Do you know who your No.1 is going into the new season?
Not yet, we gave all the goalkeepers time to get physically ready [in pre-season]. At the moment no, but we have one week to decide.
What are your conclusions from pre-season?
It’s a different moment, when I came in November I had to start with only one session before Sparta Prague. Now we have a longer period with the team training together on the training pitch. I’m really happy because we played against a lot of good opposition, last Tuesday West Ham and today Tottenham, who are a top four team. We all see the quality they have and at moments we also saw that on the pitch. I’m really happy we can play against this opposition because at moments in the game we played really well. Hopefully, we will face more big teams in Europe this season.
Did you have tomorrow’s bounce game with Queen’s Park in mind when making subs?
Yes, this is the last weekend that we can arrange friendlies. We wanted a lot of players to play the 90 minutes today to be ready for next week. Some players are a little bit behind so played a little bit less, but tomorrow is another chance for all the players to get 90 minutes and almost everyone will be ready for the start next week.
How do you think your team fared against Tottenham?
We want to make sure we develop ourselves in the way we press and attack. So I think we used this game to work on it against a good-quality opponent. For me, the result today wasn’t that important, we could have been very defensive in a 5-4-1 and waited for the moment to attack but I wanted us to have the same movements we always attack with against a big opponent. That’s how you will get stronger. We saw today you have less time on the ball, you have to think faster, that’s the quality of the opposition and a good environment to develop yourself as players.
Is Ridvan Yilmaz close to becoming a Rangers player?
It’s well stated. I won’t lie, hopefully, we will add a new player in the coming days and we will finish the window if no one goes. If we have confirmation that he is a Rangers player we will announce it. The player who will come in is a young player who we can develop. Calvin [Bassey] is a good example, and Nathan [Patterson] as well, the new player will also be in that age range.
What did you make of Harry Kane?
I’d always rather play against tough opposition than against teams who you beat easily and don’t have to develop your way of playing. If you see Kane, Son, they’re like top five/six strikers in the world. Not only in attack but during transition moments, the speed they have. I think we coped really well during moments but you can also see their quality. The Rangers fans showed their appreciation when they were subbed off because they can see the quality that they have. It was good for my defence to play against these players, we’re going to work hard in August to hopefully be in the Champions League group stage.
You must have been happy to see Antonio Colak score?
It’s always important for your strikers to score. I think he had the most minutes in pre-season with us, but also with PAOK when he was there. He’s very fit and ready for next week. We’re happy we have him ready and are working hard to get the other strikers fit as well as soon as possible.
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