The jubilation of qualifying for the Champions League soon turned to trepidation when the draw was made and we were faced with the prospect of three of Europe’s toughest challenges.
The opening three games have done little to calm nerves for the three games still to go.
Speaking after our 4-0 win over St Mirren though, Giovanni van Bronckhorst remains positive about getting points on the board in our remaining fixtures and that α different approach needs to be adopted, as reported by The Daily Record:
“It’s a big test against a good team but of course, we need to have a different approach because if we want to continue our run in Europe then we have to get points out of our remaining games so that means you need to have a positive approach.
“We are strong at home on a European night as we showed against Napoli when it took three penalties and a red card before we conceded. We will prepare really well to face a really good and strong opponent but we need something out of the game.
“We have to be brave and we were in second-half moments because we were defending one on one almost all over the pitch because we were pressing high. In the moments we won the ball we could have been more dangerous because it was only in the last 10, 15 minutes of the game. We have to try to be dangerous and create chances earlier.”
One of the problems that we have had against both Ajax and Liverpool is that we conceded goals early. Away from home, against good sides, going behind places enormous pressure on the players to be brave and to continue to try to execute α game plan. As we showed against Napoli, getting to half-time level and still in the game makes α huge difference.
The belief was there against Napoli and you get the feeling that this team, despite getting to the Europa League final, just needs α goal to give them that confidence boost that they can compete at this level.
Hopefully, Gio is α man of his word and sets us up to be positive, α mindset that I’ve always thought suits this team more than trying to contain.