Danny Rohl has already had six competitive matches in charge of Glasgow Rangers to assess his squad, after being thrown in at the deep end when he arrived last month.
Every game will have been a learning experience for the former Sheffield Wednesday boss, and this international break has provided him with a chance to take a step back and analyse his start to life at Ibrox.
A 3-0 win over Dundee at Dens Park before the break made it three wins from three in the Scottish Premiership for Rohl, but there is still plenty of work to be done after back-to-back losses in the Europa League.
The former Southampton and Bayern Munich assistant will be able to use this international break to assess the players who are not with their national teams in training.
Meanwhile, Rohl has also had the chance to watch some of his stars in action in different environments, playing for their countries, which may give him a different perspective on them.
One player who may have harmed his club chances through his performance for his country is central defender John Souttar, who struggled against Greece on Saturday.
Why John Souttar should be dropped by Rangers
Rohl should ruthlessly ditch the Scotland international from the starting line-up off the back of a dismal showing at the weekend, as he was criticised for his role in Anastasios Bakasetas’ opening goal.
Analysing the strike, BBC Sportscene pundit James McFadden said: “That is a nightmare. John Souttar initially totally misjudges the flight of the ball. He’s got to take control of the situation.
The Rangers centre-back ended the 3-2 defeat with zero out of two ground duels won and one error that directly led to a shot for the opposition, per Sofascore, on top of his mistake for Bakasetas’ opener.
Souttar’s struggles for Scotland may not come as a surprise to those who have kept tabs on his performances for Rangers in the 2025/26 campaign, as his form has dipped since last season.
The former Hearts star won 74% of his ground duels and was only dribbled past twice in 24 appearances in the Premiership last term, per Sofascore, but he has not been as dominant and hard to play against in the current campaign.
Appearances
24
11
Goals
1
0
Pass accuracy
91%
91%
Tackles + interceptions per game
1.6
1.1
Dribbled past per game
0.1x
0.5x
Ground duel success rate
74%
53%
Aerial duel success rate
66%
66%
Yellow cards
1
3
As you can see in the table above, Souttar has already been dribbled past six times in 11 league games, three times as much as last season in less than half as many matches.
The Scottish defender has also won a much lower percentage of his duels on the ground, which suggests that he is a yard slower to get to the ball, and his struggles in that department were on display against Greece, losing 100% of his ground duels.
Souttar’s declining form for club and country is a cause for concern and should be something that Rohl has paid attention to during the international break, particularly with the options that he has at his disposal at Ibrox.
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The former Sheffield Wednesday boss does have alternatives that he can turn to ahead of the Scotland international, and he should ruthlessly ditch the 29-year-old flop to unleash the rarely-seen Emmanuel Fernandez.
Rangers signed the English centre-back from Peterborough in the summer in a deal that was described as a “blockbuster” move by Posh chairman Darragh MacAnthony, but he has not had too many chances to impress.
Why Rangers should finally unleash Emmanuel Fernandez
The 23-year-old star has only played 181 minutes of football across three appearances and two starts in all competitions for the Scottish giants so far this season, per Transfermarkt, with one star in the Premiership and one start in the League Cup.
In his first start for the club against Alloa Athletic in the League Cup, Fernandez played a role in a 4-2 win for Russell Martin’s Light Blues and scored his first goal for Rangers.
The towering defender, who was hailed as a “colossus” by the aforementioned MacAnthony, was rewarded for that performance in the cup in August with a start against St Mirren in the Premiership the following weekend.
Fernandez, ironically, started alongside Souttar on that trip to play the Saints in what turned out to be a 1-1 draw under Martin, and he outperformed his experienced teammate that afternoon.
Minutes
90
90
Tackles
2
0
Interceptions
0
3
Clearances
8
9
Ground duels won
3/5
5/8
Aerial duels won
3/5
7/7
Dribbled past
1x
0x
As you can see in the table above, the former Peterborough star made far more contributions to the team defensively and was not as much of a liability in duels, whilst he was not dribbled past a single time.
It was also Souttar who was caught out by the run that Jordan Ayunga made through the middle to score the opening goal in the game, as the Scotland international failed to track the run or catch up with the striker to prevent him from scoring.
However, since that fairly impressive outing against St Mirren in the Premiership, Fernandez has only played one minute of football in all competitions for Rangers, and that was off the bench in the recent 1-0 win over Hibernian.
The 23-year-old was not provided with many opportunities to shine under the previous management team, but impressed when he did, and Rohl should change that by finally unleashing him after the international break.
Given Souttar’s declining form for Rangers and Scotland, the timing could be right for the Light Blues to look to the future by offering Fernandez a run of matches to see if he can nail down a place in the side and be a more dominant presence at the back than the Scottish dud has been this season.
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