Rangers 1 Maribor 1 (2-3 on aggregate)

Rangers huffed and puffed against a mediocre Maribor side but failed to take enough of their chances to progress.  Maribor sat behind the ball for most of the ninety minutes and hit Rangers with a sucker-punch early in the second half, which proved decisive in the outcome of the tie.

Ally McCoist was without Lee McCulloch, Davie Weir, Sasa Papac, Jordan McMillan and Kyle Bartley through injury, and was also missing Steven Naismith and Steven Whittaker through suspension.  As well as this, Ross Perry was named on the bench, meaning that Carlos Bocanegra, Maurice Edu and Kirk Broadfoot were restored to the starting line up as McCoist demonstrated his desire to field experience over youth.  They lined up in their usual 4-4-1-1 formation.

Maribor made one change from the 2-1 victory in Slovenia, Ales Mejac missed out and was replaced by Nejc Potokar at right-back.  They lined up in a 4-4-2 formation with Zelko Filipovic sitting just ahead of the back four and Dalibor Volas dropping off Rober Beric in attack.  When in possession, the wide men of Maribor would come inside – like Villarreal’s interiores – and overload the central areas.

With a first-leg lead to protect, it was no surprise that Maribor’s strategy was to sit as many men behind the ball as possible while refusing to pressure their opponents unless they moved past the halfway line.

Rangers, on the other hand, looked to pass the ball out from the back – in a similar fashion to the win in Inverness – with Steven Davis the player dropping to collect the ball from the centre-backs.  And just like that match in the Highlands, Rangers lacked a cutting edge in front of goal

Their approach was to get Gregg Wylde on the ball as much as possible and two of his crosses in the first twenty minutes should have been converted.  Kyle Lafferty failed to commit himself to the first in the seventh minute, and Edu later sent his free header straight into the arms of Jasmin Handanovic.

Added to this, Rangers enjoyed a succession of corners but failed to take advantage of Maribor’s vulnerability in these situations.

Rangers’ injury woes were added to when Perry replaced Lee Wallace around five minutes before half-time.  The enforced change meant that Bocanegra was moved to the left-back and from that point on, Rangers missed the thrust Wallace had provided from that position and, relatedly, the support and overlap for Wylde.

Nikica Jelavic and Lafferty dovetailed throughout the first half, linked up well at times and between them created another two excellent opportunities that Lafferty squandered, one of which was a one-on-one with the goalkeeper on the stroke of half-time.

Second half

Whereas most of Rangers’ play in the first half was focused through Wylde on the left, two chances early in the second half were created down the right, both involving Kirk Broadfoot, which Lafferty and Davis failed to trouble Handanovic with.

Rangers were then made to regret their missed chances when Volas opened the scoring on fifty-five minutes. 

The few times Maribor found themselves in possession in advanced positions, their most dangerous player was Dejan Mezga – one of the interiors – who would start wide, drift inside to collect the ball and beat players.  He was fed half way inside the Rangers half and managed to draw three Rangers players towards him before slipping the ball to Aleds Mertelj.  The twenty-four year old then took advantage of the space afforded to him by the holdup play of Mezga and drove at the Rangers defence before finding Volas, who finished in the bottom corner.

If Maribor were not ultra-defensive before, a 1-0 lead (and 3-1 aggregate lead) meant that they were now, and with as many time-wasting tactics as possible thrown in.

Rangers panicked for a short spell but then soon settled into their passing that had brought about many opportunities until then.

One player who had been largely ineffective was Juan Manuel Ortiz and he was replaced by David Healy with just over twenty-minutes remaining.  Lafferty was moved out to the right but increasingly found himself in central positions alongside Jelavic and Healy as the match entered its final stages.

Rangers did manage to pull a goal back, when Bocanegra bundled in a Wylde corner, but a late rally couldn’t save their European blushes.  This time, of the chances created, Healy was the most culpable as he displayed a severe lack of composure when one-on-one with Handanovic.

Conclusion

McCoist’s tactics are hard to argue with: His side created enough chances to win two or three Europa League ties, they just failed to take them.

Rangers looked to get the ball wide to Wylde and hit their two large strikers with early crosses.  As well as this, Lafferty and Jelavic would take turns to drop deep and wide, link play and draw defenders out of position.

All this worked, it was the finishing that let them down.

In saying that, it wasn’t the most interesting match tactically.  Maribor sat ten men behind the ball in attempt to stifle Rangers.  It didn’t work as Rangers carved out several clear-cut opportunities.  Their Euro exit must be blamed on poor finishing, rather than a fantastic defensive performance from Maribor.

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.