The mark of a good manager is his ability to minimize the strengths of his opposition while highlighting those of his own team - and by doing so, to manufacture a positive result.
Rangers manager Walter Smith did an outstanding job in getting a 0-0 draw away at Manchester United last night in the UEFA Champions League. Rangers ability to defend in two deep blocks of 4 players gave them plenty of numbers behind the ball, allowing them to be organized and weather a very strong United onslaught. Despite being outshot 21-2 and conceding 63% of the possession in the match, Smith's preparations went according to plan with how he won a valuable point in UEFA Champions League action.
"It's down to a manager to find a way, and in any walk of life it's easier to stop people doing something than it is to create. It's a circumstance that we don't feel proud of the fact we're doing it, but there's nothing else left for us. I must say that over the two or three years my boys have done it extremely well.
"I'm not just talking about Scotland. Clubs in Holland, Portugal and other countries are all suffering badly. They have next to no chance of winning the Champions League, the same as 85% of English teams have no chance of winning their league.
"It's far easier to try to stop other teams playing than it is to create. Maybe with a little more care we could have created one or two better opportunities."We didn't create that much at all.
We would have expected to come and defend here and I thought we did that very well for the 96 minutes that we played."
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