'We were torn apart': Malmo boss names one Rangers star his side simply could not deal with
Yesterday at 04:15 AM
Before Rangers’ Europa League meeting with Malmo, home coach Henrik Rydstrom shared his plan to defeat Philippe Clement’s team.
Malmo had planned to play their own game against Rangers, the manager said, while avoiding being dragged into a battle by a visiting side happy to disrupt their rhythm and hit them in transition.
But as Nedim Bajrami opened the scoring inside a minute – the Albanian certainly likes to start fast, as Italy discovered during Euro 2024 – all of Rydstrom’s carefully constructed plans flew out of the window.
Rangers added Malmo to an impressive array of European scouts, Ross McCausland’s clincher off the bench making it five wins and five clean sheets from their last six outings.
And Rydstrom, his side perhaps lucky not to lose by an even heavier margin after Vaclav Cerny and Cyriel Dessers spurned big chances in one-on-one situations, can trace a poor Malmo display all the way back to Gabriel Busanello’s misplaced backpass with only 50 or so seconds on the clock.
Cyriel Dessers shines as Rangers beat Malmo in Europa Laegue
“It’s a problem we’ve had for a damn long time and I’ve tried to get the players to understand that we shouldn’t play back to the goalkeeper,” a disappointed Rydstrom fumed at full-time, speaking in his post-match press conference.
“They, the goalkeepers, are not our playmakers. We must play forward. [Busanello] is a great player, but it kind of set the tone in a negative way, and we continued to do that.
“You can discuss whether I am stupid as a coach? Because I set a game plan for them to stick to. Yes, probably stupid.”
Clearly, the nature of the defeat has left Rydstrom in a bit of a spin.
The Malmo boss also highlighted the role an in-form Dessers played in proceedings. The Nigeria international was the one who intercepted that Busanello blunder, rounding the goalkeeper and hitting the post before Bajrami gobbled up the rebound.
Ex-Rangers midfielder Andy Halliday lauded Dessers’ link-play in midweek. And this was another display in which the former Feyenoord man excelled with his back to goal, one gorgeous flick helping to create a counter-attacking chance which the underwhelming Cerny squandered.
And Rydstrom feels Malmo struggled to deal with the physicality and aggression of Rangers. Connor Barron and Mohamed Diomande excelled in midfield, aided by the ferocious hold-up play of a motivated Dessers up top.
Connor Barron and Mohamed Diomande won the midfield battle
“We have to understand that we are better than how we behaved in the first half. Too many players hid, and that also applied defensively. We didn’t push hard enough,” says the 2023 Swedish league champion.
“We knew they would play over our pressure and fight for second balls, and they won [the game] there. They hit long, won duels, and then they had great chances. We were lucky they didn’t score the second goal in those situations. We were stressed when we defended.
“I’m really disappointed with how we acted.
“We pressed hard just like against Hacken,” adds Rydstrom, referring to Malmo’s 4-0 thrashing of their Allsvenskan rivals on Sunday. “But Hacken had no striker who could receive [the ball].
“He [Dessers] was able to connect [link the play] and then we were torn apart in midfield.”
With tougher games to come – Rangers also face Lyon, Olympiakos, Nice and Manchester United – those three points secured in Sweden could look all the more important in hindsight.
Dessers, meanwhile, is in the form of his life right now even if he did fail to add to a tally of seven goals in nine games in Sweden.
