Cavalier approach fails as Ally McCoist dispenses with a tried-and-trusted formula

Published on Tuesday 26 July 2011 18:11

WHATEVER their aesthetic shortcomings in recent years, however unspectacular they may be, there has invariably been one quality you could rely on Rangers to display: solidity.

When they took on the best team in the world at Ibrox in the Champions League, they reduced the best player in the world to whingeing about their "anti-football". What they did that evening in claiming a goalless draw against Lionel Messi's Barcelona, they have also done against other, only marginally less formidable foes. If there were trophies for stifling the opposition, Rangers would have been as successful in Europe as they have been domestically these past three seasons.

The formula has worked, and many expected Ally McCoist to persist with it in last night's Champions League qualifier against Malmo. The continuity candidate when he was appointed to succeed Walter Smith, McCoist had spent some time putting distance between himself and the cavalier image he had happily cultivated for decades.

Understandably, and quite rightly, McCoist has sought to build on the foundations bequeathed by Smith, not knock them down and start again. Thus far, that had meant a certain conservatism in the way the team was shaped, which is why there were whisperings of disquiet when something a little more adventurous was revealed against the Swedes.

Relax, we neutrals felt like telling the fretters when a 3-5-2 formation emerged. It's hardly devil may care, and it's only Malmo, a team who are languishing mid-table in a middling league.

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Alas, within a minute, those fretters' fears began to be realised, as Malmo exposed the lack of pace at the heart of the home defence, with Madjid Bougherra looking, if anything, more vulnerable than his senior partner David Weir. That early chance of a precious away goal was squandered and Sasa Papac and Lee Wallace cleared the danger between them but it was an ominous sign, filling Malmo with self-confidence.

Just like in the first half against Hearts on Saturday, too many Rangers players were off the pace and looking worryingly rusty. You would expect a certain difference in match fitness between a Scottish side who have just begun their season and Swedes who are almost 20 matches into theirs, but that cannot explain the disparity between Rangers and Hearts. Match fitness isn't everything but, if you're lacking in that department, you need to compensate for it with creativity or cuteness, and Rangers were able to display little or nothing of those things.

At least against Hearts they recovered from being a goal behind to claim a point. Here, having gone one down after 20 minutes, they looked as likely to go further behind as they did to equalise. And Rangers were very aware that, even if they did get that goal, Malmo would still be happy with a score draw at the halfway stage of the tie.There was a time, decades ago, when Rangers had such a habit of starting seasons slowly that it came to be seen as part of their championship campaign. It disconcerted their opponents, just as, in England, scoring first against Liverpool struck the fear of God into some teams.

Domestically, with a 38-game SPL, you can still get away with that habit. In Europe, there is no time for such laxity, which leaves McCoist in a quandary as he looks ahead to next week's return leg. An unsettling experience such as this may impel him to revert to the 4-5-1 of old but, now that Rangers need to score, solidity will not be enough. The new manager may have been too adventurous too soon last night. In the second leg he will not have the luxury of opting for caution.