Gio van Bronckhorst reckons Wednesday night’s Champions League clash with Napoli is huge when it comes to Rangers’ hopes of continuing their European journey this season.
But the Ibrox boss should be well aware the 90 minutes in Naples could also be massive in terms of his own path at the club. Van Bronckhorst is well aware of the pressure he is under. He’s spoken candidly about it and while talking about his Gers predecessor Steven Gerrard getting the boot at Aston Villa and the general precarious nature of football management, the subtext was clear.
He knows Rangers need to shake themselves out of this tailspin or he will be left trading war stories with Stevie G. It already looks like the club hero is approaching the end of the road with the boos and jeers from the Ibrox stands in the last week after the laboured cup win over Championship Dundee and Premiership draw with Livingston. Reaching the Champions League through the qualifiers was an outstanding achievement.
But now it could end up costing van Bronckhorst his job. Rangers celebrated getting to the big boys’ playground but have found out it’s full of nasty bullies who don’t let you get a shot on the swings.
Napoli is the last thing Van Bronckhorst needs right now. He simply can’t afford for his side to be toyed with in Italy. Another heavy doing and it could be curtains for his reign.
The Dutchman is trying not to think about the bigger picture but while he talked in terms of Europe, a couple of words here and there and it could have been about him personally. He said: “It’s big. If we want to continue in the Europa League then we need to get something out of the game, with the other result going our way. This is our last chance.
“It’s going to be hard, but we are going to try. It’s a tough tournament but it’s a really good opportunity to change it. We need to get our form back, play better and more aggressive. It’s time to act and it has to start at Napoli.”
Last chance? It could be in more ways than one. The problems everyone could see at Rangers, back when Ajax and Celtic were running amok and then Liverpool brutally exposed, have not gone away. If anything they have got worse.
Confidence in the final third looks shot to pieces and no one can figure out what this Rangers team is trying to do. Gers legend Mark Hateley can see it. Or rather, he can’t, which is exactly the problem. After the 1-1 draw with Livi, Hateley said: “There’s a real lack of imagination.
“It’s a bad, bad performance and a bad, bad result to be taking into the Champions League. Rangers haven’t got an identity at the moment. You know how Celtic are going to play. You know they will be on the front foot, playing through the lines.
“But you look at this performance from Rangers. The fans are not daft. They’ve seen good stuff, bad stuff, mediocre stuff. But they are not seeing any sort of routine to any game. It’s just not happening.”
It certainly doesn’t help that even while Celtic’s style may cause them some problems, they are definitely not dull. Rangers, in contrast, have become human sleeping tablets.
Hateley believes the side needs characters on the pitch driving the standards. The fans reckon the man on the sidelines should be showing the way – and are no longer shy about letting him know it. Van Bronckhorst won’t ignore it.
In fairness, he admits he’d be tempted to boo as well at times. But he’s the one in the firing line and said: “I understand them and we will work hard to overturn it. It’s understandable that they show their frustration. They want their team to be successful and playing well and when that’s not happening you will get criticised.
“We need to take that as it’s their voice and the fans are so important for every club. We need to make sure we give them the moments to be positive. In the last couple of games we didn’t do that.”
There’s also an understanding of what’s going wrong from within the changing room. Skipper James Tavernier was wheeled out to say sorry for getting done on the way to the opener and for the result.
And he admitted: “It’s not good enough dropping points in any game, especially at home. Some of the play was slow, not moving the ball quickly and we could be a lot better with our combinations around the box.”
It’s one thing knowing the problem but it’s another whether van Bronckhorst will be around long enough to fix it.
