Uncertain Smith steels his men for the big push

Published on Saturday 5 April 2008 19:43

RANGERS HAVE had it easy. Until now, all that's been required of them has been to haul their athletic frames through a mere 52 games in nine months, a period that has delivered an inconceivable title surge, underscored by a longest winning league run in 25 years, and a wholly unexpected UEFA Cup tilt, founded on the most intense spell of European football in their history.

A dawdle. At least compared to what lies ahead. Just as the joints of the Ibrox squad patently begin to creak, so the pressures and the fixtures really crank up. Frankly, if the first 37 weeks of their season were It's A Knockout, the next seven weeks have all the makings of Japanese gameshow Endurance. Notwithstanding a run of results that saw Walter Smith named Clydesdale Bank SPL manager of the month for March, he conceded: "The hardest work is to come; it doesn't matter what anyone says."

Serious expectations have the capacity to drain as debilitatingly as aching limbs and a brutal run of matches. For followers of Rangers, a failure to add the league championship and Scottish Cup to their CIS Cup triumph would represent negligence; anything less than a UEFA Cup final appearance a glorious opportunity missed. Never mind that to achieve these aims they will somehow require to negotiate 15 games in 49 days that could so easily expose the so far commendably-disguised limitations of their aesthetically-challenged style.

"If you have been through circumstances like this before and gone on to win a championship, then you would have confidence in your team doing it," Smith said. "But we don't know what reaction we will get from this group of players. We're going to have nine league games in six weeks, which is unusual. It has happened before, but it hasn't happened very often. You've got that on top of European games and at least one Scottish Cup tie and we have to see how our group can handle this situation.

"There is a reasonable amount of evidence to suggest there is a resilience and a desire to win. But their reaction to the final push is a big thing. A tension develops towards the end when you have to win."

Of the nine Premier League games that remain for Smith's men, the trip to Tannadice today is one of seven away from home. It is also the first of four consecutive away games – and potentially one of eight outside of Ibrox in four weeks – that Rangers must drag themselves through merely to retain aspirations of a quadruple. Mind you, hoop- wearing sides could make their task a lot easier.

Celtic's defeat yesterday helped enormously, and if Gordon Strachan's men cannot rid themselves of their flakiness, Rangers may not need be overly concerned about the outcome of their trip to the east end of Glasgow a week on Wednesday. And if Sporting betray the flaws that have scarred their league season, the scoreless draw Rangers' attritional approach squeezed out in the first leg of their UEFA Cup quarter-final three days ago could provide wriggle room for them to prevail in Lisbon this Thursday.

"We are still in the tie when you consider we have managed to get goals in away European games this season," Smith said. "We know we can do that but also know there will be spells in the game we have to play better than we did at Ibrox. If you look at all the games in the UEFA Cup and Champions League last week, they tended to be tight. As happens at the latter stages. Dick Advocaat's team (Zenit St Petersburg] had an outstanding 4-1 win in Leverkusen, but that is the only one of the eight ties beyond a team. All the rest are up for grabs. Arguably, we got the best result of any home team. We didn't do as well as we have, but the result was still a good one."

For more than a month now, Rangers' results have far surpassed their performances. That may be in part because, as well as battling opponents, the Ibrox men are now engaged in a mighty fight with fatigue. David Weir looked out on his feet the other night as the home side could not add to their one win in eight previous continental confrontations. Smith accepts tiredness may have contributed to the booking that will see the 37-year-old suspended for the second leg, a ban that will force the break-up of the partnership with Carlos Cuellar that has been the key component in Rangers' robustness.

"I felt there were maybe signs of tiredness from us in the last ten minutes against Sporting," the Ibrox manager said. "A lot of that is mental, not just a physical thing. There was a wee bit of slackness and lack of reaction towards the end. The couple of chances they had later on were basically self-inflicted."

Christian Dailly, who will be drafted in for Weir in the Portuguese capital, believes there is a danger of over-stating the effects of a relentless programme. "I don't think we were at our best against Sporting but we're in a situation where every time the team isn't quite at its best we are going to be accused of being tired," he said. "It is difficult to say if that is the reason. You can just play like that even when you are buzzing. It was a tough game and I wouldn't read too much into the performance. Everyone felt fine before it. You are never going to steamroller games like that."

Yet, running out of steam remains one of the biggest threats to Rangers' hopes of a season to rank among their very finest. It is a risk Smith is prepared to take. Despite having such as Steven Whittaker, Steven Naismith, Chris Burke, Kris Boyd and Dailly fresh and on the fringes, Smith talks of making only "one or two changes" for this afternoon's Tayside encounter. The team's core quartet of Barry Ferguson, Carlos Cuellar, Allan McGregor and Weir will remain so as long as their bodies and bans allow, even if Ferguson's levels appear to have dropped as he manages an ankle problem.

"We'll maybe get an opportunity to rest him in the next few weeks but he's not the kind of player who looks for that respite," Smith said. "It is something you've got to take into account but he is always liable to give you something different. You're always looking at the players who have played most of the games but you are loathe to leave them out."

Rangers will stand or fall with their stand-outs giving their all.