Rangers 0 PSV 1 (0-1 on aggregate)

Rangers tumbled out of the Europa League along with the other British representatives with a performance that involved a contrasting approach to each half.  PSV were not great, they didn’t need to be, but they did what they had to do to progress.

Kyle Hutton and El Hadji Diouf were dropped from the first leg with Greg Wylde and Sasa Papac brought in as replacements.  This meant 5-4-1 as usual for Rangers, with Wylde the main source of providing transitions from defence to attack and Kyle Lafferty preferred as the lone striker.  Neil Alexander was again favoured ahead of Allan McGregor in goal.

PSV made one change to the previous meeting between the sides, replacing Stanislav Manolev with Abel Tamata, and lined up in exactly the same way in a 4-2-3-1.  The only thing of note about PSV’s approach that cannot be explained with reference to the first leg was that Ola Toivonen did not stick as high up the pitch and displayed more of a tendency to drop into midfield and receive the ball.

 

First half a first leg rerun

As well as assuming similar shapes to the 0-0 draw in Eindhoven, the first half took a remarkably similar pattern to the first leg.  Rangers got ten men behind the ball wherever possible and only pressed in their own half.  If the ball did not cross the halfway line, they were not interested in winning it back.

PSV were happy to hold on to the ball, mostly through Orlando Engelaar, move it into wide areas and wait for openings to appear.  We even had more outrageous shoot-on-site action from Balasz Dzsudzsak.

Both sides had opportunities from the left side early on.  Wylde, who caused problems for the nervous Tamata all night, showed terrific pace and sent a dangerous ball into the box that no one in blue could connect with.  Dzsudzsak wasted an opportunity from a similar position at the other end.

It was from an opening down the left that the only goal of the game arose from.  Erik Pieters sent a wonderful through ball from a very deep position and into the path of Dzsudzsak and he delivered a low cross into the six yard box that was finished by Jeremain Lens.  Even though it was a well worked goal, a few faults can be found with the Rangers defending.

Rangers’ passing in their own half then became rushed and inaccurate and they soon had their supporters berating them for holding such a deep defensive line and still refusing to press the ball outwith their own half, despite now requiring two goals to progress.  This led to a period where PSV were happy to knock the ball around their six most defensive players and the goalkeeper and Rangers allwoing them to do so – I haven’t seen the stats but I’m sure Andreas Isaksson completed more passes than Steven Davis is the first half.

When Rangers did get forward the closest they came to an opportunity to score were a series of set-pieces that were wasted by poor deliveries.

Change of formation, strategy and attitude in second half

At half time, Smith switched to a 4-4-1-1 and withdrew Davie Weir for Steven Naismith, who moved played just off Lafferty in attack and was free to roam from wing to wing.  Moreover, his position was such that Engelaar and Hutchinson’s time on the ball became much more limited.  The movement and pace of Naismith gave Rangers exactly the spark they had been craving but this was aided by a dramatic change in approach.   The Rangers midfield was not nearly as deep as it had been in the first half and Steven Davis was now looking to get on the ball and dictate play.  As well as this, Rangers were now pressing PSV high up the pitch and Madjid Bougherra was getting forward with increasing regularity.

The weak link in the PSV side was evidently right-back Tamata and Wylde exposed this by beating him on a number of occasions and whipping some quality deliveries into the box that, unfortunately, no Rangers player could capitalise on.

There ensued a sustained period of pressure from Rangers, their first over the two legs, in which they thought they had scored and were unlucky not to be awarded a penalty after the ball struck Hutchinson’s arm on the goal-line.  A Naismith header came crashing off the bar in the same passage of play and Maurice Edu came close minutes earlier.

Midway through the second half, Lafferty picked up an injury and was replaced by Diouf.  Even though it appeared to be a straight swap, Diouf was actually deployed as a false nine but seemed to overdo it, dropping deeper than the midfield on a number of occasions.  It was unfortunate that the change was forced upon Smith since it seemed to kill any chance his side had of getting back into the tie.

Bougherra wasted a free header from a corner while Rangers’ play became increasingly more frustrated as the game entered the closing stages.  Dzsudzsak hit the post late on in a half where PSV weren’t really involved yet managed to hold on to their lead and progress.

Conclusion

In the end, Walter Smith showed his opponents too much respect in the first half and insisted on keeping a deep defensive line, even after going a goal behind.  In his post-match interview Smith said “I’d have liked us to played better in the first half of the game…regardless of the formation or whatever way we were playing”, but surely he’d concede, privately at least, that the second half showed that they are capable of attacking against good sides and maybe should have adopted a more attacking approach from the off.

There were similar signs of an overly cautious approach in the second leg against Sporting Lisbon in the previous round and it seems that even though sitting deep with ten men behind the ball may be the correct approach against the likes of Manchester United and Valencia, a more attacking approach in the Europa League would not only have given their supports more entertaining, less frustrating football to watch, it may even have helped them progress further than they eventually did.

St Mirren 1 Aberdeen 1

An injury time equaliser from Rory McArdle earned Aberdeen a replay at St Mirren Park.  The majority of the match was a scrappy, turgid affair which saw both teams struggle to find any sort of rhythm or create anything bordering on a decent chance.  It wasn’t until substitutions were introduced later in the second half that anything resembling a cup tie took place.

St Mirren boss Danny Lennon dropped Michael Higdon and Kenny McLean - both of whom would go on to have a massive impact on the match – from the 1-0 defeat to Rangers, with Craig Dargo and Darren McGregor restored to the line-up in a 3-5-2 formation.

Craig Brown lined-up his side 4-4-1-1 and made three changes from the 3-1 defeat at Tannadice on Monday.  Ryan Jack, Sone Aluko and Darren Young all missed out, with Josh Magennis, Chris Maguire and Nikola Vujadinovic preferred.

Lack of physical presence in St Mirren attack

Due to the set-up of the St Mirren side it was a surprise to see Higdon on the bench.  David van Zanten and Jure Travner provided width and played high up the pitch – the reason St Mirren’s formation was 3-5-2 and not 5-3-2 - and on the rare occasions when they did manage to work the ball into the final third and deliver a cross, there was such an obvious mismatch in height that the strategy failed.  The Aberdeen back four were all six foot plus and St Mirren’s two small strikers along with Hugh Murray and Steven Thomson, who often joined them in the box, were never able cause any problems in this regard.

Aberdeen edged the first ten minutes and it seemed for a while as if Paul Hartley and Robert Milsom would pull the strings in the centre of midfield.  Chris Maguire was given the freedom to drift deep and wide to link play but failed to get involved much after the initial stages.  This was partly down to the performance of Jim Goodwin, the best player on the pitch for the scrappy first hour, who patrolled the area in front of the back three.

Higdon and McLean change the match

After half time, the match continued in a similar vein until Higdon replaced the injured John Potter.  McGowan moved to the right of midfield, Travner and van Zanten returned to full-back and Higdon joined Dargo in attack in a 4-4-2.  The change brought about an immediate impact when Higdon controlled, turned and shot just wide from the edge of the area.  Shortly afterwards, McLean took to the field in place of Goodwin.

The substitutions swung the game in the home side’s favour for several reasons.  Firstly, and most obvious, was the physical presence of Higdon.  As already mentioned, St Mirren were struggled to hold up the ball and get someone on the end of their crosses. 

Secondly, even though St Mirren were 4-4-2, once again Paul McGowan’s position was not easily defined - similar to the recent match against Hibernian.  Whereas McLean took up an orthodox left-sided midfield role, McGowan’s movement was such that he often formed a front three and looked to pick up the scraps from knock-downs and flick-ons.  Relatedly, Higdon’s presence meant that Dargo was now the second striker rather than the focal point of the attack, a role which suits him better.  He was now, like McGowan, free to drift around the space between the Aberdeen defence and attack and link play.

Lastly, the introduction of McLean brought more of a creative presence to the St Mirren midfield and the chances he, sometimes single-handedly, created should have been enough for St Mirren to progress to the semi-final.

Within a minute of coming on, the nineteen-year-old played a one-two with Higdon at the edge of the Aberdeen box and should have scored after finding himself one-on-one with the on-rushing Jamie Langfield.  The Aberdeen goalkeeper blocked the shot and the subsequent rebound that fell to Higdon.

The ball then crashed off the underside of the bar from a Higdon header but it wasn’t long until St Mirren had the lead.  Some decent play down the left involving Travner and McLean saw Dargo cut inside and cross towards the back post from deep.  Higdon volleyed the ball back across goal and McGowan escaped the attention of Vujadinovic to tap the ball into the net.

Aberdeen made some changes of their own, bringing on Nick Blackman for Scott Vernon in a straight swap, and Sone Aluko coming on for Steven Smith.  Aberdeen now resembled more of a 4-2-3-1 with inverted wingers, a tactic that worked well although failed to produce a goal against Hearts last month, but their best chances were strikes from around the edge of the St Mirren penalty area which failed to trouble Paul Gallacher much. 

St Mirren poor finishing comes back to haunt them

After the goal, St Mirren carved out three opportunities that should have put the match beyond their opponents, all three of which involved McLean.  After missing a chance himself, on separate occasions he sent perfectly weighted through balls for Higdon and Dargo but both failed to take advantage of being through on the goalkeeper.

St Mirren were punished for their poor finishing in the ninety-third minute when McArdle pounced on a loose ball in the St Mirren box.  Paul Hartley’s free kick appeared to hit the arm of Murray but McArdle, who was the only Aberdeen player not to stop and claim for a penalty, stabbed the ball past Gallacher.

Conclusion

Overall it was a very poor match that was only brought to life when Danny Lennon made changes to his line-up.  Initially, van Zanten and Travner took up advanced wing-backs positions, however, the crosses that the pair managed to deliver lacked a target man.  Higdon’s introduction instantly gave St Mirren what they had been missing and culminated in the opening goal.  McLean had just as much of an impact, opening up the Aberdeen defence on a handful of occasions, but the subsequent chances were not taken advantage of.

Aberdeen’s main problem was creating opportunities.  Maguire and Vernon weren’t involved nearly enough, Milsom and Hartley were overrun in midfield - even though it initially appeared as if they would dominate - and their makeshift wingers failed to trouble St Mirren.

Craig Brown’s side have now scored an injury time goal in each of the three rounds of the Scottish Cup this season but none will be less deserved than this.  Despite their efforts, they were hardly threatening as an attacking force, yet managed to snatch an equaliser that now makes them favourites to progress to the semi final.