English journalist left baffled by Rangers v Sparta Prague live on BBC
BBC journalist Calum Macdonald has shared that an English colleague was left baffled by Rangers’ “bad” first-half performance in their Europa League tie against Sparta Prague on Thursday (26 October).
The Gers underwent their second game under new manager Philippe Clement against the Czech giants knowing that a win would leave them in a promising position to progress to the knockout rounds from Group C.
After a tremendous showing in their 4-0 win over Hibernian on Saturday (21 October), it was the total opposite in the first half of their clash with Sparta Prague, failing to register a single shot on target, going on to draw 0-0.
And Macdonald, live on BBC’s commentary for the game (26 October, 6:52pm) shared that a colleague approached him and asked if Rangers’ performance is “always this bad?”
Macdonald wrote: “An English colleague, who doesn’t normally cover Scottish football, came for a chat with me at half-time and he had a very simple question about Philippe Clement’s side: Is it always this bad?”
Tough job
If Clement thought his Rangers side would walk into Prague and continue on from their encouraging showing against Hibernian at the weekend then he certainly had another thing coming.
The Belgian certainly has a tough job on his hands at Ibrox, one which involves getting the nine players former manager Michael Beale signed during the summer and firing again, while trying to improve the rest.
And their performance in Prague certainly highlighted the massive job on his hands because no shots on target in the first half is very poor but also magnified the struggles the new Rangers attack have endured since their moves over the summer.
Sam Lammers, Cyriel Dessers and Danilo haven’t matched the levels of Abdallah Sima who has nine goals to his name so far this campaign and if the Gers are to have any sort of success under the Belgian, it can’t just be Sima who is scoring the goals.
If Clement even gets Rangers closer to Celtic than they were last season, then that right now should be considered positive, but everyone wants even more.
In other Rangers news, Brighton stance on permanent Sima exit emerges as Rangers clause shared, chairman John Bennett should prepare for fan unrest.