IN a city renowned for its canals, Rangers are expected to experience severe difficulties in keeping their Champions League aspirations above water.
The Scots, under Walter Smith, arrived here yesterday to meet a supposedly diminished Ajax side at the Amsterdam Arena tonight, but the Rangers manager's problems make those of his rival, Louis van Gaal, look about as serious as a shaving cut.
Smith was not exaggerating when he said he could not even form a game plan, except for some provisional sketching, until he had some idea of the personnel at his disposal. The picture would not become clear until today, when he had the chance to check on possible reactions to last night's training session.
Midfielder Stuart McCall and goalkeeper Andy Goram were not able to go through a rigorous work-out, and Smith will be thankful to have even one of them available.
Without a recognised striker - McCoist, Durie and Andersen are already out and van Vossen has virtually no chance - Rangers will have to rely on Brian Laudrup going solo in the forward areas.
The Dane can be formidable, but not without the ball. Gaining possession and supplying Laudrup is likely to be difficult. Rangers may have to press into service - at least on the bench - some of the under-20s who are allowed to be added to the 25 players registered with UEFA in advance of the Champions League ties.
These include Greg Shields, Brian McGinty, Steven Boyack and Paul McKnight. But, as Smith pointed out: "It's a hell of a game to be playing with boys hardly out of their apprenticeships."
Smith took mild exception to Van Gaal's comments after watching Rangers lose 2-1 to Hibernians last Saturday, but more out of tedium than acrimony. "It seems that every coach we meet this season has a comment to make about Rangers, but it's not my way to talk of others and what they may or not be. I'll leave that to those who feel the need for it."
Van Gaal, who is likely to be without strikers Patrick Kluivert and Jari Litmanen as well as the veteran sweeper Danny Blind, had said that Rangers were not good technically and that Laudrup and Paul Gascoigne tended to play for themselves rather than the team.
Laudrup had a reply: "Paul is an individualist, like myself, and sometimes people will say we're only playing for ourselves. But you have to do what you're best at. Paul is good at creating opportunities by taking on opponents, so you should leave him the way
Neither Gascoigne nor Laudrup has been noticeably successful with Rangers in Europe, but Smith is placing some reliance on them tonight.
"Of course, you can't succeed without a team structure," he said, "but, within that, you have to look to the special talents, like Gascoigne and Laudrup, to do the special thing. Oh yes, they'll be important here all right."
