Derek McInnes has defiantly backed himself to be a success as Rangers manager despite a horror start to his Ibrox tenure. A humiliating Europa Conference League exit to Jablonec leaves the Light Blues without any European football this season for the first time in nine years.
European Exit Adds to Pressure
Rangers have blown both chances this summer, with Jageillonia Bialystok knocking them out of the Europa League to set up Thursday night's last chance saloon clash with the Czechs. McInnes is still winless in the league, having drawn at Dundee United and lost to Hibs ahead of Sunday's trip to face Aberdeen at Pittodrie.
The pressure is now mounting on the former Hearts boss, who already sits five points behind Celtic in the table with the Hoops due at Ibrox next month in the League Cup quarter-finals, a week before the first league derby at Parkhead.
McInnes: 'I'm a Good Manager'
But he believes in his ability to turn things around. "I'm not the first Rangers manager to get off to a tough start, but we are determined to follow this job through and it's the end that counts," he told Sky Sports News.
"I still believe we're going to be a success here, but we need to try and give a bit more encouragement to the supporters to buy into and get behind. I'd like to think I know what I'm doing as a manager. I'm a good manager, I back myself."
Focus Shifts to Domestic Success
"At the minute, none of us are doing our job well enough and it's up to us to try and share that responsibility to improve things. I think the players need a wee bit of help and support at the minute, but equally we've all got to work that wee bit harder to find that," he added.
"I just feel as though we've wasted an opportunity to qualify for the group stages. But we can't dwell on it now, it's done. I know football, you've got to get ready to go again and obviously a huge game on Sunday for us. We've not got the best record recently at Pittodrie, so we have to be ready for that one."
"European football is so important for the club, not just from a financial aspect but just from a prestige point of view, so we're all disappointed and gutted that we're not competing longer in Europe. But our full focus is on Aberdeen, the full focus will be on us this season domestically now and I do think we need to be a club that gets back to winning trophies domestically. When I first came in, I said that and maybe just concentrating on us domestically now gives us a better chance of that."
