Giovanni van Bronckhorst angered by Rangers' heavy loss to Celtic

Giovanni van Bronckhorst last night took aim at his Rangers players and accused them of not being up for the battle that awaited them at Celtic Park.

The Dutchman’s first defeat as Rangers boss came after a desperate first-half display which saw Liel Abada add to Reo Hatate’s double to secure victory for Celtic.

Van Bronckhorst was horrified at how off the pace each of his players were and felt they were simply ill-prepared for the challenge.

‘Very disappointing,’ he stated. ‘If you start an Old Firm game like this … it seemed like it was the first Old Firm we played.

‘You know what it will bring, the Old Firm, what you have to do, the environment we go in, the ambience, the pressure we get, everything.

‘It seemed like we weren’t ready for it. You see the way we gave the goals away. It is a (lack of sharpness) I cannot say otherwise.

‘Not going with your man … not being ready for the battles. I think it was unbelievable the first half that I saw. Our Old Firm game started in the second half. We were much better, much more aggressive and we played well but the first half we gave the game away.’

In total command of the title race as they entered the winter break, Rangers drew away to Aberdeen and Ross County to allow Celtic to close the gap to two points last weekend.

Nonetheless, van Bronckhorst detected nothing in his players’ demeanour this week to suggest they were capable of turning in such a woeful display.

‘It wasn’t something I expected when I see the training we had, the focus before the game.

‘When the whistle blew, I think we were just waiting for the goal to be scored. For me that is impossible. We were too naive and deserved to be down 3-0 the way we played.’

Rangers captain James Tavernier was adamant that