‘I would love to know exactly what’s going through half the lads’ heads at times,’ admits Jack Butland as he questions mentality at Rangers

Jack Butland has questioned if the current Rangers squad have the mentality to deal with the expectation which comes with playing for the club.

Saturday’s 2-2 draw with Dundee United ensured the team have won just once in eight Premiership matches and remain without a home league victory this season.

While interim manager Steven Smith presided over a much-improved first-half display in the first game since Russell Martin’s sacking, a dismal second-half performance left them needing a late James Tavernier goal to salvage a point.

And, after the latest setback, keeper Butland admitted that — to date — he has not been convinced that all the players at the club have the right mindset to succeed.

‘Mentality is obviously a word that’s been used a lot by different people,’ he said. ‘You can use it for whatever you like, but sometimes you either have it or you don’t.

‘What this club needs is a group, a squad and a togetherness that lives and breathes what this club’s about. And it’s not getting that. It’s not being shown enough.

‘I have to be careful how I say things. But that’s the truth and reality of it. That’s what the fans are seeing. It has to happen the rest of the week.

‘It can’t be turned on for a match day. It can’t be done occasionally in training. It’s a mentality of winning and desire. It doesn’t have to be pretty at times.

‘That should have been a 1-0 on Saturday, worst case scenario. If it gets scrappy, you put bodies on the line. So what? You come away with three points.

‘But at the minute we’re not showing that we have enough of that. That’s ultimately what this club needs, first and foremost.’

Butland stopped short of claiming some off his team-mates didn’t appreciate the magnitude of the club, claiming that it was still possible for them to show they had what it takes.

‘I won’t say that,’ he added. ‘Because everyone who is here has the opportunity to play for this fantastic club. They’re here for a reason.

‘Maybe they still have an opportunity to grasp that. And it’s better late than never.

‘At the minute, we’re not doing it or showing it enough as a team. You can point fingers wherever you like or put it down to whatever you like. But it’s a requirement at this club to be 110 per cent, whether the quality is there or not.

‘The effort and the desire to win — to not get beat, to not concede — that needs to be there all the time.

‘Crazy things can still happen. You can still draw or lose. But it’s all too often that we’re finding ourselves in this position.’

Rangers should have been out of sight when Thelo Aasgaard netted his first goal for the club midway through an impressive first-half display.

But having allowed United to come back and be within three minutes of victory, Butland revealed that he’s struggling to work out what the missing ingredient is.

‘It’s anger, if I’m honest,’ he stated. ‘It’s a story that we’ve seen a lot and a feeling that we’ve felt a lot.

‘So yeah, angry. It’s obviously demoralising for everybody when you put in a first half like that where you see some real people express themselves.

‘Okay, we only scored one and we should score more. But it was a good performance, we were solid going forward and there was some exciting stuff going on.

‘To go from that to what happened between 1-0 and 2-1 down is, honestly, I would love to know exactly what goes through half the lads’ heads at times.

‘Or us as a team, how do we get ourselves in that position? But it’s the story of the season, really.

‘What happened between 1-0 up and going 2-1 down is nowhere near good enough, especially after putting in a first half performance like that.’

Rangers are in negotiations with Shanghai Port to secure Kevin Muscat as their next manager, but the Australian might not join until November 22 if the Chinese title race goes right to the wire.

With leaders Hearts now 13 points ahead, Butland admits there’s a danger that the ongoing certainly can let the season drift away.

‘Of course it can,’ he said. ‘We’re better off not beating around the bush. We know what we want to achieve and what this club expects.

‘But the reality is we haven’t shown that. As tough as it sounds and as hard as it is for me to say, that is the reality.

‘We don’t want the season to drift away, of course not. But we have to be realistic about where we find ourselves right now.

‘Thinking about where we can get to and what’s achievable is irrelevant. We need to start changing what we’re doing, taking on the lessons and getting better. It’s as simple as that.

‘We have to start putting in performances that the fans can align with, recognise as a Rangers team and can get behind and believe in.

‘Too often we haven’t been and that’s just a fact. So, we need to get to that.’

While Neil McCann is being lined up to hold the fort until Muscat comes in, as things stand, Smith will start to prepare the team for Thursday’s Europa League match away to Brann Bergen.

Confirming that the squad are in the dark in terms of what happens next, Butland said: ‘We’ve been informed that when things are in a position to let us know, we’ll be told.

‘In the meantime, we have to represent the club the best way we can with whoever’s in charge. Of course, we’d all like that sorted sooner rather than later.

‘If it doesn’t happen it’s because the club’s looking and trying to get the right thing sorted. That’s all that we can hope for as a group.

‘We have to find a way of putting in a performance for 90 minutes and getting some wins, regardless of who’s in charge.’