There is always method in the madness when Rangers have a good manager, and Walter Smith himself was guilty of a few little verbal comments which didn’t quite add up on the pitch. Ben Godfrey explanation is an example in Derek McInnes’ case.

Nevertheless, Derek McInnes is no Walter Smith as yet, and maybe he will be one day. But some of his recent comments in the press have left a few question marks.

Ibrox Noise has never been shy to question certain aspects of whoever Rangers manager is, and Derek McInnes remains no exception whatsoever.

McInnes and his questionable explanations

As regular readers will know, we took exception to his bizarre defence of his mistake last week against Dundee. He stood by the notion that he’d picked the correct team and correct system despite the performance and result proving otherwise.

His switch back to the previous formation, system and personnel yielded better results and was as much an admission of him being wrong as anything.

However, his latest comments when finally questioned on Vanja Dragojević definitely raised an eyebrow.

McInnes has dismissed the whole topic by saying that he and the team love the Serbian, but he has to bide his time and wait.

None of this adds up in itself because the question was based on the substitutes used against St Johnstone at Ibrox.

As we know, Ben Godfrey arrived on the pitch to get some minutes. McInnes justified this by saying that he trained hard and had earned that chance.

He then explained that there was a choice left in terms of midfield, and it was between Dragojević and similarly frozen out man Tochi Chukwuani.

He did not justify especially why it was Chukwuani who came on, but did seem to say it was a bit of a toss-up.

What does this say about Dragojević?

But it was his reasons over Godfrey that really raised an eyebrow.

The simple reality is Rangers signed Vanja Dragojević on the basis that Nico Raskin would be leaving. He was meant to be the replacement.

You don’t sign a player with that level of hype for around £4.5M for him only to sit on the bench. It is not the way clubs do things at Rangers’ level.

Therefore, when McInnes explained why Godfrey came on and Dragojević didn’t, it definitely raised an eyebrow that Godfrey came on because he had trained well, that he had earned the right through his hard work in training and grafting and deserved the reward.

Was McInnes trying to say that Dragojević hadn’t trained well and didn’t deserve the reward?

Obviously, we know that McInnes has to juggle players. We know that only too well. He has to try to keep everyone happy as much as possible.

However, his reasoning over Dragojević appeared to almost condemn the Serbian while damning him with faint praise.

The Raskin paradox

The problem for McInnes, of course, is the paradox. How does he justify leaving out a player that he now doesn’t need?

Poor Dragojević came to Rangers as the replacement for the supposedly departing Nico Raskin, as we have said before.

That departure did not happen and Raskin has kept his place.

Rangers don’t have that many now in midfield. Five players is not too bad. The Serb, Dan Neil, Chucky, Raskin and the currently-injured Devlin. But the fact is that Dragojević at the moment appears to be bottom of the queue.

He must be wondering now why he made the move.

But we know why he made the move. He thought he’d be playing. That hasn’t happened and McInnes is caught between a rock and a hard place in justifying why.

We don’t know what kind of a player the Serbian is because we haven’t seen anywhere near enough of him.

And yes, McInnes has the balancing act of juggling players who aren’t playing at the moment.

But we really do feel he needs to work a little bit on some of the things he says in the media now and again because they quite simply trip him up.

You cannot say that you brought a player on because he worked hard in training because the implication there is that any player who didn’t come on did not work hard.

Even Bojan Miovski got some minutes on the pitch against the Perthshire side.

This is a bit of a condemnation per se of Dragojević.

The £9 million Serbian pair

He was signed for £4.5M in a blaze of publicity and as yet has made absolutely no impression upon Rangers, much like his countryman Nedeljković.

Kosta has also come up in question, albeit not in the media in the same way.

Ibrox Noise has raised the topic of the £9M pair – one on loan from Villa, the other a permanent from Partizan.

Consequently, time will tell what happens with these two.

But McInnes may have to remember that when he’s speaking to the press regarding any topics to do with players and who stays and who goes and who plays and who doesn’t, he has to ensure that he doesn’t say anything that doesn’t add up or that doesn’t sound entirely fair.

But then at the same time, if Rangers are constantly winning, which Dundee aside we are, the manager can probably justify saying almost anything he wants within reason.

We will see if Dragojević ever does get a chance to play for Rangers.