Martin can save his job by benching Aasgaard for Rangers' "best player"
da premier bet： After yet another dismal result on Saturday, the pressure has only intensified further on Glasgow Rangers manager Russell Martin.
da dobrowin： At the weekend, the Gers suffered their first Premiership defeat of the season, beaten 2-0 by Heart of Midlothian; the Jambos’ securing a first victory at Ibrox since 2014.
However, having drawn their previous four league matches, this is the Light Blues’ worst start to a season since 1978, sat tenth in the table, not forgetting the fact that they were embarrassingly hammered 9-1 on aggregate by Club Brugge in the Champions League play-offs too.
Speaking on Sky Sports News shortly after full-time, Rangers legend Kris Boyd labelled it “terrible” and “embarrassing”, noting that Hearts supporters started signing “you’re getting sacked in the morning”, only for Rangers supporters to join in.
The Gers’ next fixture is Saturday evening’s League Cup quarter-final against in-form Hibernian so, for Martin to save his job, he simply must reintegrate the club’s “best player” ahead of that huge tie.
That, however, might involved dropping Thelo Aasgaard.
What Thelo Aasgaard should bring to Rangers
Few enjoyed a more productive international break than Aasgaard who, after coming off the bench in the 64th minute on Tuesday, scored four times as Norway crushed Moldova 11-1 in a World Cup qualifier in Oslo.
This means the Merseyside-born Norwegian has now netted five goals in just three international caps, opening his account on debut in the reverse fixture in Chișinău earlier this year.
Over the summer, the 23-year-old joined Rangers for £3.5m from Luton Town, following their relegation to EFL League One, just six months after moving to the Hatters from Wigan for around £3m.
At the time of his arrival in Glasgow, Kai Watson was certainly excited, noting that his “stock has massively risen” in recent months, labelling him a “technical dribbler”, believing he can play as an attacking midfielder or out-wide.
Well, Rangers supporters are yet to see very much of that so far, yet to register either a goal or an assist in six appearances for the club.
Against Hearts on Saturday, Aasgaard touched the ball 67 times, only defenders James Tavernier (106) and John Souttar (103) accumulated more, but he did very little with it, completing just 77% of his passes, losing possession on 16 occasions, the second most of any Rangers player.
After the match, he was confronted by angry supporters in the car park, repeatedly saying “I understand, I understand”, but should Aasgaard be the man taken out of the team against Hibs, because it would allow Rangers’ “best player” to return?
Rangers' "best player" can save Martin
Last season, during a generally miserable campaign, Nicolas Raskin was a rare shining light, thereby named the club’s player of the year and players’ player of the year at the end of the season awards.
The table below emphasises his importance.
Raskin 2024/25 stats
Statistics
Raskin
Rangers rank
Minutes
3,591
3rd
Goals
5
5th
Assists
11
1st
Shots
53
7th
Shots on target
23
5th
Completed passes
392
1st
Key passes
12
4th
Passes into final 3rd
41
1st
Progressive passes
37
3rd
Shot-creating actions
20
4th
Tackles
44
1st
Interceptions
40
3rd
Ball recoveries
89
1st
Touches
639
1st
Note: stats are Premiership and UEL only.
All statistics courtesy of FBref
As the table documents, Raskin ranked in the top five for pretty much every metric we could find last season, ranging from goals, assists and chances created, as well as passing, touches and defensive statistics, including tackles and ball recoveries.
Thus, one would assume a new manager would want to make the Belgian international a central pillar of their team, but Martin has had other ideas.
Across Rangers’ 12 matches this season, Raskin has started six, come off the bench in three and not even been among the substitutes for the other three, including the Old Firm as well as Saturday’s defeat to Hearts.
It has been widely reported that the midfielder and the manager have had a falling out, with Martin claiming this has been “resolved”, but this didn’t appear to be the case as Raskin watched on bereft from the director’s box at the weekend, with presenter Darrell Currie mystified as to how they can leave “their best player in the stand”.
Instead, Martin started Mohamed Diomandé, Connor Barron and the aforementioned Aasgaard as his midfield three, but fair to say they were ineffective.
A week ago, Raskin was on target during Belgium’s 6-0 demolition of Kazakhstan in a World Cup qualifier at Stade Constant Vanden Stock, completing a midfield trio alongside Youri Tielemans and Kevin De Bruyne, which isn’t bad, is it?
This has only made Rangers supporters even more irate, exclaiming if he’s good enough to start for Belgium, surely he should be starting for his club, so if Martin harbours any hopes of turning things around, he simply must reintegrate his star man ahead of Aasgaard.