Rangers can help turn around ‘abysmal’ European record of Scottish clubs this season – Keith Jackson
Keith Jackson has admitted that the record of Scottish clubs so far in Europe, including Rangers, has made for “abysmal” viewing after some heavy defeats.
All of the Bears, Hearts and Celtic were all smashed by three or more goals to nothing in the opening group stages, with Dundee United even losing 7-0 in qualifying at AZ.
Jackson insisted that Rangers do have a chance to turn it around against Napoli on Wednesday after their Champions League game was pushed back.
Writing in his latest column for the Daily Record, Jackson did not hold back after what he has already seen between August and September.
“It’s becoming a depressingly familiar tale,” he wrote.
“Just when it seemed as if Scottish football might finally be ready to emerge from years in the doldrums, our clubs have stumbled back out onto the European stage like accident-prone novices. The record thus far makes fairly abysmal reading.
“Of course, it’s not too late for Celtic, Rangers and Hearts to redeem themselves and to restore some sort of national pride as they attempt to recover from being roughed up so spectacularly over the course of a bruising first week of group stage football.”
Desperate.
That is what we all are right now to see a positive result.
None more so than Giovanni van Bronckhorst, who has taken some real stick over the past week after that drubbing at Ajax saw his players show nothing.
Of course, he names the team, but when they lack heart, effort or desire, what more can he do?
That will need to change dramatically if we are to get anything from Napoli, who are considerably better than the Dutch champions when looking on paper.
Ibrox is the crucial factor here though and we have seen many famous nights in recent years, none more so than RB Leipzig in the Europa League semi-finals.
The place will be bouncing regardless of no away fans being in, and it is time to feed off that, with the away performances simply embarrassing.
Let’s turn things around, starting with this one on Wednesday evening.
In other Rangers news, Michael Stewart got stuck into one player after what he did in the past month