Best team in the Europa League as Rangers host Bilbao | OneFootball

To start, I want to thank all the fantastic Rangers supporters who came to assist my nephew, Colin, who was hit on the back of the head by the mirror of a Hibs supporter bus, while he was on his way to Saturday’s match. I just want everyone who helped out at the accident site to know that he has now regained consciousness and is now back home. I also want to thank all the witnesses who quickly came forward, and assisted the police in their investigations, and I  especially I wish to thank those who were quick enough to take the registration plate of the bus, as it fled the scene. We expect the police will be talking to the driver very soon.

So, now to the match. This week Rangers will face the best team remaining in the Europa League.

For some background Athletic Club was founded in 1898 by a group of English shipbuilders and miners and by a group of Basque students who were returning from England after being sent there to study at English Universities. Within the various league competitions, they have won the Copa del Rey 24 times, and the league 8 times.

With their Basque origins, Athletic has a long history of supporting local footballers, with one of their central aims being to bring young Basque players through their youth system; and despite not being able to hire hundred million Euro superstars. They more than offset this by creating teams that value teamwork, teamwork and yet more teamwork.

What makes Athletic Club more dangerous than Manchester United is this team is a fabulously well drilled team. When they lose the ball, they immediately move to assigned positions that are well thought out, and they do this without even looking. Every player has a specific area of the park that they are assigned to patrol; and when they obtain the ball, they will thread passes to various areas of the field with a knowledge gained from years of practice that there will always be someone there, in that assigned region, who can pick up the pass and then play it on to their front line.

They also have many players with massive talent. On the left they have Nico Williams, who is ridiculously fast and just like Ryan Kent, his job is not to score loads of goals, but to punch panic-inducing holes in the opponent’s defense, and then let the main strikers sneak into the gaps and finish the job; and on the right is his brother Inaki Williams who is also an annoying player to play against.

And in midfield their work ethics are just truly impressive. Here we need to watch out for the quick movement of Unai Gómez, who is almost as quick and as tricky as Nico and Inaki.

Typically, when they lose the ball, they press very hard to recover possession as quickly as possible, with two or sometimes three deployed up front to reinforce the high press.

But unlike some teams, even though deploy an aggressive high-press, they do not leave large inviting gaps at the back. Yes, they do swarm around the ball, to intimidate their opponents, but they also have enough tactical brains in their team to keep at least one player operating just outside the swarm to watch for a quick pass to the opposite side of the park.

So, we have a lot of work to do, if we are going to get past this team and become, by default, the new favourite to win the Europa League Cup.

So, what can we do to take something from this very tough match.

Well, being scared is not an option, and this brings me to Jack Butland.

Honestly, even though Butland is not listed as injured, he is, in my view, clearly carrying a mental injury. The fact is, the way he has been playing for the last month clearly shows he has been mentally scarred, ever since he hammered that own goal into the net, from a very simple cross against Manchester, and ever since that moment it is clear that he needs a confidence building break, and perhaps  (and this might be a bit controversial for some) I think he needs a break from being coached by Allan James McGregor,. McGregor was a fantastic reflex goalkeeper at his prime, but also hated to come out for a cross (do you see any similarity???). A goal keeper who is scared to come out and dominate the penalty box?

That will kill us on Thursday.

If we are to progress, we cannot afford to have any player on that park that scares the living daylights out of the rest of the team, every single time the ball heads his way.

Sadly, my advice is, if the manager does not have the guts to drop Jack Butland and to give him the break he badly needs, then Butland needs to be man enough to stand up and admit what we all can clearly see and to admit he needs to stand down, and for McGregor to admit that his style of play might not suit everyone.

Secondly, I would pull Tavernier to Center Back. And place Sterling to face the threat from Nico Williams. Sterling has the pace to at least give Nico something to think about, and by doing this Tavernier will then have the flexibility to either support Sterling, or to move to the center to cover the late incoming runs by the Athletic midfield players.

Third, because we do not have amazing pace up front….we need to deploy at least two up front, so that when we do get the ball, we can give our forwards options on the transition.

In this match you will see there are zero Prima Donas in the Athletic team who think they are better than they really are, and they are none in this team that refuse to work hard, in case they might damage their multi-million dollar careers. This Athletic team is filled with players who are skilled and will work hard through the entire 90 minutes. They also never look down on their opponents, and are unlikely to take us lightly.

This means we need to be quick on our feet and thankfully, in this regard, Barry has been working very hard on increasing this Rangers team’s speed in thought and the speed in moving the ball through the lines. Under Clement our tactics relied far too much on the hopeful thump up the park, which at this level will be returned like a cannon ball down our throat.

So, just like our game against Borussia Dortmund in 2022, when I was one of the very few who thought we had a chance to win against them, we need to go into this match with confidence. We need to be aggressive, and lethal on the counter attack, and to remember we can be just as good as any of the teams in the top five European leagues.

After all we have been through, I think we are entitled to dream again.

Get well soon Colin.