'Once you smell that' - Robbie Keane confirms Rangers flop was targeted in Euro defeat
Ferencvaros could “smell blood” as they targeted the chaotic Rangers defence in their Europa League victory, admits Robbie Keane.
Emmanuel Fernandez was singled out for major criticism by the likes of Ally McCoist and Tam McManus after he was easily beaten in the air by Barnabás Varga for the winner on Thursday night.
Bojan Miovski had scored the opener in Hungary with an acrobatic strike that cleared a VAR review for offside but Rangers lost 2-1 after Ferencvaros came back, having equalised on the stroke of half-time.
Now, Keane has confirmed that the hosts could see there was a weak link at the back of Danny Rohl‘s line-up and he pushed his players to take advantage.
Ferencvaros ‘smell blood’ after disputed Rangers goal
The former Celtic forward celebrated extravagantly at full-time and Keane has put that partly down to the “stick” he receive from Rangers fans.
But on the pitch he says he borrowed from his experience as a striker when playing to urge his team not to let up on Fernandez and company struggling at the back on Thursday.
Live on talkSPORT host Sam Matterface asked: “The quote that stood out for me wasn’t this week, it was a few months ago when you said ‘my players don’t stop if they smell blood’. Does that sum up the kind of ethos you’ve got as a head coach?”
Keane responded: “Yeah. I think you’ve seen that last night in the game. We were the much better team against Rangers. They get the goal, debatable to be honest with you, offside. Then we scored just before half time and I told them, ‘I think they will go now’.
“The first 20 minutes in the second half, as you said about smelling blood, I was pushing the players to go and press them and they couldn’t get out of their own half. Then once you smell that as a player, or as a coach and a player, when I could see that a centre-half was struggling I would use that to my benefit and play on his side most of the time.
“And that’s what we did last night to Rangers, especially in the second half.”
Rohl must target league revival as Europe a write-off
Fernandez wasn’t the only one struggling at the back on the night, with James Tavernier also leaving McCoist aghast, but Nasser Djiga did put in some key challenges.
Anyone can have a bad game but Fernandez has already joined the list of recent Rangers centre-back signings who quickly appeared out of their depth, along with the likes of Robin Propper and Ben Davies.
Unlike virtually every other central defensive option the former Peterborough United man is currently on a long-term contract at Ibrox so unless he is quickly ushered back out like Propper Rohl is going to need to find a way to get the best out of him.
With John Souttar’s future unclear as his contract runs down and Djiga and Derek Cornelius both on loan, there is already plenty of work to do in central defence.
The Gers boss can’t really learn much from European exploits this term as it has been little more than a disaster from start to finish, so must turn all his attentions to making the most of newfound instability at Celtic and attempting to reel in Hearts back in Scotland.
He’ll likely need yet more money spent in January to fix the problems caused by the hefty summer spend under Russell Martin, and Keane’s verdict adds weight to the fact that defence needs help above all.
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The post 'Once you smell that' - Robbie Keane confirms Rangers flop was targeted in Euro defeat appeared first on Ibrox News.
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