“Are Rangers miles off this level? Or are the players not doing themselves justice?”
It was former Ibrox striker Steven Thompson who posed the question in the immediate aftermath of this sobering Champions League encounter.
Liverpool didn’t so much beat Rangers on Tuesday as use the Scottish Premiership side as a curer to square themselves up after a rough time of it themselves. There was a fragility about the Anfield side, it was said. They could be ‘got at’.
Travelling fans outside the ground murmured about 1-0 wins or getting back up the road with a point. It was wishful thinking by supporters desperate to see their team kick-start a group-stage campaign that might now have some wondering why they were so keen to get there in the first place.
We never did find out how vulnerable Jurgen Klopp’s side are though. A meek Rangers performance ensured that. The 2-0 scoreline did not come close to conveying the gulf between the two teams.
Klopp said he “didn’t recognise” there being much to separate them, but his were the words of a gracious host. One who enjoyed a far more straightforward evening than others of late. These guests were no trouble at all.
“That was eye-opening in terms of how far Rangers were off it,” former Ibrox winger Neil McCann said. “There has to be questions asked of certain players.
“That was miles more than a 2-0. Allan McGregor was outstanding. If it wasn’t for that man, it would have been six.”
Or seven, or more. The 40-year-old goalkeeper made eight saves, not many of them routine. One or two left Liverpool’s players bewildered.
That is what has to happen for a team to survive a visit to Anfield, of course. After all, this is a club who have reached three of the last five Champions League finals. They have a bit about them.
“Don’t forget the opposition we are playing,” a chastened Giovanni van Bronckhorst said afterwards, the Rangers manager’s talk of 24 hours earlier about believing his side could take something having been debunked by reality.
“Everyone is saying, ‘it’s Liverpool, they’re out of form’. Well, you see today the level they can reach. The gap is obvious – you have to look at the squads.”
The truth is probably somewhere in between. Yes, there is a significant disparity between Rangers and Liverpool. And, yes, the Premier League side should routinely win a fixture such as this.
But it is hard to make a compelling case that any of the Ibrox players – McGregor apart – showed the best of themselves.
Leon King carried himself with admirable composure for an 18-year-old in his ninth senior game, but few others could claim to have reached the levels they are capable of. The levels they showed repeatedly in last season’s run to the Europa League final.
Steven Davis and Borna Barisic both spoke post-match of just how big the step up to Europe’s top-tier competition has been, but the ratcheting up in quality appears to have been accompanied by a dialling down of the intensity in this Rangers side.
Last term, Borussia Dortmund, Braga and RB Leipzig were treated with an irreverence notably lacking against Ajax, Napoli and now Liverpool. Is too much respect being shown? Do some players wilt under the harsher spotlight? Or has the narrative of this campaign simply been sculpted by the unforgiving knife of elite competition?
“I think we competed really well and we will learn from this game,” Van Bronckhorst said, looking ahead to the reverse fixture in Glasgow next Wednesday.
Perhaps Ibrox – and the home crowd – will invigorate the Rangers players to deliver more, as it did for the first hour or so against Napoli before the contest was disfigured by the dismissal of James Sands.
Or maybe the uncomfortable truth is that this squad is game, but ill-equipped, for the challenge they earned for themselves.
