By Lee Clark

‘Rangers remain unbeaten to qualify for the knock out stages with a game to spare’

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Those are the words I fully expected to write after last night’s home tie with Aris Limassol, in fact I was also expecting to talk about an energetic and emphatic victory over the Cypriot side who had only picked up points in one game from four in the Europa League group stages. Whilst I can still use the sentence and it’s remains technically correct, the context is very different after a disappointing 1-1 draw sees Europa League qualification very much in the balance.

First half sub (more of that later) Ross McCausland capped a fine week as a Ranger, netting the equaliser early in the second half just a few days after putting pen to paper on a new deal with the Club, to secure Europa Conference League knock out football (as a minimum) for the Ibrox side. That was scant consolation for the near capacity Ibrox crowd, who watched their team blow a golden opportunity for the second time in four days.

Before the game, the objective was clear: win and Rangers would qualify for the knock-out phase of the Europa League for the fourth time in five seasons but, more than that, just prior to kick-off news filtered through that Betis had stumbled in Prague and the talk wasn’t just about qualifying, it was about only needing a draw to top the group and if the manager would be able to rest players ahead of a Cup Final. That might seem laughable to many but, I don’t think it occurred to anyone that we could play that badly again against this Aris side, and that victory would be a mere formality. How wrong were we?

That being said, this optimism was far from ‘blind’. Having faced fierce criticism from the support and from within their own dressing room this season, the players had serious questions to answer following the departure of Michael Beale and whilst there has admittedly been some average performances (not least that first half on Sunday), there has been a marked improvement and with the team yet to taste defeat under the new gaffer, there was a lot to be positive about.

We have gained ground in the title race (albeit not as much as we should have) and were one win away from Europa League knock-out football, something I don’t think anyone could see coming after that shocking defeat in Cyprus, which incidentally was the last time this group of players tasted defeat. There is also the small matter of a Cup Final to look forward to, the week before Christmas and whilst Sunday was disappointing, I don’t think anyone could fault the players for effort in the second half.

There was a nervousness around the stadium pre-game. Despite there being no real surprises in personnel, the realisation that Rangers would be without Goldson and Balogun for such a crucial tie was a cause for concern, as was the managers decision to continue with Todd Cantwell in a wide role and the frustrating Sam Lammers in from the start again over Tom Lawrence, who had performed very well since his return from injury. For many Bluenoses this Rangers squad offer so much more of a threat with wide players included, and it was a surprise that Matondo or McCausland didn’t get the nod.

One thing is clear with this manager though, he leaves no stone unturned and after the aforementioned (good) start, he has bought more than a little goodwill and the game kicked off, with a raucous Ibrox, which was packed to the rafters, hoping for a much more urgent start than the one we seen at Pittodrie. Post-game the manager commented on Rangers’ ‘good start’ but, I’m not sure I seen that and within a few minutes and a Lammers fresh-air swipe it was clear this was to be a long night.

The frustrations from the stands grew and when Aris took the lead on 28 minutes, Ibrox turned toxic as Clement decided he had seen enough of Todd Cantwell and promptly hooked him for McCausland to a chorus of boos. I’ll say straight away that Cantwell’s part in this was silly in the extreme. He has been far from his best this season and needlessly gave the ball away in the lead up to the Aris goal. I get that he was frustrated and I absolutely understand the guy wants to badly win for the team but, when you petulantly bite back at the Manager, as he did, there is only going to be one winner. Phil Clement addressed the situation post-match:

I had to make a change early, which I never like to do but we were missing width on the right side and we were missing depth too because we didn’t have players running in behind the defence or being high enough. I gave Todd this message a few times but, he was coming inside all the time so I decided to make the change. I know Todd’s best position is elsewhere and in the number ten role but, in the last few weeks he has shown really good moments (in this position) and I’ve been really happy with him. Against Prague, for example he was very effective and decisive. We have also been in a situation where we haven’t had a lot of players available in that position. Scott Wright was unavailable for example and Ross is coming from the academy, taking his first steps and he is not ready to shine every three days for 90 minutes. Rabbi has also been injured.

There is no getting away from the fact that this week has been a deflating one as a Rangers fan and ending up in the Europa Conference League knock out stages will offer very little comfort to any of us. It feels like two massive chances missed and the crowd certainly let the players and manager know. Being objective for a second though (which is hard to do after such a poor display I admit), this is a season that had promised so much after how the team finished last term and it looked set to completely unravel after home defeats to Aberdeen and Celtic as well as a mauling to PSV in the Champions League qualifier.

It was a manic couple of weeks, prior to Phil’s arrival, that saw the departure of Michael Beale and his entire backroom team, along with an absolute horror show away to last night’s opponents in Cyprus under interim management, the Rangers support had all but resigned themselves to another season of abject misery. Whilst Clement was the number one choice for a huge portion of the Ibrox faithful, not in our wildest dreams could we have thought we would be ten games down the line, since that awful display in Cyprus, having only conceded 5 goals, be back in the title race and now have the dilemma of whether to rest players in an away European tie where we can actually win the group, in order to prepare for a Cup Final. On that very subject, the gaffer had this to say:

It’s still a few weeks away and for me to have time to think and to look at the situation in the team at that time. It’s been an interesting time for us with players who were injured (and are returning) and players who get injured (and a are now unavailable). We need everyone to be at their top level and we still have everything to win there. We already have European football secured but, we want to go there and end this qualifying campaign by winning the group.  

My own take, mirrors that of the manager. I just don’t believe we have a group of players that are good enough for us to be able to make too many changes for games such as that. Steven Gerrard got caught out with that at St Mirren a few years ago and Gio proved that a team can get two big results within a few days of each other, as we did against Leipzig and Celtic in the Europa League and Scottish Cup Semi’s. Let’s not forget we have also played our strongest team against Aberdeen twice this season and failed to win. Of course there are certain players who simply won’t manage two games in as many days and a change in the starting XI will be inevitable but it’s simple: we play the strongest team available at the time, qualify for the last 16 and then go on to win the Cup. I appreciate people will be wondering just how much I’ve had to drink tonight as I say that but, I genuinely believe we are in good hands with this manager. He is meticulous in everything he does without giving too much away in the process and for all I’m disappointed, we still have a bio opportunity to put this right.

Hopefully it all works out just as easy as that!

Lee Clark