Stunned Gio Van Bronckhorst refused to pull any punches over Rangers' disastrous 2-0 defeat in the first leg of their Champions League qualifier against Union Saint-Gilloise - despite ruing the penalty award on Connor Goldson.
The Dutchman was barely able to hide disappointment on a night when the Europa League finalists served up a dismal display that leaves their Champions League dream in a perilous position. The Ibrox side can count themselves lucky to leave Leuven only 2-0 down on aggregate after goals from Teddy Teuma and Dante Vanzeir. He believes they were harshly treated over the handball awarded against Goldson but insists bigger problems remain.
And the Rangers boss is under no illusions of the monumental task awaiting his side next Tuesday on home turf after the Belgian upstarts bossed the first leg and could have secured a more comprehensive result. But it is now operation rescue at Ibrox after turning around deficits to Braga and RB Leipzig on the road to Seville last season.
Speaking to Premier Sports, the 47-year-old said: "Very, very disappointing, we have so much at stake in this month, qualifying for the Champions League, but the performance, for me, was below par.
"It was hard for us to get in the game, they just dropped deep, it means they were afraid, eventually we didn't do anything with our ball possession, sloppy, not winning the duels, slowly they became better and better, we didn't react well to that.
"We were never really in the game, giving. a lot of transition moments away, we are a little bit lucky it's only 2-0, although, the penalty decision I was surprised at, they gave a penalty, if you have so much at stake, for all the clubs involved, you want to take the right decisions.
"I think we couldn't do anything else with the deflection and with the handball, the penalty was given they scored, the most important thing is we reflect on our own game because we need to change it around on Tuesday, we need to change it around big time, the performance needs to be much better."
And he refused to allow his players off the hook when asked if it was a formation issue that led to the error-strewn display. He added: "We played the same system we normally do? If your first five, seven on the pitch they all played in the Europa League Final, we looked like we weren't comfortable on the ball and that surprised me a bit. We can be much more effective in our gameplay when we play the ball, today we didn't show that.
"It's a new season, we lost players, we get new players on board, it's a whole new experience, you always have changes like that, that's part of football. We lost together today, we're still in the tie, 2-0 difference we are capable of making that up at Ibrox on Tuesday but, first of all, we need to concentrate on our performance. If we have the same performance like we did today, we have no chance next week.
"I am the most disappointed in the performance we had, the basics in football, awareness of the pressure, defensively at times we didn't look strong, losing the ball, I am confident if we change those things around we can do a much better performance next week."
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