When Barry Ferguson got the Rangers gig a few weeks back, who honestly expected to see him out-think Jose Mourinho and bring Europa League quarter-final football to Ibrox?
Up against a coach with two Champions League winners’ medals, five European titles and Real Madrid, Manchester United, Inter Milan and Chelsea on his CV, the man back at Rangers after spells in charge of Kelty Hearts, Clyde and Alloa Athletic came out on top.
Barry Ferguson was indebted to Jack Butland’s penalty shoot-out heroics of course.
The Rangers goalkeeper denied both Dusan Tadic and Fred from 12 yards after a Sebastian Szymanski brace at Ibrox levelled the score against Fenerbahce to 3-3 after 210 enthralling minutes.
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Scott Arfield thinks James Tavernier should start out wide as Rangers travel to Celtic
As such, while Rangers are obviously going to Celtic as big underdogs – the gap at the top of the table already stands at 16 – Scott Arfield feels that Fenerbahce triumph is proof that Ferguson’s visitors should not be underestimated.
“I might be talking up Barry’s motivational qualities but don’t think for a minute he doesn’t know how to set a team up,” Arfield, the former Rangers playmaker back in Scotland with Falkirk, tells the Daily Record.
“He deserves huge credit for outfoxing Mourinho in the first leg and it showed that the interim boss, along with his assistants Neil McCann, Billy Dodds and Allan McGregor, were able to come up with a winning game plan.
“Tactically, I reckon it will be a copy and paste job from the other night. But perhaps with a slight tweak.”
That ‘tweak’, Arfield explains, may be a return to right-wing-back for James Tavernier. The Rangers captain has been ‘immense’ under Ferguson – to quote the interim boss himself – in a more central role of late.
Arfield feels that a more attack-minded runner down the flank will be key to giving Vaclav Cerny the extra yard of space he needs to rattle off one of those trademark left-footed pingers from distance.
“Cerny is so effective when he has an outside runner down the flank to drag away defenders but neither Dujon Sterling nor Ridvan Yilmaz are the type to get beyond the winger,” Arfield adds.
“If it was me, I’d swap Sterling and Tavernier round and put the captain back to his natural slot on the wing where he can forward and support Cerny because the 2400 Rangers fans heading back to Parkhead will demand their team has a go at Celtic.”
Ferguson has Dujon Sterling dilemma in Parkhead clash
Dujon Sterling could make his first Premiership start for Rangers since early January if he keeps his place from the Fenerbahce second-leg. The best defender of Ferguson’s current full-backs.
“I can understand [starting Sterling against Celtic],” former Scotland international James McFadden muses. “I know Tavernier has done well there, at right centre-back.
“But when you’re playing as a back three, when you’re more attacking, the wing-back goes high and wide. And the right centre-back, you need to [shift over to play] as a right-back and, at times, go man for man.
“I think you would probably feel a bit better if Sterling was doing that than Tavernier. Plus, you get more from Tavernier going forward.”
