? Walter Smith refuses to take Europa League lightly
? Old Firm game on Sunday casts shadow over match
Walter Smith faces weekly questions about where Rangers' priorities lie and the manager says the fact that his squad is low on numbers does not mean he will take the Europa League lightly when Sporting Lisbon visit Ibrox on Thursday night even though many would regard Sunday's Old Firm game at Celtic Park as of greater importance.
"When you are at a club where there is a demand to be successful, it's very difficult to pick and choose," the Rangers manager said. "You've got to go and try to win your games. There is no way we will approach this by fielding a team that we think might not win this game just because we go to Celtic Park on Sunday. What if we ended up losing both games?
"If you are a manager of Rangers or Celtic or Manchester United and people ask you what you've got to do, it's simple: you've got to win. If you set out trying to pick and choose your games then you are on very dangerous ground, in my eyes."
Smith says he can count on only 16 senior professionals, eight fewer than when he guided Rangers to a Uefa Cup final amid fixture chaos in 2008.
The manager can see similarities between his side's situation then and now with a domestic backlog looming. Sporting, after all, were defeated on that Rangers run to the Uefa final in Manchester three years ago.
"When we were in Panathinaikos [in 2008] and were down 1-0, [the assistant manager] Ally McCoist said to me: 'What will we do?' I said: 'Get beat.' He said to me: 'We can't,' and I said: 'I know we can't.' So we made a change, got a goal and went through. The point I'm making is, you are aware that it will affect your domestic situation. But how can you want to lose? I've spent three and a bit years trying to make sure I have a squad that has a good winning mentality. And now I'm supposed to say to them: 'Look, this game is more important than the other'?
"I just think we've got to go and try to win the matches. And you take the consequences of whatever happens.
"Everybody forgets that, back in 2008, our Uefa Cup run was not the sole cause of Rangers' fixture pile-up, just as it won't be now. But for the same thing to occur again, what do we have to do? Win a game. So that is what we will be going out to try to do."
Ibrox will not be full for the visit of the Portuguese side, a matter Smith believes may prove to be an indicator of things to come. Only 13,215 attended a recent Scottish Cup tie between Rangers and Kilmarnock, a game which, like the Europa Cup game, was not included on Ibrox season-ticket packages.
"You don't blame them for that, do you, with the way things are," Smith said of supporters picking and choosing which games to attend. "That's an aspect that I think football will be looking at as much as Rangers or any of the Scottish clubs.
"I don't know whether that will be a trend or not because it is a little bit early for us to say. We have witnessed it in the Scottish Cup; if it is the same in the European matches, then it may well be a warning sign for everyone."
Rangers (probable) 4-5-1: McGregor; Whittaker, Bougherra, Weir, Papac; Davis, Edu, Ness, Bartley, Weiss; Diouf.
Sporting Lisbon (probable) 4-3-3: Patrício; Pereira, Carriço, Polga, Evaldo; Santos, Mendes, Maniche; Vukcevic, Postiga, Cristiano.
Referee: M Grafe (Ger).
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2011/feb/16/rangers-sporting-lisbon-europa-league
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