Gio van Bronckhorst was adamant he had no regrets over the fact Rangers kept the wallet shut on deadline day.
But carry on like this and the stunned Ibrox boss is going to spend plenty of time in the weeks ahead lamenting the failure to properly equip his team for the challenges ahead. As if being pummelled at Parkhead wasn’t bad enough, now there’s the indignity of being annihilated in Amsterdam on their Champions League return.
Having spent 12 years on the outside looking in, the Light Blues can be forgiven for asking themselves just why they were in such a rush to break back into the group stages. They may have more than held their own in the Europa League last year – but they quickly learned UEFA’s top tournament is another level entirely. There could have been two balls on the pitch and van Bronckhorst ’s team would have struggled to get a touch against an Ajax side brimming with class and quality.
Calvin Bassey has taken no time adapting to the standards required by his new Dutch master Alfred Schreuder. The Ibrox old boy barely broke sweat as goals from Edson Alvarez, Steven Berghuis, Mohammed Kudus and Steven Bergwijn gave the Eredivisie champs the easiest of wins.
Ajax were welcomed out the tunnel by a frenzied display of white flags and it wouldn’t be long before Gers were surrendering any hope of a shock win in their Group A opener. The defensive lapses that hurt them so badly at Parkhead were again there for all to see in the Johan Cruyff Arena.
Tormented, twisted and bent all out of shape, this was a brutal lesson in the reality of life amongst the big boys. Rangers were shown up as a team lacking what it takes to cope with Celtic’s rampant firepower during Saturday’s Old Firm dismembering.
Going by this drubbing they are vastly under-equipped for the rigours of taking on Europe’s elite too. Van Bronckhorst has defended the club’s decision not to make any late additions to the seven brought in over the summer, insisting he’s happy with what he’s got.
Right now that looks like wishful thinking at best.They were up against a Dutch outfit that lost £185million’s worth of talent over the summer. But unlike his compatriot, Schreuder had the luxury of being able to reinvest roughly half that sum and the gulf in class was clear.
In the city where Total Football was first conceived, total concentration was required if Rangers were to survive their toughest examination on the continent in more than a decade. Yet it took just 10 minutes for the focus that van Bronckhorst had implored his team to maintain to slip.
Rangers have persisted with the zonal marking that almost cost them dear against PSV in the play-offs. But three weeks on they’ve still not got their heads around it as they allowed Jurrien Timber to run clear when Dusan Tadic whipped in an early corner, with the defender’s header skimming the crossbar.
That should have been a wake-up call as Schreuder’s men swarmed their box. But seven minutes later it was the same chink in the armour that handed Ajax the lead. James Sands had his eyes on Alvarez as Berghuis’ corner came in but the American got nowhere near the Mexican as he climbed to head home.
It was all hands on deck as the Light Blues tried desperately to put the shutters up. Tavernier had the twin threats of Bergwijn and Kudus running at him, while wherever Glen Kamara and John Lundstram turned there were red and white jerseys flooding past.
Perhaps the Scots may have changed the one-sided dynamic had they snuck a goal. But there only hope vanished the second the unmarked Kamara failed to tame an overhit Borna Barisic cross to the back post. Devyne Rensch’s movement off the ball was causing havoc as he repeatedly vanished off the radar and there was a major let-off when he reappeared in front of goal only to fire wide.
But that was about as far as Ajax’s mercy went and it was with killer cool that they stuck the knife in with two goals inside a minute. Berghuis was invited to try his luck on 32 minutes as Lundstram backed off and his strike bounced off Sands and past the wrong-footed McLaughlin. The scale of the mismatch was underlined as Kudus then swatted Tavernier aside like he was a nuisance toddler and arrowed a searing strike past the goalkeeper.
Van Bronckhorst’s shellshocked troops trudged back to the half-way line with memories of their Parkhead pasting flooding back. Yet again they were three down before the break and into damage limitation mode. Tavernier, Scott Wright and Malik Tillman were all kept inside at the break. They should have thanked their boss for the respite.
But that meant Ryan Jack, Rabbi Matondo and youngster Leon King were thrown into the fray. It was akin to being tossed into the lion’s den. At least the breathless pace dropped for a bit, but with Kudus’ lightning feet, Ajax had the ability to turn the turbos on in an instant.
The Ghanaian made Connor Goldson look silly as he danced past a couple of tackles before Barisic’s tackle saved further blushes. Rangers simply couldn’t catch a break.
Even when Barisic thought he’d grabbed a consolation as he rasped home an unlikely right-foot drive, VAR alerted German
ref Tobias Stieler to the fact Ryan Kent was offside in the build-up. There was still time for one last boot to the haw-maws as Jack’s stray pass put in £28m former Spurs hero Bergwijn to round McLaughlin and complete another night of misery for the Ibrox men.
