Derek McInnes Is Already Giving Celtic Fans Plenty To Enjoy.

Two league games.

One point.

Five points behind Celtic already.

And Derek McInnes is telling everyone Rangers were the better team.

If this is how the new era at Ibrox is going to unfold, Celtic supporters might want to get the popcorn ready.

Rangers’ 2-1 home defeat to Hibernian on Sunday leaves McInnes without a victory from his opening three competitive matches as manager. After beginning the Premiership campaign with a draw at Dundee United, they were then beaten 2-1 by Jagiellonia Bialystok in Europe before Hibs inflicted another defeat at Ibrox.

None of that means Rangers’ season is finished in August. Of course it doesn’t.

What interests me far more is McInnes himself.

Because we are already seeing some of the characteristics that became increasingly noticeable towards the end of his time at Hearts.

McInnes has to be the “calmest man in the room”…

Following the opening-day draw at Tannadice, I wrote about McInnes appearing to lose his composure.

The result itself wasn’t the issue. Teams drop points away from home in Scottish football and will continue to do so.

His reaction interested me.

McInnes was remonstrating with officials at full-time before bizarrely pumping his fists towards the Rangers support. It didn’t strike me as the behaviour of an experienced manager completely comfortable with his surroundings.

One game later, he finds himself presiding over a home defeat to Hibs.

Afterwards, the Rangers manager spoke about his responsibility to keep everybody calm.

He’s absolutely correct.

The problem is that somebody might need to tell Derek McInnes that first!

Rangers have hired him partly because of his experience. This isn’t a young coach learning on the job. McInnes has managed hundreds of games in Scottish football and knows exactly what the environment surrounding Ibrox can become when results turn against them.

Calmness should therefore be one of his biggest assets.

Instead, we’ve already seen signs of frustration.

The excuses are starting early.

His assessment of the Hibs defeat was equally interesting.

McInnes felt Rangers had been “mugged off”, while maintaining that his team had performed well despite losing at home.

Beggars belief!

There will undoubtedly be plenty of discussion surrounding the penalty awarded to Hibs.

For me, VAR did precisely what it exists to do. The incident was spotted, reviewed and a penalty awarded.

What cannot be debated is the final score.

Rangers 1, Hibernian 2.

Hibs even recovered from conceding an 85th-minute own goal to score the winner in stoppage time through Callum Wright.

Overcoming adversity is something Del Boy’s Hearts side failed to do last year when it mattered most.

At some stage, constantly being the supposed better team without actually winning football matches becomes rather irrelevant.

McInnes can collect as many moral victories as he wants.

Unfortunately for Rangers, the SPFL still insists on awarding points based on the scoreline.

Rangers have backed their manager.

This is where the pressure becomes interesting.

One criticism Celtic supporters can legitimately aim at our own board is the lack of urgency in recruitment.

Whatever else we think about Rangers, they cannot really make the same argument this summer.

McInnes has been given players.

Plenty of them.

That removes one of the easiest excuses available to a new manager. The squad might not be perfect and the quality of those additions can certainly be questioned, but Rangers have attempted to reshape the playing staff around their new boss.

Whether those players are actually good enough is another matter entirely.

That’s where I think the comparison becomes more interesting.

Backing a manager only works when you’ve appointed the right manager and recruited the right players.

Quantity doesn’t guarantee quality.

Rangers can sign nine players, 19 players or 90 players. If the recruitment isn’t good enough and the manager can’t mould them into a functioning team, the number of deals done means absolutely nothing.

The early evidence certainly isn’t encouraging.

Reports from Sunday highlighted Rangers having plenty of possession but struggling for creativity and a consistent attacking threat. McInnes has also made 15 changes across his opening three competitive matches, suggesting he hasn’t yet settled on the combination he trusts.

That’s hardly ideal when the pressure gauge at Ibrox is already moving.

The Ibrox pressure cooker that is based on their denial of reality.

This brings me to what might be Rangers’ biggest problem.

Expectation.

The supporters have spent years being told that Rangers remain every bit the powerhouse they expect them to be.

Reality keeps intervening.

They’ve won one Scottish Premiership title since promotion to the top flight, while Celtic have continued collecting championships at a remarkable rate.

Eventually the gap between expectation and reality creates anger.

Every draw becomes a crisis.

Every defeat requires somebody to blame.

A new signing is expected to immediately transform everything, while a new manager arrives carrying the burden of years of previous failure.

McInnes has willingly stepped into that environment.

He must now handle it.

And if he’s already becoming animated with officials after one draw and talking about being “mugged off” following his first home league defeat, what happens when the pressure really arrives?

That’s the question Celtic supporters can enjoy contemplating.

Celtic have already applied some early pressure, it showed.

While Rangers were losing at home, Celtic earlier put five past Kilmarnock.

Martin O’Neill’s side have consequently taken six points from six, leaving Rangers five behind after only two Premiership fixtures.

Nobody should be talking seriously about title races being finished after two matches.

That would be ridiculous.

Five points, however, are five points.

The three available at Rugby Park were worth exactly the same as the three Celtic will be playing for later in the season.

Rangers have already surrendered five of the first six available to them.

That’s not insignificant.

Particularly when McInnes was brought in to provide stability, experience and presumably make Rangers considerably harder to beat.

We’ve seen this side of McInnes before

Perhaps this is why none of it particularly surprises me.

Towards the end of last season, I thought the pressure of the title race was increasingly visible in McInnes.

His demeanour changed.

Decisions involving Celtic seemed to irritate him enormously, culminating in that memorable final day at Celtic Park when his frustration with the officials was again evident.

Hearts ultimately couldn’t finish the job.

McInnes has now finished second to Celtic as manager of both Aberdeen and Hearts.

Imagine the hat-trick.

There is an enormous amount of football to be played before we can even begin considering whether that happens.

What we can judge is the beginning.

One league point from six.

A European defeat sandwiched between those domestic results.

No competitive victory from three attempts.

Already five points behind Celtic.

And a manager who appears determined to convince everybody that performances and refereeing decisions tell a more flattering story than the results.

Celtic are winning, Rangers aren’t, and Derek McInnes is already giving us plenty to talk about.

Long may that continue.