Pat Nevin: 'Celtic must break a defence meaner than Donald Trump's legal team'

AN OLD manager used to say to me that if you stood 10 dustbins in the penalty box, they would be hard to score against if you played at match pace.

The idea was that if you then substituted them with 10 defenders it would be almost impossible to break through. Take it a stage further and make them good defenders with a cause to fight for, and a blank scoreline is little short of an inevitability.

Asked for a prediction before the Rangers v Fiorentina match on Radio 5 Live I plumped for 0-0, getting it right for the third time in a row. They must think I'm Mystic Meg down there, but of course the majority of people up here would have gone for that result without a second's thought. Thursday night at Ibrox only lacked the presence of Bill Murray to make it a passable pastiche of the movie Groundhog Day. Most of the fans had seen it all before against Barcelona, Panathinaikos and Sporting Lisbon. Amazingly though, the same performance this time was given a rave review by the 50,000 critics who turned up, instead of the raspberries received last time.

Of course they have since then become educated in the ways of Walter, or should that be indoctrinated. There certainly seemed to be an almost religious fervour with the devotion to the team and their grim but laudable efforts. Today's match against Celtic represents another stern test and it will be fascinating to see their approach.

TACTICS: WILL RANGERS OPT FOR EURO FORMATION?

Rangers are vulnerable at the moment, which is a strange thing to say about a side that are well capable of winning four trophies this season. The injuries and suspensions will only become a bigger problem as the days go by, so eventually common sense would suggest that they will slip up, but when? Will it be today against Celtic?

They are more likely to lose if they make the same mistakes they made last time at Parkhead 11 short days ago. To start with Walter sent them out with the usual European game plan, but it doesn't work as well when you go a goal down and 40 dustbins in the Rangers penalty area wouldn't have stopped Shunsuke Nakamura's strike. So Rangers changed it, introduced Nacho Novo, upped the tempo and pressured Celtic. It paid off with the little Spaniard's goal but to my surprise they kept on going at the same breakneck pace instead of settling back into plan A.

It may have been the belief that another goal would have finished the title race off there and then, but I suspect it was the good old fashioned over-excitement of a tempestuous Old Firm game judging by the scenes at the end. The uncontrolled element of the behaviour mirrored the tactics and this is anathema to Walter Smith's doctrine this season. I don't expect anything like that to happen again or else the culprits will have to face the wrath of the manager.

COPING WITHOUT CUELLAR

One of the biggest positives for Rangers right now is that the defensive method they favour is not the most energy-sapping way to play football. This is fortunate in that the 18 European games this season equate to an extra half of a domestic campaign, in fact it probably feels like more than that because the travelling can be as draining as the games themselves.

This is less of a worry if you play the way David Weir did on Thursday. A contender for man of the match, I reckon the only way he was likely to break sweat was if he fancied a sauna afterwards. That luxury isn't possible for the front men and the more offensive midfielders, with Darcheville and Davis understandably looking wiped out even before the first half against Fiorentina was finished. Of course, Rangers will have to do without the suspended Carlos Cuellar who is banned after being sent off in the last Old Firm game for handball. His loss will be keenly felt, although Christian Dailly has proved to be an adaptable deputy.

NAKAMURA HOLDS KEY FOR CELTIC

So is it advantage Celtic in the league before today's encounter? Certainly they are not so much coming into form over the last few weeks, as finally turning their superiority into goals. They also have the advantage of being a little more rested than their old rivals and that will be the case right until the end of the season. On top of that there is also the psychological effect of them being able to look at the league table and see themselves ahead before the games in hand are factored in. On the flip side, however, they cannot afford to lose any games and indeed even a draw in any of the last four could seal their fate. It is the end of the season, so some players who have played in the majority of those games may still be a little jaded and remember Strachan does not rotate his squad quite as regularly as Smith does.

Today Celtic also have to break through a defence meaner than Donald Trump's legal team. Cuellar will be missing but it is the system as much as the personnel that has to be undone. To do so Celtic may well have to rely on either the lucky or the spectacular, as they did last time with Nakamura's left foot screamer.

Fans of both sides will have looked ahead and figured out that Rangers can afford to lose today and even another one in the league yet still be crowned champions. A note of fear will however register with Rangers fans when they realise that five of the seven remaining league games are away from home. Worryingly for them, in the 14 away trips this season in the SPL they have dropped points in six of them. With a month still to go you write off this title race at your peril.