Peter Lovenkrands has criticised Barry Ferguson for resting players in Sunday’s Scottish Premiership match with Aberdeen – claiming his ex-teammate created a “nightmare” situation for himself.
The Ibrox club scraped a 2-2 draw at Pittodrie thanks to Ianis Hagi’s 96th-minute equaliser, with the interim boss making wholesale changes to the starting lineup ahead of Thursday night’s huge Europa League tie with Athletic Bilbao.
Ferguson gave rare starts to Oscar Cortes, Danilo, Findlay Curtis, and Ross McCausland – but his side were two goals and a man down by half-time.
Lovenkrands told the Scottish Football Social Club podcast: “I wouldn’t have done that.
“At Rangers, you need to win every football game.
“I remember playing; you don’t want to get rested or miss out on games.
“I wanted to play every game.
“In our great runs in Europe and the Champions League, I didn’t get rested against Villarreal and Milan.
“I played every game.”
He added: “I would rather he’d gone the other way around, started with his strongest team, then if you are 3-0 up you can start making changes and resting players up.
“Take one game at a time, win the game first, then focus on Europe.
“So, I was very surprised to see that lineup when I saw it.
“There were so many changes; it’s not as if it was two or three.
“As soon as I saw the lineup, I knew Aberdeen were going to come pushing.
“Rangers were going to make mistakes, and they did.”
Lovenkrands believes that by trying to avoid injuries before Thursday’s clash against Athletic Bilbao, Ferguson created a “nightmare” situation for himself.
He said: “The squad is not good enough to handle this situation and go to Pittodrie and get a result [with rotation].
“I just find it quite difficult.
“As a footballer, as a coach, you have to take it one game at a time.
“I hate looking ahead to the next one too early.
“I just thought the whole scenario turned out to be a bit of a nightmare.”
