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Joe Rothwell looks to have set Rangers’ stall out as they endeavour to capitalise on their two-goal first leg lead over Panathinaikos in the Champions League qualifiers.
‘Obviously, we won’t be looking to defend it,’ said the midfielder in the wake of last week’s win at Ibrox. ‘We’ll try and go out there and win the game and score as many goals as we can.’
Look, there’s a school of thought which states he has to say that. Has to accentuate the positive. Has to keep hammering home the message from the top that this is going to be a Rangers team that has its own style and standards and will stick to its guns no matter what.
Like he said himself, Rothwell is a known quantity for head coach Russell Martin and is there, to a great degree, to show the other players how the former Southampton and Norwich boss wants things done.
If Rangers were a more cohesive unit, if the signings were done and dusted and the players had benefited from time getting to know each other, maybe they could go to Athens and be a bit more expressive, a bit more front-foot.
Panathinaikos are no great shakes. Competent, but nothing special. They showed a real lack of composure at key stages and in key areas in the opening leg and lost their way completely after defender Giorgios Vagianiddis had been sent off for a second bookable offence just before the hour.
Russell Martin and James Tavernier applaud the Ibrox crowd after the Panathinaikos win
Findlay Curtis was the unlikely hero with the opening goal in a win that surprised many
The red card received by Greek defender Giorgios Vagianiddis was a huge boon to Rangers
It came as a surprise to many — including yours truly — that a home side short on proper friendlies and with key performers lacking fitness and game time delivered such an important win. For all that, though, they looked nothing like a side ready to head into difficult terrain and go gung-ho for victory the way Rothwell suggests.
Over and above the evident difficulties in keeping possession, Rangers were too open down the flanks in the first half. New signing Nasser Djiga looked short of match action and almost sold the jerseys in the second period when losing the ball directly in front of goal.
Were it not for three strong saves from goalkeeper Jack Butland, it could have been an entirely different affair.
In players such as Filip Duricic and Facundo Pellistri, the Greeks do have players capable of creating danger and direct enough to ask hard questions — particularly in front of their own supporters.
Be sure, this still has the potential to be a very uncomfortable night for Martin in Athens’ Olympic Stadium and, rather than being an occasion in which to go out all guns blazing, it feels more like an opportunity for him to show that he is willing and able to just dig out the results required by any means necessary.
He has the reputation of being one of those guys whose idea of Plan B is to do Plan A better. However, that’s not going to wash long-term at Rangers. In Europe, specifically, his side is not going to be able to dominate matches the way he wants. They are going to come up against stronger, better-resourced opposition and be challenged to show their adaptability in overcoming that.
Djeidi Gassama made an eye-catching impact from the bench with the second goal
Going deep in UEFA competition, admittedly, isn’t the priority this season. Making a fist of it in the league against champions Celtic is what’s required, first and foremost, to give Martin a platform to build from during his initial three-year contract.
Bringing in cash from Europe is important, though, and that involves making the group stage in at least one of the competitions. Seeing this out against Panathinaikos from such an advantageous position would make that a given.
Even if Rangers lost to Servette or Viktoria Plzen in the third qualifying round of the Champions League, they would parachute straight into the Europa League group stage as a result of being part of the tournament’s League Path.
Let this slip against Panathinaikos, though, and Rangers are looking at a perilous third qualifying round match-up with Ukrainians Shakhtar Donetsk — 4-2 up on Besiktas from the first leg in Turkey — in the secondary competition. It stands to reason, then, that there is a heck of a lot riding on events in Athens on Wednesday night.
And Rangers are going to have to be a lot more solid than they were in the early exchanges of the home game. The defence was shaky. James Tavernier had a torrid opening period while Max Aarons on the other side is never a left-back in a month of Sundays.
It looks like he’ll have to muddle through for now, but Martin really has to recruit in that position and move the on-loan Bournemouth player to his natural right side.
Max Aarons looked uncomfortable in a left-back role, highlighting the need for reinforcements
Djiga and John Souttar remain the best options in the middle while Rothwell, in front of them, needs to be on it from the beginning.
The former Leeds man received rave reviews for his display in the first leg and did come onto a game, showing he has the abilities to dictate the play and the tempo, but it took him time to find his feet. He has the look of a potential captain if and when Tavernier dips out of the team and this is a real occasion in which to exhibit that.
There needs to be a laser-like focus throughout the side from the off on Wednesday that was missing last midweek. There will have to be changes up front too. Speed on the counter will be important and Djeidi Gassama, hugely exciting in his scoring cameo, being fit enough to play a greater role would be a bonus.
Danilo, meanwhile, can’t start through the centre again. He has been a bit-part player throughout his time at Rangers and is destined to remain so. Hamza Igamane or Cyriel Dessers have to lead the line if remotely fit.
Whatever the line-up, mind you, everyone has to be ready to get down and dirty to eke out what’s required. Including the head coach.
Thundering into guaranteed group-stage football the way Rothwell describes would be lovely. Right now, though, it feels a little unrealistic and, in the longer-term, it’s a philosophy that is going to have to be tweaked and made a little more pragmatic depending on the quality of the opposition.
Joe Rothwell settled into the game and did enough to suggest he will be a key man at Ibrox
Martin still needs to win over a Rangers support that, on the whole, seemed unconvinced by his appointment. He needs to show he is a safe pair of hands, a guy who can bring himself to put the getting of the result ahead of the personal philosophies when required.
He needs to prove, because this is what his tenure is ultimately going to be judged on, that he can get the job done when there is a huge prize on the line. No matter how demanding the conditions. This looks like an ideal place to start.
United's Scot-free line-up is their business
Dundee United owner Mark Ogren is on record as stating that the academy is ‘the cornerstone’ of his club.
Sure, he said it a while ago and things do change in the merry whirl of our national obsession, but it still isn’t a great look for the American that the Tannadice club kicked off their competitive campaign in midweek against UNA Strassen without a single Scot in the line-up.
Considering manager Jim Goodwin also said in the summer of 2024 that ‘you don’t want to be bringing in too many foreign players because it takes time to settle in’, that starting XI against the Luxembourg outfit has caused a bit of a stushie.
Didn’t the legendary Jim McLean base his giantkilling in UEFA competitions on homegrown talent, after all? Well, yes, he did. But we are living in a different world now.
The post-Brexit environment means so many younger Scottish players are being poached by English clubs — often before they’ve even played a first-team game. Guys such as Goodwin will also say there is greater value to be had by shopping abroad and it’s difficult to disagree.
Dundee United's all-foreign starting XV pose for the team photo before kick-off
For all his trials and tribulations at Aberdeen, Bojan Miovski and Ylber Ramadani were signed under his watch there. They cost maybe £600,000 all-in and ended up being sold for something just short of £8million.
If United can replicate that kind of business with some of the guys brought in recently, there won’t be many complaints.
We’d all love to see more Scots kids getting their chance in the Premiership, but it isn’t that simple and our clubs are businesses perfectly entitled to do what they want. Their only obligations are to themselves.
The grumping and groaning over United’s midweek line-up just feels a bit simplistic, but it does become a bit more difficult to justify playing teams full of imports if they still can’t see off minnows from Luxembourg.
Let’s just say a better display than they delivered in Thursday’s one-goal home win over Strassen will be essential in this week’s return in the Grand Duchy if this conversation over Tannadice’s Foreign Legion isn’t to gather steam.
Ajax hosing exposes harsh truths at Celtic
For a minute during the week, it looked like Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers was out to pour cold water on the suggestion he might not be exactly cock-a-hoop at the way the transfer window is unfolding.
Callum McGregor and Co react after their humbling defeat at the hands of Ajax in Como
Everyone signed by the club arrives on his say-so, he said. Any suggestion guys were arriving that he didn’t fancy or didn’t know about was scotched. It felt like an attempt to put out some fires.
Then, after a 5-1 hosing from Ajax in the Como Cup, he’s out demanding that the board has to show ambition in the market.
Sorry to sound like a stuck record, but it is becoming clearer by the minute here that Celtic really need to get their finger out.
We’re just a week away from their league curtain-raiser and Yang Hyun-jun, of all people, is being bigged-up as a go-to guy, a star man, a key part of the puzzle. Jeepers Creepers.
