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[Norris Cole 0]

Agree with everything you say Criag, however, until our 1st game in the CL, I've never seen WS adapt a formation. The only Rangers manager I can successfully recall doing such is Dick Advocaat.

 

McInnes v PSV :spl:

[maineflyer 0]

Too many times we've done well in the first three games, only to flop completely in the second half of the group series. If we can change that to any extent at all then we will go through. We're already WAY beyond anything I expected but you can't now help hoping for what only recently seemed an impossibility.

[pete 2,499]

What would you settle for just now , securing second place and getting one more round agaist a group winner or taking your chances of another Europa league run , remembering that Jelavic will be fit ( hopefully) and that some resources may be freed up to bolster the team .

 

Also whilst we are doing great coeficcient wise , we need remember that we lose 14.5 points this year and over 22 next year . It is essential that we maintain a mid 30's position in the seedings

 

When we win the Champions league we will have automatic entry to the play off stages next year.

[calscot 0]

Agree with everything you say Criag, however, until our 1st game in the CL, I've never seen WS adapt a formation. The only Rangers manager I can successfully recall doing such is Dick Advocaat.

 

OK I'll bite - when did he "successfully" do this? Or are we talking about Zenit?

 

I liked Advocaat in the first two years but despite spending like we've never spent before and never will again, his European success was limited and disappointing. He was really good at finishing third and getting to the last 16 in the UEFA cup but that was about it.

 

The best adaptation I've ever seen at Rangers in Europe was three seasons ago where we supposedly played every game like a team who just didn't want to lose but somehow still did ourselves proud in the CL and scored enough goals and won enough games to get to the final of UEFA. The marked juxtaposition between the criticism of the tactics and the results pretty much shows conclusively that the tactics must have been immensely adaptable.

 

I also thought there as great adaptation in '92 when we had to change the team almost every game due to injuries and unfair suspensions. Our squad wasn't even that big and we had to make a lot of use of youngsters like Nesbit and Murray. Durrant was just coming back from injury and was good but not quite his previous self. If we had McCoist and Hateley for every game then I think there's a good chance we'd have beaten Brugge and CSKA and made the final.

[Gribz 743]

I can honestly see us getting 4 points from the remaining 3 games. I fancy us to get a draw in Turkey and think Man Utd could be beaten at Ibrox.

[ian1964 10,416]

Our best results in recent European football has been away from home,so we should be fairly confident in picking up points

[Gazza_8 233]

OK I'll bite - when did he "successfully" do this? Or are we talking about Zenit?

 

I liked Advocaat in the first two years but despite spending like we've never spent before and never will again, his European success was limited and disappointing. He was really good at finishing third and getting to the last 16 in the UEFA cup but that was about it.

 

The best adaptation I've ever seen at Rangers in Europe was three seasons ago where we supposedly played every game like a team who just didn't want to lose but somehow still did ourselves proud in the CL and scored enough goals and won enough games to get to the final of UEFA. The marked juxtaposition between the criticism of the tactics and the results pretty much shows conclusively that the tactics must have been immensely adaptable.

 

I also thought there as great adaptation in '92 when we had to change the team almost every game due to injuries and unfair suspensions. Our squad wasn't even that big and we had to make a lot of use of youngsters like Nesbit and Murray. Durrant was just coming back from injury and was good but not quite his previous self. If we had McCoist and Hateley for every game then I think there's a good chance we'd have beaten Brugge and CSKA and made the final.

 

I think everyone liked Advocaat in his 1st two seasons managing us. We played nice football, were successful at home and in europe beating some of europes best at the time.

 

By the way, I'm talking about adapting formations and tactics during the game.

 

I remember playing Kilmarnock at Ibrox under Advocaat. It was 0-0 going into the 2nd half and we had a player sent off, I think it was Porrini. Advocaat brought off a midfielder and stuck on another attacker. We ended up winning the match 2-0. I think that's successfully adapting a formation.

 

I could trot off another few but won't because already I know we won't agree.

[pete 2,499]

I can honestly see us getting 4 points from the remaining 3 games. I fancy us to get a draw in Turkey and think Man Utd could be beaten at Ibrox.

 

If they have already qualified then Fergie will field a reserve team.

[Gazza_8 233]

They won't have already qualified though which is a bummer.

[ian1964 10,416]

Rangers are not the only ones who can feel relieved about the fact their performance at Old Trafford has turned out to be a building block rather than a precedent.

 

If there was plenty of praise for their defensive discipline and workrate in chiselling out a goalless Champions League draw against Manchester United last month, it didn’t come without a shudder running up the spine. Was this the only way they could survive in Europe?

 

It seemed that Walter Smith’s gameplan would be an unchanging five at the back in all six group games, camping his team in their own half and hoping to steal a goal from maybe one chance per game on the counter-attack. A campaign spent feeding on morsels.

 

Manchester made all-out defending fashionable in Scottish football – the national team took that to its logical conclusion by playing without a striker in Prague – but already there are signs that there can be another way. Hallelujah.

 

Two goals against Spain at Hampden were followed by Rangers’ eye-opening performance against Valencia on Wednesday night. Here was evidence that a team with plenty of Scots – six of them were in Smith’s team at Ibrox – can compete against one of the best sides in Europe through more than simply bedding in their own penalty box and defending for dear life.

 

Rangers’ defending wasn’t an end in itself, as it had been at Old Trafford. It was the base from which they had the courage to attack. The confidence they drew from holding Manchester United and then beating Bursaspor has resulted in them emerging from the cowering position they were reduced to by beatings from Unirea Urziceni, Stuttgart and Sevilla last season. Maurice Edu and Steven Davis may have been key personnel for them against Valencia, but so too were the Scots: Allan McGregor, Davie Weir, Steven Whittaker, Steven Naismith, Kenny Miller and Ricky Foster.

 

“We’ve heard all the stuff about us parking the bus,” said Weir afterwards. “Well, hopefully, people will have looked at the Valencia game and realised we can play a bit.”

 

In fact, the bursting counter-attacks of Naismith, Davis, Edu and Miller were not especially surprising. The shock came in that they could mount so many of them without the defence being exposed. Neither Rangers nor Scotland can be cavalier while Weir remains an essential member of the teams – his inevitable lack of pace determines that they must play deep, and that drags the midfield back too – but Tuesday demonstrated that a side can play five at the back and still launch repeated and dangerous attacks if they have quick and hard-working midfielders and forwards. It needn’t be the effective but unedifying shift seen at Old Trafford.

 

Rangers needed that performance back on September 14, though. It allowed them to return with far, far more than a single Champions League point. Here was a group of players beaten and mocked during six winless matches in the tournament last season. Suddenly, the same unit was holding its own with one of the tournament favourites. It was a relentlessly defensive display from which they emerged to beat Bursaspor and then, creating even more chances, draw with Valencia. The fact that they had 19 attempts on goal on Wednesday was incredible.

 

Still, regardless of the feelgood factor legitimately swirling around the club about possibly holding on to second place in Group C and qualifying with Manchester United, the key statistic may be that only one of the 19 resulted in a goal and that it was not a winner. Anyone with even a cursory knowledge of Smith could not have been remotely surprised by the way he took out a pail of cold water and doused down some of the exaggerated claims being made on behalf of his Rangers side the other night. Smith wasn’t being curmudgeonly or contrary when he downplayed his team’s prospects. Rather, it was the natural reaction of a manager who has been here, and been wounded, before.

 

Today Rangers are on five points halfway through their group campaign and are perfectly entitled to crow about the fact they have beaten the champions of Turkey and remain unbeaten against the two best sides in the section. Five points from an available nine amounts to a hugely satisfying platform. But they have been down this route before, only for their hopes to turn to ashes.

 

In 2007 they beat Stuttgart, and then Lyon, and then held a formidable Barcelona team at Ibrox: seven points from nine. Many claimed they were home and hosed. What happened next? They didn’t take another point.

 

Something similar happened to what many would consider a far more technically gifted Rangers side under Dick Advocaat in 2000. They beat Sturm Graz 5-0 then won in Monaco to have six points after two games. They only added two more from their remaining four fixtures. As Davis said at the start of this week, each of Rangers’ remaining games in this campaign have the potential to deliver a defeat.

 

Smith knows that five points from three games might soon become five from four, then five from five. Their next two games are against Valencia in Spain and then against Manchester United at Ibrox. Even the last game in the section, away against Bursaspor, contains quiet menace. It would be a surprise if the Turks don’t take a point somewhere in the campaign.

 

If Valencia win their next two games, against Rangers and Bursaspor, they would be on 10 points. In that event Rangers would need to beat United at Ibrox and Bursaspor in Turkey to finish above them. Valencia openly fancy themselves to have replaced the Scottish champions in second place by the time the group is finished.

 

Still, Smith knows Rangers are far better placed than they or others expected. They have coped with one of the best teams in England, one of the best in Spain, and the best of all from Turkey. They won’t be worried about a wee dose of realism about the challenge still ahead.

 

http://www.heraldscotland.com/sport/spl/rangers/rangers-entitled-to-crow-after-excellent-first-half-of-champions-league-campaign-but-walter-smith-will-be-realistic-about-challenges-ahead-1.1063052