Rangers will host their first European tie after eight years, and one can expect the atmosphere at Ibrox to be electric. The Gers would need every ounce of that as they take on Rapid Wien who are going through a bit of a debacle off late. Coach Goran Djuricin was sacked after he had made a poor start to the season where his side had won just two of their opening nine games. Now former Austrian national team player Dietmar Kuhbauer has taken up the top job, and this will be his first game in charge.
So one can say this could be the best time to play Rapid Wien and the odds of Rangers getting a good result has undoubtedly increased. However, the Gers are coming on the back of a poor display against Livingston themselves and the fans would hope that it was a one-off performance from their side.
Here is what Gerrard needs to change to ensure a positive result for his side.
Get back to the partnership of Katic and Goldson and drop Candeias
Changing defensive partnership everytime isn’t advisable, and maybe Gerrard would have learnt his lesson last weekend. English defender Joe Worrall was awful in the previous game, and we believe it’s time for the gaffer to switch back to the partnership which got them to this group stage, i.e., Nikola Katic and Connor Goldson. Maybe Gerrard was trying to create a chemistry between all three of them by getting them to play with different partners but the time for experimentation needs to end. A win in this game would give them a fighting chance to make it out of their group.
Daniel Candeias works hard but often fails to deliver when he finds himself in good positions. His crossing hardly gets past the first man, and in one on one situation the Portuguese is often unable to beat his man. Gerrard usually trusts him for his work rate and his willingness to track back but if the manager wants a cutting edge in the attacking third, maybe starting with Eros Grezda might be the right ploy.
Lafferty shouldn’t be used in wide regions
One can understand why Gerrard is trying to fit in both Kyle Lafferty, and Alfredo Morelos in his eleven as both of them carry a genuine goal threat, but in our opinion, Lafferty is wasted out in the wide regions as we saw in the game against Livingston. If Gerrard is keen on playing with both of them, then we suggest he can go for the 4-4-1-1 formation where Lafferty would play off Morelos in the shadow striker role or even in the 4-2-3-1 where Lafferty can play in the no.10 role behind Morelos.
Mixing Up Play
Almost all of Rangers’ attacking threat comes from wide regions and what we saw against Livingston clearly showed that the team struggled to muster up anything if the opposition stifles the supply in the wide areas. The Teddy Bears hardly built up anything from the middle of the park, and if Rapid Wien would have seen the previous game (surely they would have), they can use similar tactics to keep the wide players in check. In that case, the Gers would need to change and mix things up, and the midfielders might have to don the hat of creating something instead of just ticking off the ball sideways.
