Russell Martin says his criticism of the Rangers players was “not an attack on anyone personally” but insists that he is not at the club to “play games”.

Rangers were booed off on Saturday after Motherwell earned a late 1-1 draw on the opening day of the Scottish Premiership season.

Martin said afterwards that some of his players have to “drop their ego” and that the club would have to “work out who really wants to be all in”.

Speaking ahead of Tuesday’s Champions League third qualifying round first leg at home to Viktoria Plzen, Martin did not back down with his assessment of their performance.

“I’m just always going to be honest with the players and the supporters,” he said. “I’m just not here to play any games and be political and all that. I’m in a job that demands certain things, and when we fall short of that, there’s just no point in hiding behind stuff.

“The fundamental problem on Saturday was not knowledge, was not ability, it was attitude. I wasn’t emotional on Saturday, it was exactly what I said to the players. The response has been good.

“It’s the same old stuff I’ve said from day one, which is fight, willingness to run, to help each other out. It is hard to play for this club; it’s not for everyone, it’s not easy. You have to be a really resilient and strong person.

“The self-preservation stuff I spoke about happens throughout football. It’s really difficult when you’re having tough moments, you slip back into trying to protect yourself, but actually, that doesn’t help. I have empathy for players when it gets tough, but let’s always go back to being really horrible and hard to play against.

“We weren’t hard enough to play against on Saturday, so that’s what it came down to. There was no point in sugarcoating it; the players know what to expect. I’m really honest with them, and I was really honest with everyone else, and people can make what they want of it.”

On questioning the players’ ego, Martin added: “It depends how you define ego. When I talk about that, it’s the self-preservation stuff. And I don’t mean it in a bad way. You need a bit of ego and a bit of edge to play at this football club, for sure.

“To be successful here, to take the ball, to want to show people that you’re a good player, you have to have it. So it’s not necessarily a bad thing.

“When I talk about it on Saturday, it’s like the looking around when we lose the ball and maybe throwing your arms up at each other and all that stuff. And it’s like, no, come on, you don’t need to do that anymore. We’re going to protect you. We’re going to look after you.”

Sky Sports’ Kris Boyd said it was “alarming” that Martin was calling out his players so early into his tenure, while Chris Sutton said the Rangers boss was right to do it.

“Gone early with what?” said Martin in response. “There’s no choice to be honest sometimes, and then sometimes not.

“That’s how I feel in life in general and in my job. And it’s how I’ve been for six years with the players. There’s been a couple of times when I’ve done it at previous clubs and never had to do it again.

“But again, it’s the same conversation with the players. And then when they come in and they look at stuff, I think they understand why I would say it. So it’s not an attack on anyone personally.”

Martin continued: “We’re three games in, we haven’t been beaten in any of them games, but we have a lot to improve and work on. The stuff to improve needs to be technical, tactical. While we’re building and changing so much, and change can often be messy, the things that we need to work on can’t be mentality.

“It has to be the rest of it, the detail, the technical stuff, the tactical stuff. We’ll work on that together, and we’ll get better and develop, but let’s build it on the basis of a really strong mentality wherever we go.

“It’s learned behaviour and habits. We need to create better habits throughout the whole team, throughout the whole club. Habits that we can actually rely on when times get tough, rather than the whole piece falling apart and imploding.”