‘They don’t look inspired’ - Former Rangers star questions Giovanni van Bronckhorst’s management style

Former Rangers midfielder Derek Ferguson has questioned Giovanni van Bronckhorst’s management style after claiming certain players aren’t responding to his tactics.

The Dutchman has come under increasing pressure in recent weeks for his side’s string of abject performances and poor results so far this season - with their latest 1-0 Premier Sports Cup quarter-final win over Dundee sparking outrage among large sections of the Ibrox crowd.

Despite progressing to the last-four and sealing their visit to the national stadium, a chorus of boos greeted the referee’s full-time whistle on Wednesday night and Van Bronckhorst acknoweledged that fans were correct to vent their frustration after another below-par display.

It led Ferguson, who spent seven years at the club between 1983 and 1990, to criticise Van Bronckhorst over his lack of substitutions earlier in the game and the attitude of his players.

Speaking on the Open Goal podcast, Ferguson admitted: “Winning sometimes isn’t enough. You’ve got to put a performance on. A large amount of fans turned up at Ibrox to watch a few goals and they certainly weren’t entertained.

“He’s still trying to figure out his best eleven. We knew that a couple of players would be rested (on Wednesday night), like Davies coming back from injury and Colak up top. Morelos came in and Sands - who isn’t a centre half for me. Morelos could’ve done more.

“Davis is 37 years old and he was the best player on the park, showing the best attitude and it’s quite scary. You talk about what’s wrong and it’s the attitude of the players. I don’t think they are responding to the manager.

“I don’t know what goes on in the team talks but they don’t look inspired to me. He did say after the game that they didn’t get the ball into the wide areas. He said in the second half that they weren’t at it, well make changes then.

“There is five subs and he didn’t make the changes until 15 minutes to go. I don’t know if he reads the game as well as he should. I don’t know if he makes changes as quickly as he should.”

Meanwhile, ex-Rangers striker Shota Arveladze is in the running to be named as Neil Lennon’s successor at Omonia Nicosia.

Celtic legend Lennon parted company with the Cypriot club earlier this week after a narrow 1-0 league defeat to Nea Salamis, leaving them languishing down in 7th place in the league table.

Arveladze, who is currently out of work after being sacked by English Championship club Hull City last month, is understood to have held dicussions with Omonia representatives over the job.

The Georgian was only appointed by Hull in January on a two-and-a-half-year contract but was dismissed after just eight months following a run of four consecutive defeats.