ALLY McCOIST believes that his old club can take advantage of Liverpool’s creaking defence and secure a positive result against the Premier League outfit tomorrow night.
Rangers host Jurgen Klopp’s side on matchday four of the Champions League group stages knowing that a defeat would leave them on the verge of elimination from European football altogether.
McCoist wants to see Rangers adopt an attacking strategy for the contest in Govan and the former Scotland internationalist believes that the Reds’ defence isn’t as strong as it once was.
Liverpool have conceded 17 goals in 11 games in all competitions this term and McCoist hopes to see his former team get the ball out wide quickly to allow the likes of Ryan Kent to take on their opponents in one v one situations.
“It will be interesting to see what [Klopp] does with his team because Liverpool are not firing,” he said. “I actually thought they played all right on Sunday [when they lost 3-2 to Arsenal], I thought they played fine.
“I thought Liverpool played well for the last half-hour of the first half and they are a great side. But they are not defending anything like the way they did when we were all raving about them.
“They have got a great goalkeeper but [Virigil] van Dijk has not reached the form – and it is very unfair to pick on him – but you have got to say he is not quite the player that he was before his injury. He will get back to it, I don’t have any doubt because he is top class.
“They miss [Andy] Robertson too. I like [Konstaninos] Tsimikas but I definitely think they miss Robertson. I would be happy with [Joel] Matip in there and there are question marks over Trent [Alexander-Arnold] defensively.
“So there are encouraging signs there that if you can pose problems… the one thing I would say is that in the home game, I thought Jordan Henderson did really well covering for Trent, anytime Rangers got the ball he was back and sitting in there.
“The good thing about the game at Ibrox is that Liverpool will have a go. They aren’t going to come and sit back and say, ‘right, let’s see what you’ve got’. So I am hoping that, perhaps on the counter or in general play, Rangers can get their wide players on the ball in one v one situations and try and commit people.
“Get the ball to Kent as quickly as you can. I was watching the Arsenal-Liverpool game on Sunday night and I saw [Takehiro] Tomiyasu just get the ball and bang – he fired it to [Gabriel] Martinelli right away.
“He didn’t mess about. He got it to the wide man as quickly as possible and gave him as much time as he could. If you take one or two touches the defence have more time to organise. You have got to move the ball quickly and get it to the wide players as quickly as possible.”
Ally McCoist was speaking at the launch of William Hill’s newly transformed, state-of-the-art shop on Gordon Street, Glasgow.
