When it comes to Champions League heartache and Rangers, Gio van Bronckhorst believes it’s better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all.
He’s also clearly a glass half-full kind of guy and a manager who believes in a sense of perspective. Not even being one defeat away from racking up the worst group-stage performance in history has deterred the Ibrox boss from embracing everything about Europe’s elite competition. It’s clear he would prefer to suffer against the best than be downgraded into the more forgiving Europa League environment.
As Aberdeen come calling today for a Premiership clash which has all the ingredients to crank up the pressure on him, Van Bronckhorst is adamant that striving to compete at the top will never be pointless. He said: “I can never say to my guys: ‘Let’s qualify for the Europa League, don’t try to be in the Champions League.’ It’s impossible.
“Of course it has been tough but you are also seeing what the highest level in Europe will take from you as a player. It’s a very good experience to play at the level we are playing now. It’s always better to play against good opponents because you will learn a lot.
“The positive side is you have the experience of playing at the highest level against the best in Europe. The other side is that you are losing games so mentally you have to make sure you cope with that.
“That’s what we are doing at the moment. I always try to reach the highest level possible. It’s against my nature to say, ‘Guys, let’s not qualify for the Champions League next season. Let’s go for the Europa League, that’s better for us.’
“(It’s like) a nation who qualifies for the World Cup for the first time in 20-30 years and then they are out in the first round. People say, yes, they are out in the first round. They congratulate you, you have qualified for the World Cup and then we are complaining that they are out in the first round, playing against Argentina and Brazil.”
Rangers are without a point in Group A with a 3-0 loss at Napoli the latest defeat to be inflicted on a side which has also been suffering domestically. Van Bronckhorst offered some mitigating factors for the form slump with injuries and calibre of opposition but claimed the endurance test would serve him well in the long-term.
He said: “It’s the level in Europe we are facing and sometimes people forget to put it into perspective. Which competition are we playing? Sometimes that is difficult to understand but overall I am always positive, I have learned from experiences as a coach.
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“I once lost seven games in a row, that was without the Champions League. We have to keep going. We are in a situation where we miss many influential players but that happens.
“Take the lessons we have learned from all the games in the Champions League to our league games. Those are positives we have to take with us.
“That’s what my players did at the beginning of the season, playing against Union (Saint-Gilloise), playing against PSV and overcoming those two to be in the Champions League.
“To be not 70, not 80 but 90 minutes in the game and be sharp and not making mistakes. Every mistake you make in the Champions League, it’s a goal. It adds to the challenge.”
The Dutchman delivered a Scottish Cup last season as well as taking Rangers to the Europa League Final. And football’s changeable nature gives him hope that his players can still succeed in this campaign.
He said: “Some will look for a negative, others a positive. We are two points better off than this time last year, we’ve qualified for the Champions League after 12 years and we have reached a Europa League Final. I’m looking at what we have already achieved and what we might still achieve.
“Europe is different, the Champions League is a different level than we are used to. But we are still competing for the title and we are through to the semi-final of the League Cup. There are so many positive things to look forward to.”
When Van Bronckhorst was on that seven-game losing streak at Feyenoord, he coped with by using the same methods he’s adopting at Rangers now. He said: “We have to concentrate on the way we work, that’s what I did during that period. You keep sticking to your beliefs and don’t change a lot. Most of the time, big changes like that don’t help. I am confident in the way I work, the way I train, the way I prepare my team, my tactics.
“I have been successful with my teams. Why do I have to change? I am confident in the relationship I have with my players. They are working hard.”
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