MIND GAMES

Midtjylland boss tries to crank up the heat by saying that Rangers are favourites but Gerrard refuses to play any...

THEY are known as canny operators in this part of Denmark. Lego, that globe-spanning plastic brick behemoth, is based about 45 minutes down the road from where FC Midtjylland play football.

Enterprise and hard graft, making the most of what you have, are considered characteristics that tend to flourish within the people of mid-Jutland.

Shrewdness is obviously a highly valued asset. So it was perhaps little surprise that Midtjylland coach Kenneth Andersen sought to display that very trait yesterday afternoon when he met the media just minutes ahead of Steven Gerrard.

Branding Rangers favourites to progress, he sought to shift the psychology of a Europa League third qualifying round tie that most would regard as finely balanced.

‘We need a bit of luck because the game will be a tough one,’ claimed Andersen (below). ‘I think Rangers are the favourites against us here.

‘Why? When I look at the two teams, the history, what Rangers did last year in reaching the group stage, it makes me think they have a little bit more than us.

‘They are also a little bit older than us so, when I look at that altogether, it makes Rangers a little bit the favourites in my point of view.’

It’s fair to say the attempt at

mind games cut no ice with Gerrard. When it was his turn to occupy the podium within a function room at the smart, compact MCH Arena on the outskirts of Herning, the Ibrox boss dismissed Andersen’s bid to shift greater expectation onto the shoulders of his players.

‘I’m not really interested in their manager’s opinions and predictions or anyone who’s predicting the outcome,’ responded Gerrard.

‘It’s not important. My focus is on my own players.

‘They are at home, we’re the away team. We’ll come here with a game-plan and we’ll see.

‘I think he’s trying to put pressure on our side. But I don’t think you can put any more pressure on me or the team because we represent Rangers and that always comes with pressure anyway.’

Indeed it does, although it might have felt a little more acute were Gerrard’s side not approaching the tie having opened their Premiership campaign with a victory.

As it is, Connor Goldson’s stoppage-time header at Rugby Park on Sunday has placed an additional spring in the step of the Rangers squad.

‘I think it always helps,’ said Gerrard, reflecting on the 2-1 win over Kilmarnock. ‘If I put myself back in the dressing room after Kilmarnock, it was a very happy dressing room.

‘We’ve also been on the end of those games when you come on the wrong end of one. That’s not a nice place to be.

‘So, yes, I saw a happy dressing room. It was a big three points and a fantastic way to start the season.

‘At times it’s not about the style and how it looks on the eye, it’s about getting over the line and getting the three points. We’ve done that.

‘I think this will be a different challenge, a different game. We’ve prepared well for it and we’re ready to go.’ Midtjylland are a club with growing pedigree. Champions of Denmark in 2015 and 2018, they finished second behind FC Copenhagen last term and have targeted a place in the Europa League group stage as a key element of their continued progression. Manchester United lost here in 2016, as did Southampton the year before. An organisation that invests much in data analysis and alternative thinking has become renowned for the effectiveness of their set-piece routines. Rangers will have to box clever to emerge unscathed ahead of the second leg in Glasgow seven days later.

‘It’s been well-documented how good they are on set-pieces,’ considered Gerrard. ‘They have had a lot of joy and a lot of success over the years from a set-piece point of view.

‘I know they have a Brazilian connection here so you know that, technically, they will have individuals who can create interesting situations against you.

‘They are a good team. They don’t have massive names known throughout Europe but as a club they are well-respected in terms of the teams that they create.

‘We are well aware of their threats and their strengths but we come here in a good place. We are right up for this challenge. It’s over two games so it’s important that we do everything we can to try and set it up for Ibrox the week after.

‘They play a system with five defenders, three midfielders and two forwards. They have done that consistently. Whether they change that against us, we will have to wait and see. They do try to play it on the floor and try to build out from the back.

‘I think with home advantage you imagine that, with two up front, they will try to cause a threat.

‘I don’t envisage us playing against a block for the majority of the game like we have done in previous rounds and domestically against Kilmarnock.’