Can Rangers' European pattern expose Liverpool's latest 'real problems'?

They lost the game and their manager conceded the title race, a battle that they took to the final 10 minutes of last season. They lost Trent Alexander-Arnold and Luis Diaz to injury and perhaps, most notably, they lost the momentum of a fresh start. Often the most damaging element of damaging runs is their repetition. The need to offer up the same excuses which very quickly lose the goodwill of honest appraisal.

Their 2-0 win against Rangers last week saw a new formation trialled on the back of Jurgen Klopp admitting the need for “reinvention” weeks earlier, and they totally dominated. But having conceded just 0.33xG in midweek, Liverpool saw worrying defensive patterns reemerge at the Emirates and created a meagre 0.87xG – their lowest tally of the season.

“There are real problems, that is the truth for us,” Klopp commented post-match.

To summarise an article last week that elaborated on what the manager brandished Liverpool’s “special problem”, his side look a shell of the group that came so close to an unprecedented quadruple last season. Their intense, self-branded "heavy-metal football" was more “bass guitar” in North London according to Gary Neville.

Constant complaints of a lack of ‘compactness’ and pressure on the ball saw the German stray from the 4-3-3 he has religiously used during seven years in the job. Liverpool were conceding similar goals time and time again. Something had to change and the 4-2-3-1 system put into place during last week’s Champions League tie and rolled out again against Arsenal sought to rectify that.

Mikel Arteta’s side may be top of the English Premier League but Sunday’s tie defied the belief that Liverpool’s problems have been purely structural and therefore amendable by a switch of shape.

“The goals we conceded have nothing to do with the system,” Klopp added. “Do I have deeper concerns? Yes, of course. We are in a tough moment.”

All of this to say that while Rangers’ first three Champions League games have been a humbling experience, tomorrow is perhaps their best chance yet of ending the losing streak. There was a definite gulf between the two teams at Anfield, arguably the biggest faced by this group in recent years. And yet after two successive 4-0 wins in the league and some smatterings of positivity, Ibrox, if given sufficient encouragement, could enact the role it did so often on the road to Seville last season.

Away from home, Giovanni van Bronckhorst has struggled in Europe. This season alone his side have created just 0.54xG combined in two games against Ajax and Liverpool. Despite the famous 1-0 win in Eindhoven and the fabled 4-2 victory against Dortmund, those results are somewhat outliers in amongst defeats to Red Star, RB Leipzig, Braga and Union Saint-Gilloise.

The Dutchman’s preference for man-marking means, as was the case at both Anfield and the Johan Cruyff Arena, opponents can drag Rangers’ defensive shape out of position when it falls back into a low block. Something that’s not possible against, for example, Steven Gerrard’s compact 4-3-3 which positioned itself around the location of the ball instead.

The major upside of van Bronckhorst’s approach has been felt at home. He harnessed Ibrox’s potential last season by discarding the handbrake altogether. Pressing high and marking aggressively, his philosophy without the ball feels far more effective when an aggressive game plan is in action. Something that’s hard to achieve away from home in Europe.

A 3-0 defeat against Napoli, which was a scoreline that failed to reflect the competitive nature of the tie, was proof of this. Until a James Sands red card 10 minutes after half-time the momentum was poised to shift in either direction. Napoli, who put six beyond Ajax last week, were only in the ascendency once 10 against 11. As demonstrated by the below xG trendline, which charts the chances from the game.

“We need to get something from the game," van Bronckhorst said looking ahead to the tie tomorrow. He knows that without a result, European hopes post-Christmas are all but gone.

"Can we afford to be more high-risk? You have to be brave. In the second half [against Liverpool], we had moments where we pressed high against Liverpool. We have to try to be dangerous and create chances earlier in the game.”

The Dutchman has shown an ability to expose opposition weaknesses and learn from first-leg ties time and time again. Most notably against Braga, RB Leipzig and Union. It’s no secret that as a manager he is skilled at tailoring each game plan to a specific opponent. So can he find that sweet spot tomorrow?

Rangers have nearly done it all in Europe since Gerrard’s resurgent arrival and van Bronckhorst’s ceiling-raiser of an appointment. Too many famous Ibrox nights to recount, a remarkable consistency stretching over seasons, Dortmund, Braga (times two), Red Star and Leipzig. Arguably, the only night the stadium is yet to experience during this era is a win against English opposition. Can that be rectified tomorrow?