Can Barry Ferguson sort out Rangers defensive woes with the squad available ahead of Europa League Quarter-Final | Fitbaw Talk - video Dailymotion

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00:00Hello and welcome to the latest episode of National World's FITBA Talk,

00:04your weekly lowdown on all things Celtic and Rangers related.

00:08And that came after Rangers 2-0 defeat at home to Hibernian,

00:14making it a fifth successive defeat at Ibrox for Barry Ferguson's men.

00:21Ben, I think best probably to kick off with Rangers, you were at the game

00:26covering for the Edinburgh Evening News from a hips perspective, but once again,

00:31Rangers, another dismal result and it doesn't exactly bode well heading into a massive

00:38Europa League quarterfinal first leg tie against Athletic Bilbao on Thursday, does it?

00:42No, I mean, but they've been here before, haven't they? It's just, again, this actually

00:47bizarrely made me more confident that they'll probably get a result against Athletic Bilbao

00:51on Saturday. But I think the worst thing you can say about Rangers from their perspective in these

00:57games is it's just total apathy. You've lost five games at home and you would expect, you know,

01:02fans booing. There was a bit of that at full time, but like you would expect it to be really

01:07hostile and really, really quite angry, you know, let's storm the place type stuff and protest.

01:15The place was half empty by about 75 minutes. People have just completely switched off from

01:19the domestic stuff. For me, I think it writes off Barry Ferguson's chances of getting the

01:24managerial job permanently. He's not done anything which Philippe Clement hasn't done,

01:30because as we've discussed all season, the issue for Rangers isn't beating Celtic. They've beaten

01:35them twice. They ran them very close in the Premier Sports Cup final and perhaps a refereeing

01:40decision away from that game being very different. They've managed to progress in the Europa League,

01:46but what they can't do is manage to beat the teams they should be beating comfortably.

01:52Even the games Barry Ferguson has won domestically, the Dundee game and the Kilmarnock

01:57game, they've had to do it in great escape fashion and conceding bucketload of goals.

02:01They can't seem to get ahead in games against these teams. And as soon as Hibbs went ahead,

02:07which again, that was the first time I've been at Ibrox a few times this season, and that's the

02:11first time I've felt that the crowd had quite turned on Jack Butland. A lot of shouts of basically

02:19get him off now because the ball just goes right through him. The last two games I've been there,

02:24the Mullow game and Hibbs game, there's been errors leading to goals for him. So a bit of

02:29pressure on his position, and Barry Ferguson said after the game he'd made a bad mistake and

02:34to expect changes for Thursday's game. But there's just a general apathy around the domestic games

02:39and five losses at home. Athletic Bilbao will be favourites, you'd imagine. If it goes to the

02:46form book anyway, it might be six. But I don't think you can actually read too much into Saturday's

02:52game when it goes into Thursday because they're so unpredictable. They seem to be able to get

02:56themselves up for these big games where they know we're going to put ourselves on the platform,

03:01I can maybe get myself a bigger move here, or I can make myself look good. When it comes to these

03:06type of games, the three o'clock ones, you should really be winning comfortably. They don't really

03:10look that interested. Yeah, that's an interesting point Barry Ferguson made after the game about

03:18potentially making a lot of changes between now and the end of the season. It'll be intriguing

03:24to see what changes he does exactly make heading into this Bilbao game. We're guaranteed that there

03:30will be two changes. Mohamed Diomande and John Souter are both suspended for Rangers heading

03:35into this one. Also the goalkeeping decision, does he stick with Jack Butland or does he risk

03:42playing Liam Kelly? That's a massive decision. Ben, I'll put you on the spot here. Do you think

03:49Barry Ferguson can sort out Rangers defensive woes with the current group of players he's got

03:55available? No, no. It has been sent a bit of a hospital pass in terms of what he's had to deal

04:01with. Now you're taking John Souter out of it, who for me is clearly the best defender of that

04:07group. I think if not for Vaclav Cerny, I could probably argue that maybe Rangers has played of

04:12the year this season as much as obviously that's maybe not too much of a prize you want in a season

04:17where you finish second and don't win a trophy. He's been impressive for Rangers this season.

04:22Dujuan Sterling was at centre-back. Again, I don't see what he offers at centre-half. His

04:28game has been physical and almost providing... On the other side on Saturday, on the right-hand

04:35side, you had Chris Cadden and Lewis Miller perhaps who, going forward, they're okay.

04:40Going back the way, they're okay, but they're good athletes and they'll get up and down the park

04:45all game. That kind of is Dujuan Sterling's game along with his versatility. It's totally

04:50negated at centre-back. All you had was Mikola Kukarevic, who was towering over him, giving him

04:56a bit of a difficult time in physical battles when John Suter was getting dragged elsewhere.

05:01I find it difficult to see how he comes into the defence again. I think there'll be two changes

05:08at centre-half. Leon Balligan, you would have to imagine, comes in. Again, the options are scarce.

05:15I mean, what do you do? Do you go back to the back three and play James Tavernier with Leon

05:18Balligan in the middle of that? It's not easy for Barry Ferguson. He just needs to find a way

05:25to out-shoot the other teams and just try and score more goals in them. I think it's almost

05:31a certainty at the minute that Rangers are going to concede over this tie, probably a few times.

05:36It's just a case of, can they score at the other end? Yeah, this is an athletic Bilbao team who

05:41currently sit fourth in the La Liga table, comfortably fourth as well, you've got to say

05:46as things stand. Score a lot of goals, also concede a lot of goals, Ben, but you look through

05:52their squad, it's predominantly all Spanish-born bred players, the likes of Unai Simone, they've

06:00got Owein Sansette, Ryunaki Williams and Nico Williams on either flank. Star quality all across

06:10this team. We've spoken a lot about Rangers' success on a Thursday night in the Europa League,

06:15but this athletic Bilbao team on paper certainly look a level above what Fenerbahce

06:23do. Do you think that's fair to say? Yeah, well, I think you don't want to get into the debate of

06:28what league is this and what league is that, but you would probably say the La Liga is a higher

06:33bar of opponent. That said, I was doing a bit this morning on the strongest teams across the

06:40continent and if you look over the last 15 games across the top 15 leagues in Europe,

06:46Fenerbahce sit eighth in that list, having won 11, drawn three and lost one of their domestic

06:53fixtures. So they were in really good form going into that game and Rangers, they did lose, of

07:00course, at the second leg at Ivoros, but they did enough in the first leg to allow them the chance

07:03to win on penalties. So, I mean, on that basis, they're not going to be playing a team that is,

07:09athletic Bilbao are still in good form, but not as good form as Fenerbahce were. But again,

07:14you would imagine that the level of player is going to be a bit higher. So I do think it's as

07:21difficult a task as they've faced. I think it's the most difficult. You would probably say that

07:27I know Lyon have had their difficulties this season, but that was an eye-opening test.

07:32Nice have been a decent side in recent years. They've dismantled Dame, Tottenham, Man United.

07:38They've had these type of tests and over the course of their time in the Europa League over

07:42the 2020s really, they've faced better teams, albeit, I think there's also been better Rangers

07:50teams. And so it goes back to that full thing that it's just so confusing. You would think

07:56that looking at both teams, the athletic Bilbao would walk this two or three nothing both legs,

08:02but there really is no way in Owen with this Rangers team. It just seems like for whatever

08:07reason they get on a plane or they hear that Europa League music and all of a sudden,

08:11they're the 1990s Rangers again. I don't get it. It's truly baffling.

Can Barry Ferguson sort out Rangers defensive woes with the squad available ahead of Europa League Quarter-Final | Fitbaw Talk

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