Ally McCoist insists Rangers have a long way to go to reach heights of last season with new signings still to make impact

Ally McCoist believes Rangers are struggling to reach to the heights of last season, insisting the club’s summer arrivals are still to make their mark.

The Light Blues suffered a 2-0 defeat against classy Ligue 1 giants Lyon in their opening Europa League group stage encounter at Ibrox last night.

Club legend McCoist reckons the Gers, who reached the last-16 of the competition and completed the entire domestic season undefeated, have a long way to go to re-discover the type of form they displayed throughout last season.

Fashion Sakala, John Lundstram, Nnamdi Ofoborh and Juninho Bacuna joined the club during the transfer window and McCoist reckons the new signings must start applying more pressure on their fellow first-team regulars.

Rangers all-time record goal scorer said: “To be brutally honest, I don’t think they’ve reached the heights of any of their performances last season, even domestically.

“There’s been some great results, like beating Celtic at home, where the second half performance was very good.

“Against St Johnstone they got going after losing a goal, but they haven’t maintained anything like the level of consistency which was so high last year.

“I don’t think the new signings have strengthened the side or made the impact they would have wanted. They look good players and given time there’s a fair chance they’ll do well.

“But they haven’t exactly hit the ground running and put players in possession of the jersey under pressure to keep their levels up.

“If you’d said at the end of last season Rangers would be able to keep their best players you would be ecstatic.

“It’s been first class keeping them but you’d look for the players coming in to strengthen the side. That’s not been the case, but it’s still early days for them coming to a club like this.”

Cameroon striker Karl Toko Ekambi curled home a stunning opener from distance in the 23^rd minute before James Tavernier’s own goal in the second half consigned Steven Gerrard’s side to a rare European home defeat.

McCoist added: “Tonight was a different level of opposition. We knew Lyon were a good side and I think they will turn out to be the strongest team in the group.

“The first goal was a world class finish. It started two yards outside the post and curled in.”

Rangers did create opportunities of their own with Lundstram and Joe Aribo going close and skipper Tavernier crashing a free-kick off the woodwork.

Steven Gerrard will now look to re-group ahead of Sunday’s Scottish Premiership clash with Motherwell, but he will be sweating over the fitness of playmaker Ryan Kent who pulled up injured and was substituted with 20 minutes remaining.

In his post-match interview with BT Sport, he said: “I think we gave a lot to the game. I don’t want to be too critical because for large parts of the game we competed.

“We created some decent opportunities without them being clear-cut. I think the scoreline is slightly harsh on us. We made two mistakes for their goals.

“Not to be too harsh, at the domestic level, you can sometimes give the ball away in certain areas but not at this level in the Europa League.”

On the injury to Kent, Gerrard added: “Until he goes for an MRI scan, your guess on how he is, is as good as mine.

“There is definitely a hamstring complaint there. He can feel something in the hamstring, so we’ll assess that and check it out and obviously come back to you once we get the news on that.”