- Kris Boyd says Rangers’ defensive flaws before the split inevitably led to their late-season collapse.
- Boyd believes Rangers have lost key standards, leadership and cultural identity within the club environment.
- He urges Danny Rohl to rebuild with stronger personalities and greater Scottish influence around the squad.
Kris Boyd has warned that Rangers’ collapse after the Premiership split was the inevitable consequence of a team that had been “getting away with” defensive flaws for too long, insisting the club’s culture and identity must now become central to Danny Rohl’s rebuild.
Speaking at a post-match Q&A during Rangers’ William Hill sponsors’ Play on the Pitch Day at Ibrox, the former striker reflected on a season that unravelled dramatically in its closing weeks.
Rohl’s side had continued winning matches before the split despite repeatedly conceding goals.
However, four straight defeats afterwards saw Rangers fall out of the title race entirely as the campaign ended in familiar frustration.
Kris Boyd seen Rangers writing on the wall
Boyd suggested the warning signs had been visible long before the collapse arrived.
“If you do it and you win the game, you get away with it,” he said.
“But if you don’t, then you’re going to be left with egg on your face, and that’s exactly what happened.”
Rangers fans demand success
For Boyd, the issue extends beyond tactics or personnel changes.
Instead, he believes Rangers have drifted too far from the standards and cultural foundations that once defined successful sides at Ibrox.
“For me, I just always feel as if that expectation there,” he said.
“There are players came and gone, there’s the managers came and gone, but there’s one thing that will stay at Rangers Football Club is the fans, and the fans demand that Rangers win.”
That sense of recurring failure has, in Boyd’s view, become increasingly difficult to ignore.
Rangers have repeatedly entered the closing stages of seasons with optimism only for campaigns to deteriorate under pressure.
Boyd admitted the cycle is beginning to feel painfully familiar.
“Everybody’s been hoping for a period of time now, it’s actually getting to the stage now where you just feel as if it’s rinse and repeat towards the end of every season,” he said.
“It has to change.”
Kris Boyd believes Rangers need a cultural reset
The former Scotland international believes the solution lies partly in stronger leadership and a harder edge within the dressing room as Rohl reshapes the squad.
“For me, I think to give you the best opportunity of doing that, if you’ve got a manager and a leader, there’s going to take no nonsense from you. He’s the best way forward,” Boyd said.
He pointed to Rangers sides of the past as evidence that success at Ibrox has rarely been built solely on talent.
Referencing Dick Advocaat’s era, Boyd argued that even one of the club’s most internationally assembled squads still relied heavily on a core of Scottish figures who understood the expectations attached to representing Rangers.
“You can go right back to the nine-in-a-row team,” he said.
“Yes, there was a foreign rule that you couldn’t have as many foreigners.
“But Dick Advocaat could have signed anybody in the world that he wanted.”
“There was a reason they had Neil McCann, Barry Ferguson, people like Scott Wilson, Mo Ross, Billy Dodds, the nucleus of a Scottish group there, Big Bob Malcolm, people like that.”
Boyd stressed that not all of those players were necessarily the star names within the squad.
But their importance came through standards, understanding and influence behind the scenes.
“Nobody, the guys that I’ve mentioned, apart from one or two of them, I wouldn’t say they were the best players in that group,” he said.
“But if you go and ask, even when Dick had Neil McCann come in, at first I think he kept Derek McInnes, he kept Gordon Durie, he kept Ian Ferguson, because they understood, they knew where it was to play for Rangers Football Club.”
Setting the standards
For Boyd, that knowledge is now missing too often at Ibrox.
He believes Rangers have gradually lost influential personalities capable of maintaining standards internally.
Particularly following the deaths and departures of long-serving figures around the club.
“I think Rangers, over a period of time now, have lost some very, very influential figures,” he said.
“When you think of Jimmy Bell and people who are in the building every single day.
“That was never going to be replaced.
“It’s very difficult to, even when people try to step up, because of what people like Jimmy Bell meant to so many in there.”
A Scottish core, with foreign talent
Boyd was careful to stress that he is not arguing for Rangers to abandon overseas recruitment.
The forward acknowledging that many foreign players have embraced the club fully during successful periods.
However, he believes a stronger Scottish presence would improve the overall environment and accountability within the squad.
“But overall, for me anyway, if you have more Scottish blood in there, it will help the group overall,” he said.
“As I said, I’ll say it again, they don’t need to be starting every week.
“They don’t need to be the best players, because they’ll turn up for their work.
“And as I said earlier, I think it’s key that even when they go home, their families talk to them, because what they’ll do is they’ll come in the next day and they’ll strive to make the culture better.”
Readrangers.com analysis – Jack Cranmer
For Rangers and Rohl, Boyd’s comments land at a significant moment.
After another late-season collapse, the latest rebuild now appears to be about more than improving quality alone.
The deeper challenge may be restoring the standards, resilience and cultural identity Boyd believes the club has gradually lost.
