An interesting wee article...

[stewarty 1,876]

http://sport.scotsman.com/football.cfm?id=1752812006

 

EAN-CLAUDE Hamel, president of Auxerre since 1963, stubbed out his umpteenth cigarette and threw up his arms in dismay. The French team's goalkeeper, Fabien Cool, had just hoofed another long ball up-field and Rangers had regained possession. Cool's opposite number, Allan McGregor, kept rolling it out to a defender when he had the ball as the Scottish side looked to build from the back in spite of the soggy conditions underfoot and a pitch that was cutting up badly all over.

 

"There's something not right here, it's as if the world's been turned upside down," Hamel growled as he turned towards me. "How can it be that a Scottish team is playing a style of football more continental than ours?"

Without realising it, Hamel had neatly summed up the topsy-turvy season Rangers are experiencing under Paul le Guen. The Frenchman, back on his home soil as manager of a foreign club for the first time since his summer move to Glasgow, is working on changing the way Rangers play, as well as changing some off-field habits too. It's a task perhaps akin to what his countryman Arsene Wenger - a man Le Guen is often compared to back in France - undertook with such success at Arsenal a decade ago. The result of Le Guen and his French staff's labours so far is that Rangers look better-suited to European football than the rough and tumble of the SPL.

 

As the venerable Auxerre president remarked, with admiration, Rangers kept trying to play decent football even with the rain bucketing down and conditions becoming more and more treacherous, even after the home side had started to resort to the long-ball style that Auxerre fans think Scottish football is all about. The reward for Rangers' perseverance came in the form of Kris Boyd's equaliser and the point gleaned from the 2-2 draw was enough to ensure European football after Christmas for the blue side of Glasgow, just 48 hours after Celtic made sure of a place in the next phase of the Champions League. The UEFA Cup is, obviously, less glamorous. But the marvellous travelling Rangers fans who sang their hearts out in the Burgundy rain on Thursday - often drowning out the home support - will take whatever crumbs of comfort are going in this transition season.

 

So, well done Rangers for getting through, but what did we learn from the trip to France apart from the fact it rains there, too? Firstly, that Le Guen's patience with the otherwise ineffectual Boyd paid off, that Libor Sionko is looking more and more like a player with a first-team future and, of course, that the Rangers defence continues to provide us with heart-stopping moments. This was their second away game in the competition and the second time they conceded two goals.

 

Auxerre's first came from a defender's simple lump forwards, but neither Karl Svensson nor Brahim Hemdani were alert to the danger, leaving smart Polish forward Ireneusz Jelen free to slot past an exposed McGregor. When Jelen put over a neat cross in the second half, a similar ball-watching scenario allowed substitute Daniel Niculae to head home from close range. Watched by former Auxerre and Rangers keeper Lionel Charbonnier, McGregor made some great saves and deserved better cover, as captain Barry Ferguson made clear in an agitated post-match interview.

 

Ferguson had an excellent game, leading by example, and his commitment here couldn't be questioned. Throughout the game, though, he showed repeated signs of irritation with his team-mates, often haranguing them or simply throwing his arms up in the air in desperation. At times you could sympathise with him - he was running his socks off and not always getting the runs or support he expected - but you do feel that he would be better off sometimes offering a word of encouragement instead. As captain, Ferguson needs to be pulling the players together rather than fostering division and offering advice rather than storming off at the end of the game to lambast his colleagues.

 

Jeremy Clement is a case in hand. The young Frenchman has shown much promise in his first few months at the club, but is still on a learning curve. Against Auxerre, he failed to provide much support for Ferguson's thrusting runs, often staying back in front of his defence even as Rangers attacked and Auxerre left only one man up. A word in Clement's ear from Ferguson might have helped resolve that situation. That's the sort of thing a good captain should be doing.

[Gazza_8 233]

Good article that and nice to see a foreign chairman saying nice things about our style of play. It's good to know that PLGs hardwork is being noticed even if it's not by the blindfolded Scottish mhedia.

 

Also, love the wee loan advert in that article too Stewarty!

[stewarty 1,876]

Good article that and nice to see a foreign chairman saying nice things about our style of play. It's good to know that PLGs hardwork is being noticed even if it's not by the blindfolded Scottish mhedia.

 

Also, love the wee loan advert in that article too Stewarty!

 

Glad you spotted the deliberate mistake! You weren't joking about laying off the booze this weekend, eh!

[Guest loyal and blue]

I hope he is right because agood team will score six we have to hold on to the little improvements in other areas because there is none in central defence

[bmck 117]

i really think we cant deny that the standard of football, when we actually play it, is better than much of what we've seen in a long while.

[Gribz 743]

Some good key points in that article.

 

The first one that jumped out at me is "Le Guen' patience". I agree he is being very patient but the last couple of weeks have shown promise that it may pay off.

 

The second encouraging point was Sionko is looking like a player. Im a fan of him and would like to see him play RM for a good run of games.

 

The defence we all know about, but 3 clean sheets in a row in the SPL can only being them confidence.

 

Lastly, I agree that Ferguson should maybe put an arm round team mates at times rather than going off on one. I can understand getting frustrated but maybe he should try another approach when on the public eye and keep the ranting to closed doors.

[calscot 0]

Seeing as Auxerre got their first goal from a hoof up the park, I don't think you can really criticise them for trying to exploit a dodgy defence by doing the same for the rest of the game...

 

I think it's a good point about Barry. If I'm playing and a better player or captain keeps criticising and moaning at me, I'm likely to get pissed off, demovitated and then lose confidence and start to get nervous about doing the wrong thing. I play well and with more confidence with a better player giving me advice, constructive criticism, encouragement and the odd bit of praise.