If there was one thing we absolutely guaranteed under Steven Gerrard, it was that despite our previous inability to usurp Celtic two seasons ago, the manager had the European Midas Touch, and our performances and results in the Europa League were spectacular.
We got scalps galore – Galatasaray, Feyenoord, Porto, Vienna, Braga, Liege – some very decent sides fell at Stevie’s hands and we got draws against sides we might actually have beaten like Porto again, Benfica and Young Boys.
This kept going and we hit the last 16 two seasons in a row.
It’s just different this time around.
No goals at this level, no heart, lacking tactics, and the European spark so evident in previous seasons is absolutely gone.
The Malmo debacle before Rangers scraped through against the mediocre Alashkert rather summed up where this European season is going – four defeats now in Europe in 6 matches is easily SG’s worst European season as Rangers boss, having only ever previously lost never more than 3 90 minute matches in any one European campaign total. 3 goals in the whole campaign too.
The European gold dust Gerrard had at this level before is completely gone, with last night being the perfect showcase to pull off a big result, even a draw.
But such an outcome was miles away, and the loss should have been heavier.
If this manager doesn’t figure a solution soon, this Rangers team is going to go from hero to zero very quickly.
Along with its boss. The last 32 already looks miles off, never mind the last 16.
It was lacking committment , desire and worst of all ideas. Yes Bassey was awfully exposed , yes Tav and Barasic were poor and ineffective , crossing stats terrible. Bacuna not match ready , mistake. Kamara shouldn’t have played the whole game , should have been dubbed after the booking . Why Morelos our top goal scorer on the bench ? Roofe and Sakala , could they play any further apart FFS.
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