David Edgar of Heart and Hand Podcast has called out the shambles that was Rangers performance in Belgium last night.
Almost 24 hours later, the disappointment and disgust at the inept display from the team against Union Saint Gilloise is real with the changes of progressing next week at Ibrox in the balance.
The responsibility for that lies squarely within the Rangers dressing room and collectively they have to fix it, starting with a response against Kilmarnock on Saturday on premiership duty ahead of the 3QR decider three days later.
In the aftermath of the 2-0 defeat in Leuven, H&H Podcast stated on the post match report:
“From manager down to the players, everything went wrong”
In the end, although the USG second goal was a dreadful penalty decision, I don’t think anyone with eyes would tell you that it wasn’t a fair reflection of what happened.”
“The manager will take a lot of criticism and deservedly so. He’s got a lot right in Europe but tonight I think he got it wrong, I think he overthought it. He matched up against USG and I understand that when you play against Borussia Dortmund or RB Leipzig but I don’t think it was necessary.”
“To me, they (USG) looked a decent side but no more than that, but Rangers were a shambles.”
Truth
Edgar went on to highlight the flawed 5-2-3 system that was deployed by Gio van Bronckhorst and the deficiencies in Rangers game. Nothin was working but somehow, the manager chose not to make changes at half-time. Baffling.
The three man defence wasn’t tight, with Lundstram wasted on the right side of Goldson. Jack and Kamara were off the pace and non-existent in midfield whilst up top Colak was again, stranded with Tillman and Matondo having limited impact although the former did show glimpses in the first half including a floated cross that should have been headed into the net by Colak.
It’s not all over but the Belgian team will come to Ibrox confident that they can score again. The team have to prevent that and take an agressive attacking approach to get back into the tie. The fans in the stadium will respond and create the atmosphere if Rangers match their energy.
There is a lot on the line with a big job ahead next Tuesday if Rangers are to restore their Champions League chance.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qN5pkKqTL74&ab_channel=HeartandHandPodcast