Rangers face Jose Mourinho’s ‘tight ship’ in Turkey… | OneFootball

The 2024/25 UEFA Europa League season will conclude at San Mamés Stadium in Bilbao, Spain. But to get there we now need to get past Fenerbahçe SK

Some of you  might remember that we have played Fenerbahçe one before, and Ally McCoist should clearly remember them, because he scored our only goal, when we went down 2 – 1 at Şükrü Saracoğlu. However, in the home game we could not get the important home goal that we needed at Ibrox.

Today, Fenerbahçe is a team that blows hot and cold. They have won 3, drawn 5 and lost 2, and in these 10 matches they have conceded 13 and scored 14 (13 of these goals were scored inside the box with 4 scored from the right foot, 4 with the left, and 5 by the Glasgow Kiss) to give them a 1.4 goal average per match. In contrast, in our 8 matches, we have scored 16 goals with 14 inside the box (with the breakdown being 6 right, 9 left and 1 heady) giving us an average of 2 goals per match. Their variation in type of goals scored suggests they have a strong arial threat and can come at us from any direction, but they leak goals, with only 2 clean sheets. This is also highlighted by the fact their keeper has had to make 40 saves in their 10 matches vs our 19 in 8. This suggest their defense is weaker, but Butland is far more likely to let an attacker score.

In terms of passing accuracy Fenerbahçe is similar to Rangers with an 80.41% passing accuracy vs our 79.63%.

But the main difference in the stats between us and Fenerbahçe really begins to appear in Fenerbahçe’s poor discipline under pressure. In their 10 games Fenerbahçe have received 3 Red cards and 41 Yellow cards 4.1 avg. per match vs our 19 Yellow cards in 8 matches (which is an average of 2.38 per match). Here it should be noted that Fenerbahçe has committed 132 Fouls committed Vs our 114 Fouls committed, which argues that Fenerbahçe is far more aggressive when they attempt to make up for their frequent mistakes.

And this is something that is not mentioned often. Though Fenerbahçe are a solid unit, they do sometimes get caught out, and when transitions occur fast, they know they do not have the skill, so they will resort to the hard tackle. That said, they are not a really dirty team, but with three red cards in 10 matches, there is, in our two games, a very good chance they will have someone sent off.

So now we come to their manager and their tactics. Their manager is someone called José Mourinho, who appears to be a bit of a journeyman, and he has never settled for long at any of his prior teams. Some of the other teams he has managed are Man Utd, Inter Milan, Roma, Real Madrid and Tottenham Hotspurs. So, I really don’t see anything we need to fear. Oh, yeh. He was the first manager to win a major European competition with four different clubs and one of only three managers in history to win all the UEFA club competitions. But I have to say, in his long career, he never had to step up to the hardest challenge of all, and that is managing Rangers (yeh….I really think he should give Glasgow Rangers a wee go).

What we can say about Mourinho is he does run a tight ship, and he knows how to set up a team to defend, and he likes to score on the counter.

That, for me, is our greatest concern. If he sucks us into attack, we will need to be very careful at the back, to watch for the quick break. However, Fenerbahçe are not really that great in the counter, and they have also conceded 13 goals (and some of them were from very bad mistakes), and at this moment not all is well with Mourinho’s team. In fact, just like ourselves there are some nerves about the Fenerbahçe team, and with the players not being as skillful as the mega-million players his prior teams could afford; it just seems that Mourinho can sometimes ask too much of his players.

At the moment, with his team often set up to defend and hit on the break, there is just a feel of bland averageness about how they go about their work. And when it comes to getting the ball in the back of the net Rangers, just now, are far more efficient. So, it is going to be a tight nervy match, but over the two legs I honestly think we are stronger, especially if we can get some stability at the back with the return of Balogun, and perhaps we can bring someone, anyone in to replace Butland

Within Europe we are actually ranked well above Fenerbahçe, and amongst the last 16 we are the fifth highest in the UEFA coefficients. Rangers are ranked at 28; and the four teams above us are Eintracht Frankfurt (GER) ranked 27th; Lazio (ITA) ranked 24th; Man Utd ranked 13th, and Roma ranked 6th.

Fenerbahçe, is the most successful Turkish team in the Turkish Super Lig and came into existence in 1907. They have been played at the Şükrü Saracoğlu Stadium since 1908, they have won 28 Turkish national championship titles.