Rangers facing being runt of litter - how they can avoid it, who they are up against, manager's 'no' to potential starting duo

It might not have been what was envisaged on a night of nights in August when Champions League football was secured for the first time in 12 years.

Giovanni van Bronckhorst says he will not pair Antonio Colak and Alfredo Morelos together in Rangers' attack.

Targeting avoiding finishing the worst-ever Champions League team isn’t what anyone associates with the glory game. It’s certainly far from what Bill Struth was referring to when he drummed out that famous challenge that has since become an Ibrox manifesto. “Let the others come after us,” the legendary manager urged. “We welcome the chase.” No one is chasing Rangers in the Champions League. They are sitting plum bottom of Group A.

Often referred to by their own fans as the world’s most successful club, a major accomplishment in the context of this year’s Champions League is avoiding being tagged as the competition’s worst-ever team. That ignominious distinction is currently held by Dynamo Zagreb, who suffered a hellish Champions League season in 2011-12.

They lost all six games and finished with a goal difference of minus 19. Rangers are currently on minus 18 after five straight defeats ahead of tonight’s last hurrah against Ajax. Some interest has been added to this runt competition-within-a-competition by knowing Czech Republic side Viktoria Plzen are eyeing the title of worst-ever team themselves. Pitched into a group with Inter Milan, Barcelona and Bayern Munich, they have lost all five games to date. They host Barcelona this evening having scored just three goals while conceding 20. Rangers' blushes could yet be spared.

Ajax fans turned up at Ibrox to watch their team train.

Remarkably, it's still possible for the Ibrox side to avoid finishing last in their own group. They need an unlikely 5-0 win over Ajax to leapfrog their Dutch visitors. This chase, in which third place and a Europa League berth is the objective, appears a futile one. Even Van Bronckhorst acknowledged this after someone pointed out the rather bald requirement. “Five goals? Easy,” half-smiled the Ibrox manager. Might such a desperate situation be a case for pairing strikers Antonio Colak and Alfredo Morelos together? “No,” he replied. Things haven’t become that desperate, clearly.

Hundreds of Dutch fans were at Ibrox simply to watch their heroes train on the eve of the match. It doesn’t suggest Ajax are treating this game lightly, something Rangers supporters might have hoped. The Dutch side also have the advantage of having had a free weekend. Rangers, by contrast, were coping – rather impressively, it turned out – with old rivals Aberdeen. While the 4-1 win was earned without too much trouble, they did lose two more players to injury. As many as ten first-team players are currently unavailable due to injury and suspension.

Ben Davies and 21-year-old full back Ridvan Yilmaz were forced off against Aberdeen. The latter, who suffered a hamstring strain, won’t be seen until after the World Cup. On the plus side, Glen Kamara has returned. James Sands will likely move back from midfield to centre-half once more as he attempts to re-ignite his Word Cup dream with the United States. He lost his Rangers place at a critical time after his red card against Napoli at Ibrox six weeks ago. “I was not called in for the US national team camp and I think that was because of some of the struggles I’ve had,” he said. “I can play myself back into the team with a good performance.”

Ajax’s own mission seems a straightforward one: avoid shipping five goals against a side who have scored only once in five Champions League group games so far, and that was in a 7-1 hammering by Liverpool.

James Sands during a Rangers training session ahead of facing Ajax at Ibrox.

Van Bronckhorst has already acknowledged that it’s been a chastening return to Europe’s top table. He has again sought to paint it as a necessary endurance test on the way to European respectability. Some might consider this current campaign as having been a case of two steps back after the significant step forward of reaching the Europa League final last season. Unsurprisingly, Van Bronckhorst doesn’t side with this assessment. He hasn’t learned anything new about his players, he claimed. All that has been underlined is their inexperience on this stage.

“We have players who have come from the Championship, or even played in the B team, it is a whole different level,” he said. “I have experienced the level as a player. I remember my first experience with Feyenoord coming to play against Juventus in my first year and I didn’t realise how high the level was in Europe until I played against Zidane and Deschamps and Del Piero and then I knew, ‘wow, this is a different level, this is the level I want to reach’. And my players have faced the same experience this season.”

Just as he didn’t want to be the manager when Rangers suffered their equal worst-ever defeat against Liverpool, he would rather not become the first to endure a ‘nul points’ Champions League campaign (Rangers’ worst display to date was two draws in 2009/10). “It would be disappointing, of course,” said Van Bronckhorst. “We knew the opposition we are facing in the Champions League is from a much higher level than we faced last season. You can see in all the games we’ve played, it’s been really tough. Once we qualified in Holland against PSV, I knew it was going to be a really tough European season. I also had it with my old team Feyenoord in the Champions League. We only got the first three points in the last game at home to Napoli, so it was a similar experience. (But) you want to always have the highest level of opponents. That’s why you are a top player and a club. You want to be involved in the highest level even though it means the opposition is quite strong.”

Rangers may welcome the chase. They will also welcome something else: the final whistle at the end of Champions League matchday six.