‘Could be the same old week for Rangers’ suggests Alan Stubbs ahead of PSV and Celtic test
Alan Stubbs has insisted that poor results against PSV Eindhoven and Celtic could bring about “the same old week for Rangers”.
Rangers face PSV in the second leg of the Champions League play-off tie on Wednesday (30 August) before Celtic travel to Ibrox for the first time this season on Sunday (3 September) for the first Old Firm derby of the new campaign.
Despite this week presenting the opportunity for the Gers to stake their claim as a competitive force in Scotland and Europe, the former Celtic defender has instead questioned whether Michael Beale is good enough to get the Light Blues through the two games.
Speaking to Lucky Block, with quotes via Football Scotland (30 August), Stubbs said: “Michael Beale has still got a lot to prove and I feel as if the Rangers fans think the same. There’s a lot of pressure on Michael at the moment.
“I can see PSV beating them and Rangers missed a trick at Ibrox in terms of getting a result. There could be a potential deflation amongst the squad. It could be the same old week for Rangers and they could find themselves four points behind Celtic and be out of the Champions League as well.”
Negativity
It shouldn’t come as a surprise that a former Celtic defender has predicted that Rangers will have a disastrous week of action, but a week that could provide so much negativity also then provides the platform to become a historic period.
Rangers have shown they can match PSV, both this year and last season and it will only take one more result in the Netherlands for them to qualify for the group stages of the Champions League, where they are currently ranked higher in Europe than Celtic.
The Old Firm genuinely could go either way, with Rangers coming into the fixture off the back of some impressive form whereas Brendan Rodgers’ side have been indifferent so far this season. But such high-pressure matches are always a toss-up.
Beale will always be under some pressure while he’s the boss at Ibrox, such is the nature of the job, but it seems ridiculous to even be hitting the panic button over two games in which a ball is yet to be kicked. This will be a crucial week for both the Gers and Beale, whether for a positive or negative reason.
In other Rangers news, Nnamdi Ofoborh has reacted as his Ibrox exit is confirmed