JORDAN Rossiter is no stranger to thankless tasks in the middle of the park. This was his toughest assignment in a media room, though.
The 20-year-old faced the music before his Rangers team-mates faced their critics outside the Stade Josy Barthel on Tuesday night. The hurt was clear, the words hard to come by. Handed his first start since August, it should have been an evening of positives for Rossiter as he looked to help Pedro Caixinha’s side into the second round of the Europa League.
His European dreams are over, though. Rangers will have to move on, but the wounds inflicted by Progres Niederkorn will take some time to heal.
“We all know that is simply not good enough for a club like Rangers,” Rossiter said. “I would like to apologise to the fans that have paid good money to come out here and watch us.
“We have let them down massively and it is so disappointing. It is just not good enough.
“There is not one single positive we can take, absolutely nothing. We were massively disappointing and all the lads know that.
“All the lads are massively disappointed. I have got no words. It is tough. It is easy for us to come out and say ‘we will forget about this and move on’. Listen, we simply can’t.”
It had been a summer of positivity on and off the field for Rangers as they attempted to recover from a nightmare campaign and look to the future under Caixinha’s guidance.
All of that excitement amongst supporters has now gone. It was a mentally and physically draining night in Luxembourg as Caixinha’s new-look side suffered one of the worst results in Rangers’ history.
“It has got to drive us on for motivation and we need to put things right now,” Rossiter said.
“It is easy for me to sit here and say we need to put things right and do this and do that. We simply weren’t good enough and the lads will admit to that.
“That [the new squad] is no excuse whatsoever. We should be coming here and beating them comfortably. New players or not, there are no excuses, literally none.
“It is OK for us to say we have got better players than them but we need to show it over 90 minutes. For whatever reason, we didn’t.
“All the boys are really feeling it. We need to bounce back.”
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