Barry Ferguson must be pinching himself given that only a matter of weeks ago he would have been paid to give his verdict on Rangers stunning victory over Fenerbahce.
Instead, the Rangers manager masterminded a 3-1 win – that could have been more – against one of football’s biggest characters and most decorated bosses in Jose Mourinho.
The Special One was out thought by someone with a CV that includes a handful of games in charge of Blackpool and a couple of seasons at Kelty Hearts and Alloa Athletic with first blood to Rangers as Fenerbahce lick their wounds.
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Barry Ferguson outthinks Jose Mourinho as Rangers beat Fenerbahce
Having the second leg at Ibrox is now a huge boost with two goals to defend and 50,000 fans behind a team that has produced little to cheer about.
Speaking ahead of the game, Ferguson was coy about a potential change of shape:
“I don’t want to give too much away,” he said.
“You’ve got to be respectful of the opponent.
“I’m sure you might see a few surprises tonight.”
And that is exactly what Rangers did.
What did Ferguson do to outsmart Mourinho?
It would have been easy for Ferguson to set his team up in exactly the same way that has been successful all season in the Europa League.
Instead, James Tavernier was deployed as a right-sided centre-half in a 5-4-1 or 5-3-2 formation that was fluid in and out of possession.
Vaclav Cerny was instrumental playing in a more central role when Rangers had the ball rather than being stuck out on the wing with Mohamed Diomande, Nicolas Raskin and Connor Barron doing the hard yards in front of the defence.
Fenerbahce resorted to throwing crosses into the box with John Souttar and Leon Balogun both immense in repelling everything that was thrown at them.
Who would have thought that Mourinho’s plan A, B and C would all fail against a manager who had never been in charge in Europe before and was more used to dealing with part-time players, than Champions League winners and European superstars.
