HOSTILE Welcome Awaits Rangers as They HOPE to Find SOLACE In Ibrox From Fans Who are EMBARRASSED With Their Performance. Will Solace Heal The Embarassment?

The Reality Staring Rangers in the Face: Jack Butland’s Honest Assessment

Rangers goalkeeper Jack Butland has spoken candidly about the team’s recent struggles, particularly in the wake of their disappointing defeat to Celtic. Butland, who has now lined up against the Hoops on six occasions, knows where it went wrong and is taking solace from the prospect of returning to the comfort of Ibrox.

The defeat to Celtic was a harsh reality check for Rangers, who have struggled to raise funds for new recruits and were forced to decamp to Hampden after a construction issue at the Copland Road end. Butland acknowledges that the team needs to improve and address mistakes made during the game.

“It’s not difficult to pick yourself up. Sunday’s result hurts. It’s not what we want. It’s not what we believe our club’s about,” Butland said. “But you have the beauty of being able to hopefully go back to Ibrox again soon, being back with the fans, and hopefully kicking on and putting this behind us.”

Butland emphasizes the importance of returning to Ibrox and the support of the fans. “Getting back to Ibrox is huge, I think in general, just for the club. I think the fans are desperate for it. We’re desperate for it. But it’s no excuse. It’s something that we have to deal with. We have dealt with it fairly well, I think.”

Rangers manager Philippe Clement gave debuts to five new players during the Celtic game, including Robbin Propper, Jefte, Connor Barron, Vaclav Cerny, and Hamza Igamane. Butland admits that the team was sucked into making the same mistakes that cost them last season.

“We’re hugely disappointed,” Butland groaned. “In previous games, we felt that we didn’t have enough control over the game, control over the ball, and found ourselves defending way too much. We showed early signs in the game, really positive signs of that, of being a bit braver on the ball, trying to control some of the game ourselves, and not feel like we were under the cosh.”

Butland stresses the need for the team to be better and more efficient. “We’ve given away too many opportunities that we can avoid. And that’s something we need to be better at going forward. It’s a concern if you keep doing it (making the same mistakes). We’ve got lots of new players in, some new faces, different people that we need to get up to speed. But all of us as a collective, we need to address and defend these moments better because it then becomes difficult to get a foothold back in the game once you’ve done that.”

Despite the setbacks, Butland believes that the team is still fighting and has the potential to improve. “We’ve got a tricky period now where we don’t have a game for a couple of weeks. That’s going to be the difficult thing. We’re going to be thinking about it for a long time. We’re going to have days to look back at it. We’re going to have a lot of training sessions between now and the next game. It’s important that we do pick the boys up. The next day we’re in, it’s not going to just disappear. There’s no danger of that.”

Butland’s honesty and determination are a beacon of hope for Rangers fans, who have endured a difficult start to the season. With the team’s return to Ibrox on the horizon, Butland is confident that they can turn their fortunes around and get back into the fight.