Rangers vs Sparta Prague live on BBC perplexed English journalists
According to BBC journalist Calum Macdonald, an English colleague was perplexed by Rangers’ “bad” first-half performance in their Europa League match against Sparta Prague on Thursday (26 October).
The Gers played their second game under new manager Philippe Clement against the Czech giants, knowing that a win would put them in a strong position to advance from Group C to the knockout rounds.
After a 4-0 win against Hibernian on Saturday (21 October), it was the polar opposite in the first half of their match against Sparta Prague, as they failed to produce a single shot on target, drawing 0-0.
And, during the game’s live BBC commentary (26 October, 6:52pm), Macdonald revealed that a colleague approached him and questioned if Rangers’ performance is “always this bad?”
He wrote: “An English colleague, who doesn’t normally cover Scottish football, came for a chat with me at half-time and he had a very simple question about Philippe Clement’s side: Is it always this bad?”
It’s a difficult job.
If Clement expected his Rangers team to walk into Prague and build on their encouraging performance against Hibernian at the weekend, he was in for a surprise.
The Belgian faces a difficult task at Ibrox, which includes signing and firing the nine players signed by former manager Michael Beale during the summer, as well as trying to enhance the rest of the squad.
And their performance in Prague not only emphasized the tremendous task ahead of him because no shots on target in the first half is really terrible, but it also magnified the challenges the new Rangers assault has faced since their summer move.
Sam Lammers, Cyriel Dessers, and Danilo haven’t been able to equal the goalscoring standards of Abdallah Sima, who has nine this season, and if the Gers are to be successful under the Belgian, it can’t simply be Sima.
If Clement can even move Rangers closer to Celtic than they were last season, it should be regarded a win right now, but everyone wants more.
In other Rangers news, Brighton’s position on permanent Sima leave emerges as Rangers clause is discussed, and chairman John Bennett should brace himself for fan displeasure.
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