Former Ajax manager Aad de Mos has labelled Rangers defenders as 'stupid' following repeated humiliation at the hands of the Dutch giants, Napoli and Liverpool over the course of the last two months.
Having lost 4-0 to Alfred Schreuder's side on the opening day of the group stages, it wouldn't have gotten much worse for the Gers with their 3-0 loss to Napoli two weeks later and a 2-0 defeat to Liverpool at the start of October. Yet their 7-1 defeat to the Reds last week summed up the gulf in quality on the Light Blues' return to the top table - needing much work to be done if they are to return to former glories; albeit acknowledging that they were pitted in arguably the toughest group possible.
Nevertheless, Gio van Bronckhorst 's men have a chance to redeem themselves when they face Napoli next Wednesday in Italy, before hosting Ajax at the start of November in what is likely to be their last European tie for quite some time. Yet de Mos believes that they stand no chance of a result against the Eredivisie champions - citing Rangers' 'stupid' defending as the reason why they are constantly on the back foot.
"I read that Ajax players were talking about how they improved in Europe because they only lost 4-2 in Italy after being hammered 6-1 at home," De Mos said.
"The reason it was only 4-2 was that Napoli took all of their best players off. Ajax did look better when Brian Brobbey came on as a sub. He is very good at holding up the ball and it is difficult for defenders to play against him.
"And he can bring Steven Berghuis, Dusan Tadic and Davy Klaassen into attack. He is a far better option than Mohammed Kudus, who will get only some joy against stupid defenders like Rangers have who will run with him and leave spaces.
"But against quality defenders at Napoli, they are far too clever for that."
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