The away form recently hasn’t been good. What needs to change?
I wouldn’t say the away form has been bad. I put it down to just a few errors on our behalf on conceding certain goals and just not being clinical. I think overall, the general play, we have been playing really good football if you look at Dundee and at the weekend the chances that we created. We obviously conceded from a set-piece but it was a dominant performance from ourselves. It was just one of those games where we dropped points. We obviously don’t want to do that. Tomorrow is going to be an important game for us. We are obviously going there wanting to get the three points, get the job done and to keep the ball out of the back of the net. We will try to get a clean sheet and finish our chances.
The team has been reliant on numbers from yourself and Alfredo Morelos. Is that something the squad needs to work on to improve numbers from other areas of the field?
I think the numbers have been coming through. If you look at our scorers throughout the season, everyone has been chipping in with goals. Alfredo and Fashion got on the scoresheet. Fashion’s not been in the team but he came in at the weekend and scored a goal for us. It’s just about us taking that extra bit of care in the final third when we do get chances. We are creating a lot of them so it’s just that final bit of magic to put it in the back of the net.
Allan McGregor has come in for criticism. Has that been unfair?
Greegsy is a top, top keeper for us and has been a top keeper since he came back to us. You look at the Dortmund game in midweek and even the one before that, the scoreline might not have been what it was if it wasn’t for Greegsy pulling off the saves. He’s pulled off massive saves for us in the past. He obviously can’t stop all the goals but we’re in it as a team. We concede and score goals together. All the lads give their full backing to Greegsy when he’s in the nets and we are relying on him because he’s a big leader of the team. He’s got all our backing.
Is VAR something you want to see in Scotland sooner rather than later?
Yes. I think so. First and foremost, I think our referees should be full-time. If the Australian leagues have VAR then our league needs to have it. It’s something that needs to be done. It will help the game, help the officials. Is it something that’s going to happen? We will have to wait and see but it’s something that would help our league.
Is there a sense with 10 games to go there can be no more slip ups?
Yes. We have 10 games left and they have to be perfect. That’s always our full focus and before the Dundee game our focus was on 12 games being left and winning all 12. You obviously don’t want to have slip-ups but we have in the last two games. We will learn from that. We son’t want that to come into our play anymore for the ten games left of the season.
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You’ve had a very successful time in Europe but is there an element of distraction in that?
No. You see the performance that we put in and following that we have had two good performances against Dundee and Motherwell. The downside to that is we concede three goals which on our behalf are poor as a team. But we are creating just under 60 chances in the two games. So we are playing how we want to play and it’s not like our play is bad. We have just got to be more clinical in the final third and finish teams off and see games out.
How much of a say do you have with Giovanni and the coaches on changes in the defence?
It’s the bosses’ decision. I’m here to back the boss 100 percent. Which I do. If he ever asks me anything, I will give my opinion but it’s his team and tactics. We have full belief in his tactics and whatever personnel he wants in the team.
From a leadership perspective, how did you handle the team after a very frustrating game?
It’s always one of those where straight after the game there are frustrations and obviously going through the disappointment go through the game. Sometimes you don’t want to say something that you regret. You always want to look back on games like that. Even I felt like we had a very good first half and played very good football. The second half wasn’t like the first but it was still good. The two chances they have is two goals. That was the difference. You don’t want to do that. You want to come in at the final whistle with the three points. We said at half-time we wanted a clean sheet and then they scored two goals. It’s disappointing. I can look at the guy’s faces and they are all disappointed but we have a game in a couple of days time. We can’t dwell on it. We have to learn from it, pick ourselves up and move on to put in a really good performance tomorrow night.
Do draws feel like defeats?
Since I’ve been here a draw has always felt like a defeat no matter what stage it is of the season. We play for Rangers and we expect to win every game no matter who the opponent is. That’s the expectations we have of ourselves and that’s the pressure we want to be playing under. So when we do drop points, it’s hard to take. But I think we have enough experienced boys and we have been through the situation before so we can galvanize and get around each other and pick ourselves up. It’s disappointing but we have a game in a couple of days where we can get back on the winning track and pick up three points.
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