Ex-Celtic star makes Rangers 'awful' claim and says 'wheels coming off' in title race

Kris Commons believes the wheels are coming off Rangers’ Premiership title defence as they are "spilling points at an alarming rate”.

The Ibrox side failed to take advantage of Celtic’s draw at Hibs as they threw away a two-goal lead at home to Motherwell on Sunday afternoon.

Rangers remain three points behind their city rivals after the 2-2 draw with the Steelmen.

Since the return from the winter break the Scottish champions have won just three of their eight league games.

Rangers dropped two points against Motherwell. (Photo by Craig Williamson / SNS Group)

"For Giovanni van Bronckhorst, the numbers since the winter break do not make for kind reading," Commons wrote in his Daily Mail column. “In fact, they are awful.

"They have now dropped 11 points in those eight games, blowing a six-point lead over Celtic at the turn of the year to now trail their rivals by three points.

"OK, so they got away with it yesterday in the sense that they didn't lose any more ground. Celtic were poor against Hibs and didn't deserve to win. Ange Postecoglou's side have got their own issues to deal with after a painful European exit at the hands of Norwegians Bodo/Glimt.

"But, for me, it's Rangers who are the main talking point just now. For all their progress in Europe, the wheels are falling off domestically.

"They are spilling points at an alarming rate and this run of form simply is not sustainable if they are to maintain a title challenge against Celtic.”

Commons has compared the drop-off to the first two seasons of Steven Gerrard’s reign and reckons that their Europa League involvement will hand the initiative to Celtic in the title race.

"They have been here before. During Steven Gerrard's first two seasons, you could almost set your watch by how they would fall apart as soon as we got to the turn of the year.

"That now looks like it's happening again. This has to be a huge concern for Van Bronckhorst. When your rivals drop points in an early kick-off, you have to capitalise. No excuses."

He added: "Van Bronckhorst needs to stop the slide, which won't be easy given their continued progress in Europe. That could stretch the squad to its limit to keep on going Thursday-Sunday, Thursday- Sunday. The blessing for Celtic is that they no longer have that problem.”

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