John Souttar insists there can be no excuses as chaos-stricken Rangers get ready for their must-win Champions League clash with Dynamo Kyiv.
The Ibrox outfit take on the Ukrainians in the Polish city of Lublin on Tuesday night in the first leg of the third round of qualifying amid no lack of problems behind the scenes.
In addition to having no idea when they will be able to return to Ibrox after striking a deal to rent out Hampden Park, a goalless draw against Hearts on the opening day of the Premiership campaign — with Connor Barron the only new face in the starting XI — served as a reminder of so many of the problems in defence and attack as manager Philippe Clement attempts to rebuild the squad on limited resources.
Oscar Cortes was also forced to hobble off injured after 48 minutes at Tynecastle with Clement facing a big decision over whether to throw in recent arrival Robin Propper at centre-half despite limited training time with his new team-mates.
However, Souttar insists the players entrusted with steering Rangers through the preliminaries and into the new £40million league phase of European club football’s top competition cannot allow the many issues surrounding the club to become a reason for coming unstuck against Dynamo.
‘There will be no excuses on our behalf,’ said the Scotland defender. ‘And, hopefully, we won’t need to use any excuses because we’ll be going through.
Cyriel Dessers, above left, doesn't look too happy after Rangers' performance at Tynecastle
Defender John Souttar, above right, says the Ibrox side have to improve against Dynamo Kyiv
There was a blow for the visitors when Oscar Cortes was injured and had to be taken off
‘As players, we concentrate on the football and everything we can control, we do. We are looking forward to Tuesday.’
Souttar, though, concedes a far higher standard of performance will be required against a Dynamo side that enjoyed a weekend of rest and scored nine times over two legs against Serbians Partizan Belgrade in the previous round.
Cortes is clearly upset after being removed from the fray with an injury
Connor Barron, above right, was the only new face in Rangers' starting XI against Hearts
Rangers manager Philippe Clement demands more from his players during the 0-0 draw
‘We will have to step it up (from Tynecastle),’ he said. ‘As a group, we are confident we can go there and get a positive result.
‘There were times last season where we maybe didn’t have a great result at the weekend and we performed really well in Europe. We can take comfort from that.
‘From now, it is basically full-on, but we were well aware of that for weeks and we have built towards that physically. Tactically as well, we have looked towards that and we have to show it on the pitch on Tuesday.’