Rangers boss addresses Andy Halliday criticism and reveals uplifting message from Ibrox maintenance man

However, the Rangers head coach insists he has no objections with Andy Halliday airing his unflattering views on his style of play after the draws against Motherwell and Dundee which have left his side four points behind Celtic just two matches into the Premiership season.

Halliday, who plays for Motherwell but also works as a media pundit, used a tactics board to explain where he felt Rangers were going wrong under Martin. Critiquing the 1-1 draw with Dundee on the Open Goal podcast, he noted that Rangers were short of numbers in attack.

"Dundee played a 5-4-1, really compact, really tight, really deep and narrow,” Halliday said. “Rangers went with a flat back four and they had five players attacking eleven players. How are you going to create chances and score goals if you’re five v eleven? You would struggle to score against kids in training if you were five v eleven.”

Addressing Halliday's comments during his pre-match press conference ahead of facing Alloa in the Premier Sports Cup second round on Saturday, Martin said: "I like Andy. I regard him as a really good ex-teammate and a good person. I'm sure at some point we'll have a coffee in the West End and we'll sit down and discuss. I know he wants to coach at some point. But when you work in the media you have to give an opinion, right? I've got absolutely no problem with it all, although I never said we'd be play inverted full-backs, so I have told him that."

Halliday is not alone in questioning Martin's approach after his Rangers side struggled to break down Dundee last Sunday while the follow-up performance against Viktoria Plzen in the Champions League third qualifying round second leg on Tuesday night left a lot to be desired as Rangers edged through 4-2 on aggregate despite losing 2-1 on the night.

Martin insists, however, that his players need to block the “outside noise” and focus on what he is asking them to do.

‘The perfect analogy’

"There's been an energy around this place for a while, inside and outside, where there's been a lot of disappointment, frustration and criticism,” he explained. “While we are here, our job is to really focus on what we can effect, and what we can impact. If we do our jobs to the best of our ability in here, and focus on the work, being better, and having really high standards that this club should stand for, I just don't see how it doesn't go in the right direction.

"One of the maintenance guys here this week said, 'we're turning a tanker around, gaffer, and it will just take some time, but when we get it going...’. I thought it was the perfect analogy.

"We've just qualified for the Champions League [play-offs]. I spoke to the staff on Sunday after Dundee because everyone here supporters the club and they really feel things. But our job here is to just work and not let the outside noise affect how we work. It just can't.

"I've had to remind people of that because we really need to get better at what we do every day. A lot of people who have been here a long time, are not happy in how it's been every day, and I feel like we're turning that around in the building. That comes with consistency in behaviour and work. While consistency in performance is not quite there, there's stuff we always need to do in here, and stuff we always need to do on the pitch, and the players are working that out. And when they do, and we're all pointing in the right direction, none of that stuff will be a question any more."