - but some of Rangers defending… when I say defending, just switching off throw-ins and free-kicks was just unacceptable.
“It was a terrible day at the office for Rangers. The vast majority of the criticism is justified but if you take away that result and performance it’s been a reasonable start to the season, particularly qualifying for the Champions League group stage and only dropping two points at Easter Road.
“So as disappointed as we all were - and I was absolutely gutted - Celtic were just better than us and we have to learn from that. The concern I have is that when Celtic beat us 3-0 last season it was similar to that performance where we didn’t match their tempo and enthusiasm and weren’t switched on at set plays so that would be the biggest concern for me.”
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