Viktoria Plzeň vs Rangers preview: 3 and not out
Rangers should cruise through to the playoff round now
This article was written for Scottishfootball.info by Adam Bortkiewicz, a Rangers fan and online sports writer, who has his own Rangers blog you can follow.
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Good morning all, Rangers return to European action following an extremely disappointing domestic weekend. But what can we expect from this team?
Apathy, thy name is Rangers
The theme of Rangers’ recent seasons, especially post Christmas, has been one of apathy from supporters.
I get it, you only need a quick glance at some of my article titles towards the end of the domestic season with Barry Ferguson as interim manager. I’m sure I used “who cares?” or variations on more than one occasion.
Generally that feeling sets in for supporters after Rangers are out of the cups, the European run has ended and there’s nothing to play for in the league. When you’ve invested lots into a season from an emotional perspective and there’s nothing to show for it, it’s difficult to maintain that investment.
The problem, when you have multiple seasons ending in this fashion, is that you end up with supporters looking to protect themselves from that same level of emotional investment. Sadly I’ve seen some of this attitude already this season, but it’s hard to blame people.
I can’t honestly say that if I hadn’t bought into the new owners and Russell Martin so enthusiastically, maybe I’d start thinking “This season is already done, what’s the point?”.
That’s the biggest challenge for this Rangers team and manager. We should be going into tonight buoyed by a few domestic victories, taking a 3-0 lead into the second leg after a truly brilliant performance last week. Instead, this game feels like a chore to most fans, a European away tie should never feel that way.
Somehow this team has to arrest that attitude, whether that’s by improved performances (the easiest way to improve the mood!) or with better communication with the support. I’m not exactly sure, there’s no silver bullet here, the apathy has set in over many seasons, it will take a lot of work to get the fans ready to fully invest again.
Mend(y) the broken bonds
Rangers seem to really enjoy making a signing when I am drafting my European previews. Last week it was Antman and this time it’s Nobel Mendy.
Although not confirmed yet, it seems that the mini transfer saga is coming to an end with the Real Betis centre back set to join Rangers permanently. Initially it had been reported that the Senegalese had been leaning in the direction of joining Rayo Vallecano in Spain. But clearly he took one look at the weather forecast and decided that he had to experience the mini Glaswegian heatwave instead. No one tell him about the 3pm sunsets in the winter months.
I’ve taken a little look at Mendy, alongside taking the opinions of a few trusted people who watch far more Spanish football than I do.
The main quality being touted for the 20-year-old is that he’s left footed. We’ve all watched John Souttar struggle to open the game up when playing on the left side of the defence. Having a left footed centre back really changes the kind of angles you can play out from the back.
He does seem to be more of an orthodox defender than Djiga. Which could work well in terms of a partnership, the last time we’ve had a proper partnership was probably Connor Goldson and Filip Helander. The last time they played together was back in 2022.
I would love a settled back 4 to go into most games this season. A centre back partnership that compliments each other is a crucial part of that.
In terms of negatives, signing a young centre back who hasn’t played lots of senior football is always a risk. Promising or not, it’s hard to know if they have the character to play in the pressure cooker that is Ibrox.
But we’ve seen our rivals have plenty of success signing this kind of profile. Attitude and character are traits that can be scouted like anything else. Let’s hope that the scouts have done their due diligence.
Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes?
Given the changes we saw for the home leg off the back of a domestic disappointment, speculation is rife that the manager will ring the changes again to improve the levels of performance.
I think we may see Nicolas Raskin return to the line-up. For Lyall Cameron or Joe Rothwell, I’m not sure. But this is the kind of game where the Belgian’s energy and tenacity can help us wrestle control of the midfield. Which is always the key battle for European away games.
We struggled away in Athens, there’s no doubt that the first half was a tough watch especially. There wasn’t enough bravery on the ball and a lack of willingness to take control of the ball and get us up the pitch.
Tonight’s opposition are superior to Panathinaikos, so that aspect of our game has to improve.
James Tavernier may return to the line-up given Max Aarons did not particularly impress at the weekend. Although I think we may have more need for Aarons’ athleticism in this kind of game.
Aside from that, one of our biggest issues at the moment is that shuffling the pack doesn’t really produce many great alternatives. Without Aasgaard and Igamane as available options, there’s not much room for variation without introducing Kieron Dowell. And we know how the fans feel about that particular move.
Buy-in
Something that we’ve not seen much under previous managers, is the squad talking about “buying in” to the philosophy and style of football. That’s probably because we didn’t see much of a philosophy under recent management.
I think as players it’s far easier to buy into something tangible rather than just committing to improve performances generally.
Jack Butland was on presser duties and he talked about the belief the squad have in the managers way of playing and some real introspection taking place after Saturday. Obviously this could be all empty platitudes, but if I was that cynical about everything I wouldn’t really have anything to write about.
There is something there we can build-on, that's what I believe, and we are really pushing to implement what the manager is asking of us. We will get a lot better as we go, but first of all, results are what matter.
For me, there’s no doubt that the owners have no interest in sacking Russell Martin barring a genuinely apocalyptic run of form. They know things take time, we’ve seen some serious peaks and troughs in terms of performances so far. Bringing the performance baseline up to a level that gets results domestically and competes in Europe has to be the goal for this first season.
I believe that if we do that we will likely pick up a trophy or two, maybe not the league title given the level of consistency required. But I don’t want to throw in the towel now.
In terms of approach, Russell Martin was keen to emphasise that we aren’t here to just see out the tie, we need to build on what we have and win the game. That’s the correct approach for any away tie, let’s hope that’s reflected on the pitch.
We come here to win the game.
Aside from that, tonight’s game is a 6pm kick off, which is great news as I can still play 5-a-side at 8:30pm. So big smiles all around, enjoy the game and stay safe if you’ve travelled to the Czech Republic.