Rangers vs Viktoria Plzeň preview: Antman - Czechmania

Rangers have to shake off Saturday's disappointing result and go again against an even tougher opponent.

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Evening all, the games are coming thick and fast for Rangers as we’ve barely had time to process Saturday’s result before going into another tough game. We’re back at home and welcome Viktoria Plzeň to Ibrox stadium for our 3rd round Champions League qualifier.

Fallout

Given the manager spent the majority of his press conference today talking about Saturday’s game and what’s happened since, it would be remiss for me not to address it further.

I am a big fan of Martin’s attitude addressing the questions of the press. I think some would have expected him to roll back some of his comments given how direct and critical he was after Saturday’s draw at Fir Park.

Instead he was keen to reassure everyone that what he said on Saturday wasn’t “emotional” and was exactly what he said to the players as well.

He also addressed the “learned behaviour” of the squad. Although this seems like an easy thing to say on paper, we saw Michael Beale and Philippe Clement effectively throwing their predecessors under the bus and then make the exact same mistakes. The difference with Martin is that he’s got a much bigger remit of coming into despondent teams and turning them into squads that play great football and get results. But I won’t be getting too excited, until we see what the response is like from the squad in the coming weeks.

Another thing that stood out for me was Martin’s response to a question about if leadership was about “shouting and raving”. He was quick to say that he saw leadership as being about “selflessness” instead. I absolutely agree and modern football has long since moved on from captains needing to first and foremost be the loudest voice on the pitch. We can put plenty of stock in Martin’s statement given he was the captain of a Premier League side and had to show those qualities on a daily basis.

Allegedly there’s been a good response in training, but that’s another one we’ve heard before, so I am biding my time until tomorrow’s game at least before making any comments there.

Czeching in on the opposition

To shift our gaze to tomorrow’s visitors, it’s another side that comes into the game with a big pedigree. I’ll refer you again to

Patrick Caskie

’s breakdown as he was able to go a lot more in-depth on the away side and how they play.

A slightly worrying takeaway for me is that they are a serious threat on the counter-attack. We saw how vulnerable we looked in transition playing a Panathinaikos side that were far more comfortable in settled possession. We can also see that the sides in the Czech league are physically robust, so that’s another test for our players.

Given the way we started shelling the ball up the park under a semi organised press from Motherwell on Saturday, I won’t lie, I’m not particularly optimistic about how long these players will stick to playing the way that can give us a platform to build from.

In terms of individuals I am most excited to see Matěj Vydra, often linked with Rangers and with an impressive EFL résumé he will be a nice player to tick off the list of seeing him in the flesh should he start (which seems likely). In terms of threat he seems to be a bit of a Swiss(Czech?)-army knife in terms of playing a variety of roles in the front 3/2 depending on what the manager needs. His experience and his current goal scoring form make him a real threat to our less-than-secure back line.

The biggest boost has been the loss of two of Plzeň’s best players in the transfer window. Pavel Šulc hasn’t travelled to Glasgow to ensure his transfer to Lyon goes through. While Lukáš Kalvach has already made the switch to the sunny and lucrative sands of Qatar.

The soon to depart Pavel Šulc

The visitors haven’t had time to acquire suitable replacements, so let’s hope that can tip the strength of squads in Rangers favour for this tie.

Finally a Finn

The biggest news of today comes in the form of much-needed reinforcement in wide areas for Rangers as Oliver Antman arrives for a reported £3m fee from Go Ahead Eagles.

6 goals and 15 assists in the Eredivisie from a winger is nothing to be sniffed at. He arrives with a lot of expectation as Rangers have been clamouring for someone to displace Kieron Dowell since his surprise re-emergence as Rangers right wing option.

This falls right into the bracket of the young players ready to explode that we should be interested in. The prospect of Djeidi Gassama on one wing and Antman on the other is truly exciting for the team and our prospects this season.

The biggest question now is if the club can register Antman in time to play tomorrow.

Scotland's Coefficient

informs me that we can make two changes to the squad by 11pm tonight, and so Antman has to come in. With Igamane and Aasgaard still injured - it seems an easy decision to make to remove one from the squad for this tie.

For the rest of the team, there’s been lots of questions about who may be dropped given the manager referred to multiple individuals that weren’t following instructions. Lyall Cameron did the press conference alongside the manager, generally that’s the responsibility that would fall to a starter, could he in line to make his full Rangers debut? I would certainly be surprised to see it, it would be a big ask for the young man, but what a show of faith from the manager.

Aside from that I’d hoped we’d get to see Mikey Moore start on one of the wings, ideally on the right with Dowell sent to the glue factory. Alas, that’s probably wishful thinking. Moore is another one that didn’t make the original UEFA squad on Thursday night, and ideally would be one of the two additions to tonight’s squad. The rumour is that his international clearance has not yet been granted though, and so he once again will watch from the stands.

I wonder if the manager’s loyalty to Danilo might finally wilt and we could see Dessers start instead. Martin praised Dessers’ running off the bench on Saturday. Danilo hasn’t really been pulling up trees in any of the competitive fixtures he’s been involved in. I wouldn’t be against us switching things up in that department.

As much as we might hope, I’m not expecting any further changes beyond that. Even with the mixed fortunes of this back 4, the manager isn’t likely to twist and change things anytime soon.

The biggest disappointment regarding team news is that Thelo Aasgaard and Hamza Igamane aren’t fit enough to make the squad again. That’s two fantastic attacking assets that we’ve barely seen this season due to allegedly small injuries. The quicker we can get them back in the picture the better, Saturday was crying out for a bit of variety in attack once things started to slip away.

One thing at a time

Despite Saturday’s result, I still believe this side has enough to progress across two legs against this Plzeň side. We’ve already seen that the team has the quality to score good goals when things come off, we can absolutely do that tomorrow and give us the best chance of making it through the second leg.

With nothing set in stone, it’s maybe bad fortune to look ahead. But I have to mention that we’ve been drawn against RB Salzburg/Club Brugge in the play off round should we progress from this tie.

It’s the best available option although by no means an easy tie. Let’s have a bigger think about that game once we knock the Czechs out (optimism).

Enjoy the game, I’ll be there so hopefully I can help the team get a result.

Video: The reaction of the Panathinaikos bench to Djeidi Gassama’s tie-killing strike last week