Fenerbahce vs Rangers preview: The cult of personality

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Evening all, it's the first European test for Barry Ferguson tomorrow as Rangers travel to Turkey to face Fenerbahçe at the Şükrü Saracoğlu Stadium, in the Europa league round of 16. There's lots to talk about with both teams, but let’s start with the managers.

BARRY VS JOSE

Fenerbahçe are currently managed by 2-time UCL winning manager, Jose Mourinho. If I was to list his achievements in football, I'd have no room left in the article for any analysis. There's no doubt that in terms of European managers, there are very few with more pedigree than the Portuguese. His style of football was once seen as revolutionary, but his managerial record in the last 10 years has been impeached by player fallouts, massive collapses in form and general inconsistency in playing style.

In the away dugout tomorrow, we have a marginally less experienced manager in Barry Ferguson. His record as Rangers manager reads 2 games: 1 win, 1 defeat. His achievements as a manager would fit on the back of a post-it note. In terms of style, there's been signs of a basic top heavy attacking approach, with nothing approaching flexibility or adaptability.

I think there's actually a few similarities between the managers though. Both men are known for their bullish personalities, that's more evident on the pitch for Barry than Jose. Some of Ferguson's early press conferences have been "Mourinho-lite" with an emphasis on winning and expectations, while avoiding questions on style of play. I even think the "hard but fun" style of training that we've seen at Rangers under Ferguson would marry up with the approach to training we've seen from Jose.

The last time Jose Mourinho and Barry Ferguson met, Chelsea ran out comfortable 4-0 winners at Stamford Bridge in 2004, thanks to a 14-minute hat-trick by Eidur Gudjohnsen. A certain Arjen Robben made his debut for Chelsea.

Of course, this all comes with the disclaimer that there's clearly far more to being a manager than a few surface level features. But my overall point is that both managers fall under the "cult of personality" style. In their eyes they set the pace and the team match it, there's no adjustment made to let those who may struggle catch up.

That brings me nicely onto Jose Mourinho's comments from earlier today. He was quick to dress down Philippe Clement after the former Rangers manager was critical of Jose upon the announcement of the draw. His point about Clement talking about "philosophy" rather than winning games really made me laugh, in the Belgians time at Rangers we rarely saw evidence of a footballing philosophy and there certainly wasn't an emphasis on winning games either.

Jose also spoke about potentially managing Celtic or Rangers in the future. That sums up just how the Portuguese expresses his personality. I can't think of many managers in the world who would happily generate such a story on the eve of a European tie. Truly, personalities like Jose make the game entertaining in a way that we've started to lose in recent years.

RANGERS’ LEAST FAVOURITE FORMATION

Having looked over Fenerbahçe's recent games, especially in Europe. It's clear they favour a 3-5-2 system currently. This is bad news for Rangers; in the last two home games they have been undone by two teams playing that same formation. It goes without saying that Fenerbahçe have slightly better players than St Mirren and Motherwell too.

The interim management team had 90 minutes (not including any pre-match prep) to try and find a way to unpick the well organised Steelmen side. They made a minor adjustment by switching to a 4-4-1-1 from their preferred 4-2-4, but this just increased the congestion in front of the Well back 3. Eventually Rangers had as many forward players as they could fit on the pitch - with no result to show for it.

It goes without saying that if he wants stop tomorrow being a European humiliation, Barry Ferguson and his coaching team need to put their heads together to find an approach to this game that doesn't lead to isolated forward players, an overworked midfield and an exposed defence.

The potential saving grace for Rangers tomorrow is that the Fenerbahçe 3-5-2 is a much more attacking shape than that employed by Motherwell and St Mirren. Dusan Tadic is deployed as the 10 with two sitting midfielders behind him. The former Southampton and Ajax midfielder has complete positional freedom, he will look to drop into wide areas and link-up with the Fenerbahçe wing backs. If we see the same 4-2-4 set up for Rangers I'd be worried about the ability of Raskin/Diomande to keep an eye on the Serb given the amount of ground they will have to cover.

Even at 38, Dusan Tadic has played 40 games already this season, scoring 11 times and providing 15 assists.

That's before we address the two giant goal hungry elephants in the room. Fenerbahçe's front 2 is generally Edin Dzeko and Youssef En-Nesyri, the latter a £16m record signing from Sevilla. Between them they have 45 goals and 12 assists in all competitions this season. There probably isn't a better strike partnership left in the competition. Both forwards lack mobility but make up for it by being excellent finishers who are both extremely strong in the air. Whatever backline Rangers deploy will have their hands full with these two, fingers crossed both Souttar and Balogun are fit enough to start.

Youssef En-Nesyri and ex-Manchester City striker Edin Dzeko. The latter has 11 goals and assists in his 14 European matches this season, with a further 15 from 25 league appearances.

The largest threat facing Rangers will be the deliveries from wide areas and set pieces. Both wing backs have license to get forward and will generally look to deliver for either striker. Rangers fans would do well to avoid any flashbacks by looking up the career highlights of left wing back Filip Kostic.

Both Tadic and the Polish midfielder Szymanski are excellent set piece takers. Given Fenerbahçe will have both strikers joined in the box by Caglar Soyuncu and Milan Skriniar, both very aerially adept, I expect Rangers will need to be extra vigilant when defending any set plays.

ROOM FOR HOPE?

There's no doubt that this is an intimidating opposition for Rangers to face in the round of 16, but no team is unbeatable. It may surprise those who are familiar with Jose Mourinho's greatest sides to know that this Fenerbahçe team are bordering on porous at the back.

In 10 Europa League matches, they've scored 14 goals but also conceded 13. Why is this? Firstly, the wing backs fall much more in the mould of 'wingers that track back' rather than 'defenders that get forward'. A large number of the goals they've conceded in Europe this season have come from teams winning the ball and exploiting that space in wide areas earlier in transition. Hamza Igamane and Vaclav Cerny should relish seeing the space in the channels given that's where they tend to make the majority of their runs. If the Moroccan could find his shooting boots again, it might put Rangers back on something resembling the right path.

Secondly, given the 'free role' occupied by Dusan Tadic, the other two midfielders are often overworked and exposed. In fact, they have a lot in common with the Rangers midfield two. We need to be careful, if they get talking in the middle of the game they might unionise and strike mid-game, asking for better working conditions with less space to cover.

Teams have exploited this undermanning by getting runners from deep going beyond the frontline. Az Alkmaar did this to great effect when they beat the Turkish side 3-1. Rangers will likely struggle to do this if we choose to set up in the 4-2-4, given if Diomande were to try and get beyond we would be left with a 1 person midfield facing a potential counter attack. Hopefully this weakness will have been part of the managerial teams thought process and we could see a more balanced midfield 3 start, giving them more license to get beyond.

Fenerbahçe have occasionally reverted to a 4-4-2 when trying to stifle teams away from home this season. I don't think we will see this in either leg against Rangers, given the way Rangers have conceded goals so willingly in recent games. Approaching either leg cautiously would be a misread on the oppositions part.

ROUND - UP

Rangers face a tough test against Fenerbahçe in this European tie. Of course, they will hope that the "Ibrox in Europe" effect will play a big part come the return leg next Thursday evening, but Fenerbahçe are equally known for an intimidating home atmosphere. It will be crucial for Rangers to bring the tie back to Ibrox with no worse than a narrow defeat, if they are to have any hope of progressing into the Europa League Quarter Finals.