Rangers head into Sunday's Old Firm derby at Celtic Park with their season on the line. A defeat would all but end their Scottish Premiership title hopes, leaving them facing a seventh trophyless campaign in ten years. For a club of Rangers' stature, that prospect is unthinkable, and the pressure is squarely on manager Danny Rohl.
Former Rangers midfielder Andy Halliday summed up the stakes on the BBC's Scottish Football Podcast: "It's obviously not what they were looking for, but the fact of the matter is Rangers' trophy now is to make sure that Celtic don't win the league." Halliday's words reflect a grim reality for the Ibrox faithful, who have seen their team lift silverware only three times since returning to the top flight in 2016.
Rohl, however, pushed back against that narrative. "We are playing for ourselves and our supporters," he said. "Keeping our hopes alive of qualifying for the Champions League has to be the aim." Indeed, defeat on Sunday would consign Rangers to third place, cutting off their path to Europe's elite competition and its lucrative revenues.
Since taking over from Russell Martin in October, Rohl has been praised for hauling Rangers into the title race. A 13-point gap to leaders Hearts was reduced to one before the split, but back-to-back defeats to Motherwell and Hearts have seen them slip seven points behind with three games left. The turnaround in fortunes has exposed Rohl's relative inexperience at just 37 years old.
Critics have pointed to his decision not to start Mikey Moore against Motherwell, despite Moore being arguably Rangers' best player this season, and his slow reaction as Motherwell raced into a 2-0 lead. At Tynecastle, Rangers dominated the first half but failed to build on their advantage, and when Hearts manager Derek McInnes introduced Blair Spittal at half-time, the visitors found no response.
Rohl offered a candid diagnosis on Friday, citing a lack of movement from his players under pressure. "If you don't move an opponent who is man-marking, you will still not find the right solutions," he explained. "This is a part of what we have to do better to understand, even under the highest pressure, who is now the free man, how we can take him and how we can open up the spaces." The explanation, however insightful, is unlikely to appease frustrated fans.
Rangers' record against the rest of the top six under Rohl is poor, and they have exited both cup competitions to Celtic. Rohl did mastermind a turnaround against Celtic at the start of 2026, but he has yet to outsmart counterpart Martin O'Neill, having squandered a 2-0 lead in the last league derby. If Celtic emerge victorious on Sunday, the grumbles about Rangers' failure in big games will grow louder.
Yet calmer heads note that Rohl inherited a squad widely criticized before his arrival and molded them into unlikely title contenders. Striker Youssef Chermiti has improved, along with other maligned figures like Emmanuel Fernandez and Nasser Djiga. The January window brought left-back Tuur Rommens, midfielder Tochi Chukwuani, and striker Ryan Naderi, all promising talents. Only Hearts and Dundee United have claimed more points from losing positions, indicating resilience but also fragility.
Rohl declined to criticize his squad's mentality after the Hearts defeat, but on Friday he hinted it is an area needing attention. "If you look a little bit back and we are honest to each other, in the last 15 years, we didn't win what we should do," he said. "This is a big part of what we have to change — we have to make a lot of things better and it starts to set new standards." He added, "A process without a winning of titles is not enough for our club."
Those are words Rangers fans have heard before. For Rohl, only wins and trophies count, and that begins on Sunday. Another big summer awaits, but for now, the Old Firm derby offers a chance to salvage something from a season slipping away. Based on reporting from BBC Sport.
