Derek McInnes says he "can't hold players hands" after narrow Conference League win
Derek McInnes told his Rangers players he cannot hold their hands after a mixed performance in the 1-0 win over Jablonec in the first leg of their UEFA Conference League play-off tie at Ibrox.
McInnes got his first win as Gers manager at the fifth time of asking with a 5-1 thumping of St Mirren on Sunday but his side were booed off at half-time against the Czech outfit after an uninspiring first half.
Striker Ryan Naderi scored from close range in the 50th minute but in the 78th minute substitute Cammy Devlin sent off minutes after coming off the Gers bench for a high tackle on Jriri Slama to leave Rangers to see out the game with 10 men and with the tie in the balance ahead of the second leg next week.
After such an impressive performance against the Buddies, McInnes, who has signed 11 new players with the promise of more to come, said:
"I want us to be a team that nobody really likes to play against, but there's two sides to that.
"And we want to be a team that nobody likes to play against because how organised and how ferocious we are with our press, and aggression.
"I think as a team, we have to be more sure what we're doing
" not just playing fits and starts, and when we did get the crowd in it, even the goal is an example, we get the goal with a few chances ahead of the goal. The kick-off happens, and they get a corner right away that you go to defend.
"You get the punters up, they're singing, they're getting behind the team. They said, Here we go.
"And inexplicably make one or two little wrong errors of judgement, and we have to defend a corner, and it brings an anxiety again, and it's these little things that we need to get more experience, more streetwise with.
"Because to build confidence here, to build momentum here at Ibrox, you're going to have to stay on top of the job all the time, and you can't be holding people's hands the whole 90 minutes for them.
"They're going to have to really take a bit of ownership with that and be more responsible and a bit more communication would not go amiss at time on the pitch.
"So, in a positive way, we get a clean sheet, it's another win, it's another go for Ryan and we've got something to take over at a Czech Republic.
"But in the bigger scheme of things, there's still loads of work to do here but it's important that, while we're looking for those improvements, we try to win games of football and we try and build a bit of confidence."
McInnes said: "Having seen it again, it is a red card and there's no debate.
"I think it looks a hell of a lot worse than it actually was.
"I've seen him doing this before when he's trying to buy fouls.
"He's trying to just get his leg up and put his body in to be fouled because he's in the penalty box.
He's obviously trying to feel the contact to get down, but because where his leg goes up to try put his body in, it's boy in the shin and it looks terrible and when you see the stills of it, it looks like a a red card all day long.
"But I think it looks worse than it actually was if you know what I mean."
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