JAMES Tavernier saw his brother Marcus and his Bournemouth team mates suffer a humiliating nine goal mauling at the hands of Liverpool at Anfield back in August so he is acutely aware what will happen if the Rangers defence fails to function tonight.
However, the right back, who will lead the Ibrox side in their first ever meeting against the English giants on Merseyside this evening, is confident that his team will be able to find the target themselves with Antonio Colak and Alfredo Morelos in the squad.
Croatian striker Colak has scored 11 goals since moving to Glasgow in the summer and netted a double in the 4-0 win over Hearts at Tynecastle on Saturday – a cinch Premiership match which Morelos also netted in.
Tavernier, whose younger brother Marcus was in the Bournemouth team which suffered a record-equalling Premier League defeat at the renowned venue earlier this season, stressed Rangers will look to attack rivals who have conceded eight goals in their last three matches whenever play allows.
“I obviously spoke to him soon after that game,” he said. “And basically he said that whenever they had a shot it was a goal. This is the levels that you are playing against.
“They are world class players. And if you give them a chance, eight or nine times out of 10 it is going to be in the back of the net.
“So we have just got to try and limit those chances. That’s what we’ve got to do, try and limit the chances and put our own stamp on it.”
Tavernier added: “We have to be brave on the ball. We know they’ve got one of the best front threes in the world and we have to try and keep them quiet as best we can and put our stamp on the game to create our chances.
“That’s what we will be looking to do. I’m sure they’ll have a lot of the ball being at home, but we’re going to look to try and frustrate them and be brave on the ball when we do get it.
“I think at the minute we have two strikers in really good form and that obviously gives the boss a headache to select one of the two.
“But Alfredo is obviously getting to where he wants to be with his fitness and recovering from his injuries and the operation he had. He has been working really hard on the training pitch and it showed on the weekend when he came on and got his goal.
“He offers us goals. But that’s what both of our strikers have been doing - scoring goals. Hopefully I can be of service to them tomorrow and anyone else given the chance can put the ball in the back of the net.”
Tavernier helped Rangers to overcome Borussia Dortmund, Red Star Belgrade, Braga and RB Leipzig during their run to the Europa League final last season and feels they are well placed to cope with not having the majority of possession.
“It is obviously different to the Scottish league,” he said. “It is fine tuning obviously about when to sit and when to press, when to try and catch them on the counter-attack and when to keep the ball.
“But the boss has us really well drilled. We’ve had a good week building up to this game, so we know what we have to do tomorrow and we have just got to stick to the gameplan.
“I’m really looking forward to it. To be competing against one of the best English teams who have played in three of the last five Champions League finals is something to relish and be really up for.
“We don’t just want to take part in this competition. We want to establish ourselves in this competition and go toe-to-toe with the giants of Europe. That requires us to be competing in every aspect of the game as we did against Napoli. We have to go toe-to-toe with Liverpool tomorrow night.”
Meanwhile, Tavernier has admitted that losing Welsh internationalist Tom Lawrence, who Rangers manager Giovanni Van Bronckhorst last night confirmed had suffered an injury in training and was set to be out until after the Qatar 2022 finals next month, is a setback for the Ibrox club.
“It’s a big blow,” he said. “He’s been a huge impact into the squad since he joined and has got great ability and quality on the ball. Even off the ball, he works really hard. But our squad is full of depth, and we have got players to come in and play. It’s a big loss and hopefully he can be fully fit after the World Cup.”
