Brian Laudrup sees no “fun” in this Rangers squad and reckons Napoli away is the last game they need right now.
The boos returned to Ibrox for the second game in succession after they stumbled to a 1-1 home draw against ten-man Livingston. That was just three days after a turgid 1-0 victory over Dundee in the quarter-finals of the Premier Sports Cup. The weekend draw leaves them four points behind Celtic at the top of the Scottish Premiership.
Next up is arguably their toughest test of the season. That’s saying something after Liverpool inflicted a 7-1 humiliation on Gio van Bronckhorst and his team just a couple of weeks ago. Napoli are simply on fire right now. Luciano Spalletti’s men are on an 11-game winning run after victory away at Jose Mourinho’s Roma on Sunday night. They beat Rangers 3-0 at Ibrox back in September and have scored 17 goals in just four group games.
Given his former club’s recent struggles, Laudrup is fearing the worst. He wrote in his Daily Express column: “Right now, I can't think of a worse place in Europe for this struggling Rangers team to be going than the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona.
“There's a case for Napoli being the most in-form side anywhere on the continent. Four wins and 17 goals in the Champions League speaks for itself. But they are also unbeaten in Serie A, where they sit three points clear at the top. Sunday's 1-0 victory away to Roma made it 11 successive wins across all competitions. This is a first-class outfit firing on all cylinders.
“Comparing them to Rangers is like night and day. My old club is stumbling from one lacklustre performance to another. There is no energy, no spark. It's an incredible difference from the positive way last season ended. Five months on, people are talking about whether Giovanni van Bronckhorst should be sacked as manager. Many of the individual contributions from players have plummeted. There doesn't seem to be any fun in the team.
“You look at some of the players and it's as if they are not in love with football right now. It's pretty miserable. Back in the spring, I said that van Bronckhorst should be given the summer transfer window and this season to prove himself on his own terms.
“But I'm not naive about how football works. Nor is van Bronckhorst. If you get booed game after game, if people don't see any signs of improvement, then of course fingers get pointed at the manager and a demand for change begins to grow.
“Directors at any club will feel it. They know that if fans turn against the team and the manager then, at some point, they have to react.
“And they have to react before it's too late to turn a season around. Van Bronckhorst will be aware, just like everyone, that the easiest option for change will always be to get rid of the management team.
“In an ideal world, he would be given time. I still hope that's how things can pan out because it's terrible we're having to talk this way after a European final and Scottish Cup success in May.
“At Rangers, though, it's always about the here and now. And Ibrox feels like a very different place from the heady optimism of the countdown to Seville.
“A week ago, I said it was about this squad limping to the World Cup break with the best results possible, taking a breather, getting players back and going again. But the situation has since intensified because of Saturday's bleak 1-1 draw against Livingston.
“Van Bronckhorst urgently needs to ease the pressure. To do that, I think there has to be something worthwhile within the display against Napoli, not another total collapse as witnessed against Liverpool and then four wins from the remaining Premiership games before the World Cup intervenes.
“Otherwise, if the gap to Celtic grows further, public opinion will just keep getting worse. Fingers crossed, van Bronckhorst will find breathing space.”
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