Rangers Exit Europa League: McInnes Says Team Is Not Ready
Derek McInnes did not bother dressing it up. Rangers, he said, are “not ready” for Europa League football.
On a raw night at Ibrox, his new team drew 1-1 with Jagiellonia Bialystok in the second leg of their third qualifying round tie, but slipped out 3-2 on aggregate. For a club that sells itself on European nights and big-stage expectation, this was an early exit that cut deep – their earliest from this competition since 2017 – and it came with the sound of boos echoing around the stadium.
McInnes, four games into the job and still waiting for a first win, did not argue with the reaction.
“It was justified, to be honest. It wasn't good enough,” the former Rangers midfielder said, bluntly. “What we served up, particularly second half, wasn't good enough.”
A club built for Europe, a team that isn’t
This is a club that measures itself against Europa League and Champions League standards. McInnes knows that as well as anyone.
“We need to be honest, the club's built for Europa League and Champions League and that's the intention, to get there,” he said. “But I'm not sure the team is quite ready for it at the moment and it pains me to say that, to be honest, it does.
“We need to get more quality, we need to try and get more confidence out of the team.”
Injuries forced his hand. Without left-back Tuur Rommens and striker Youssef Chermiti, McInnes ripped up the shape from Sunday’s defeat to Hibernian, making five changes and switching to a back three. It was a bold call for a high‑stakes European tie.
“I felt we had to make the game open and it was a bit too open at times in the first half,” he admitted. With Gassama and Yakota pushed on as de facto wing-backs, Rangers tried to stretch Jagiellonia and flood the box.
At times it worked. “I thought it paid dividends in terms of penalty box action, getting the goal. I thought we were good value for getting it one and a half-time,” McInnes said, though he quickly pointed out the warning signs. “I still thought that Jagiellonia had a couple of scares.”
The pattern is already familiar to the Rangers support. Bright spells. Flashes of promise. No complete performance.
“Once again, it's not another 90-minute performance,” McInnes said. “That's been in the Rangers for a while now. It's been a continuation of that this season, already.
“In the four games we've played, we've had some good moments, but it's not been good enough and certainly not a strong enough 90-minute performance.”
“Inexplicable” defending and lost composure
The decisive moment, in his eyes, was as infuriating as it was costly. Rangers failed to kill a Jagiellonia attack at source and paid the price.
“For us to lose the goal. It's inexplicable how we don't make a foul, how we don't stop the flow of the attack, how we don't just sanitise that whole situation,” McInnes said, clearly agitated.
“It's not lack of bodies, it's lack of intelligence, it's lack of doing the right thing, to be honest.
“We lost all our composure after that, if I'm going to be honest with you.”
The crowd felt it. So did the players. The urgency turned into anxiety, the noise into frustration. The European tie slipped away.
Sixth manager, same pressure
At 55, McInnes becomes Rangers’ sixth permanent manager since Steven Gerrard walked away in 2021. The churn in the dugout has not brought the stability or sustained success the board and support crave, and this start – four games without a win and a European exit before the play-off round – only sharpens the scrutiny.
Despite that, he spoke like a man who believes he can still bend this story in his favour.
“What we served up last year wasn't good enough. You get a job for a reason,” he said, referencing the wider decline that opened the door for his appointment. “You get a job to try and make things better and obviously sometimes you get it because things aren't quite right, and we have to try and get things moving the right way quickly.
“There's no two ways about it, we should be winning this game. Rangers, as strong as they can be, should be winning this day.”
The message is clear: standards have not shifted, even if performances have.
McInnes knows the clock is already ticking. He talked about “work to do between now and the end of the window” – a nod to the need for more quality – but the demands are immediate. Rangers face holders St Mirren in a League Cup tie on Sunday, and he cannot afford another misstep.
“We have got work to do between now and the end of the window,” he said, “but between now and Sunday to get ready to win a [League] Cup tie [against holders St Mirren].”
Europe has gone for another year. The boos have made their point. The question now is simple: how quickly can McInnes turn a team that is “not ready” for Europe into one that is even trusted to get through a domestic cup tie?
