Fortune favours the brave, they say, and Giovanni van Bronckhorst is hoping a bold approach against Liverpool might just offer Rangers a change in their Champions League luck.
The Ibrox side have reached the halfway stage in their Group A campaign without a goal or a point to their name. Carry that miserable form on when Jurgen Klopp’s Reds pull up in Glasgow on Wednesday and van Bronckhorst’s team can all but forget about looking out their passports in the new year. Say Ajax were to lose both of their games before heading to Ibrox in the section finale.
Another defeat to Liverpool would leave Rangers having to stop sizzling Serie A leaders Napoli at the Stadio Diego Armando
Maradona this month or needing a substantial win over Ajax that wipes out the four-goal mauling dished out in Amsterdam. Neither of those scenarios look likely but if this side can somehow snatch a point or three on Wednesday, it may just offer them something to swing at as they bid to grab a Europa League lifeline.
It’s a tall order but gaffer van Bronckhorst is willing to give it a go. He said: “It is a big test against a good team and they showed that in midweek. We have to have a different approach in this game, especially if we want to continue our run in Europe.
“We have to get points in the three games we have left, so we will have to have a different approach and we have to be positive. We are at home and we have been strong here. We showed that against Napoli.
“It took three penalties and a red card before we conceded the goals. We will prepare well to face a strong opponent but we need to get something from the game. Can we afford to be more high risk? You have to be brave.
“In the second half at Anfield we had moments where we were and had one against one when we pressed high against Liverpool. When we won the ball we could have been more dangerous in the last 10 or 15 minutes. We have to try to be dangerous and create chances earlier in this game.”
Van Bronckhorst will spend the next two days strategising a plan of attack on a Liverpool line-up that exists in another financial realm from Rangers. When Klopp named a starting frontline that consisted of Mo Salah, Luis Diaz, Diogo Jota and Darwin Nunez last Tuesday, he was rolling out an assault battery that had cost the Anfield outfit £187million to assemble.
The options available to van Bronckhorst would struggle to tally up to a tenth of that, so the Dutchman will have to make do and pray they can hit the target. Antonio Colak has certainly had no difficulty doing that in domestic action, while Rabbi Matondo and Fashion Sakala were eager to prove they can provide Rangers’ toothless attack with some bite when they were handed rare run-outs in Saturday’s 4-0 win over St Mirren.
Colak got another double to move to 13 strikes in just 16 appearances for the club while there was a goal as well as an assist for Sakala. All food for thought as van Bronckhorst begins his deliberations for Wednesday. The Dutchman said: “Antonio has started well and the first goal showed his ability to be proactive instead of reactive.
“That’s why he scored the goal, he is on fire in the league with all the goals he is scoring at the moment. That’s what you
want from your strikers and Saturday was a positive game from him. His second goal was good.
“You want your frontline to be dangerous and we were with Antonio, Rabbi, Fashion – who had a good game, he scored a good goal and he was a threat – and then Alfredo Morelos. Will Colak or Morelos play?
"We have two days to prepare for Liverpool and I always look at what the game needs and what we need from the game. I will think about it in the coming days and look to pick a team to get a positive result.”
The Champions League has proven a bigger step up than Gers have so far been able to cope with. But domestically they are again into their stride, having now recorded back-to-back four-goal romps that keeps them on Celtic’s coat-tails.
The manager added: “The most pleasing thing is always the three points but the intention we showed from the first minute to the last was positive.
“We were trying to be dangerous in every attack we made and it was very important for us to do that against a team who have started well in the league. St Mirren can defend well. We had to start with a lot of pressure and get the early goal. That helped us.
“It was a good performance, we wanted to win the game and we were quite dominant. We scored some great goals, we could have scored more.
“But the intention we had was very positive going forward. We tried to create as many chances as we could and that, for me, is very positive.
“The way we started was really good – we tried to score as quickly as possible. We knew St Mirren had started the season well but we had one priority, which was three points, and to score four goals and get a clean sheet was positive. We switch back to the Champions League and it is a great game for us at home.”
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