James Tavernier maintains that Rangers, having had a unique setback under Philippe Clement, are solely focused on themselves.
However, the Ibrox captain must have been relieved to witness yesterday’s happenings at Tynecastle, as Celtic lost a significant opportunity to move ahead of the big Belgian’s table-toppers. Following Saturday’s shocking loss to Motherwell, it appeared as though the Gers would allow pole position to elude them after holding the Premiership top spot for just two weeks.
However, following Brendan Rodgers’ team’s collapse in Gorgie, Rangers are still the team to beat. The race appears to be going down to the wire with nine games remaining, including two matches against the Old Firm. Tavernier is also optimistic that his team can resume its progress. “We’ve got great characters,” he declared. We’ve only lost twice since the manager took over.
There are nine games remaining in the league, so it goes without saying that we will battle to the very end. We will just keep pushing ourselves because that is the mindset we have.
We simply need to focus on ourselves and score as many points as we can moving ahead, and that is exactly what we intend to accomplish.
Theo Bair and Dan Casey’s goals condemned the Gers to their first home loss to the Steelmen in the top division since 1997, and Tavernier was sent off to put on a brave face despite an incredibly poor performance. And he was unable to deny that, following the loss of their run of ten flawless Premiership victories at Ibrox under the big Belgian, Clement’s team only had themselves to blame.
“We’re all human,” declared the captain, whose penalty kick in the second half momentarily tied the score before Casey secured the win for Stuart Kettlewell’s team. You will always feel defeated after a tie or loss.
It will sting. It hurt us, it hurt the manager, it hurt the supporters, and it hurts everyone associated with Rangers. However, it’s all about how fast you recover. We’ll review it later and make the necessary corrections.
“We must look at ourselves as a team first and foremost; we can never rely on referees or mistakes made by the opposition. Although we put ourselves an uphill struggle from the beginning, we knew we still had a lot of time left in the game.
We had some excellent opportunities, but it was all about the fine margins and persistent probing and questioning to put the ball in the back of the net. That’s what we did.
Although it’s obviously frustrating, we have fantastic individuals in the locker room who we know can overcome this setback and come back stronger.
But Rangers have no time to pout as they prepare for a major match on Thursday night in Lisbon. At Benfica’s renowned Stadium of Light, Tavernier is looking to get a win that will pave the way to the Europa League’s round of eight.
“Any game is ideal when it comes around; you want to play in a game right away to bounce back,” he remarked. It’s obviously not in the league, but we wouldn’t have cared which was closer—the Europa or the league.
All we need to do is acknowledge that it’s a game and adjust so that we can resume playing as best we can. No, we have to keep pushing; we can’t be afraid of them.
“Visiting their location is an amazing opportunity, and there will undoubtedly be a positive vibe. We always fancy our chances and will simply keep pushing because we are genuinely looking forward to it—the first game is away and we’re coming back to Ibrox.
The last time the Gers visited the Portuguese capital to play the Eagles was three and a half years ago. However, Steven Gerrard’s squad will have a far more challenging task this time around when playing in front of 65,000 supporters as opposed to the previous time they visited, when Covid limitations forced the teams to play to a 3-3 draw in front of an empty stadium.
Tavernier went on, “We have to keep moving ahead and focus on our style of play. You definitely get an extra body on the field when you have your own fans, so the atmosphere will be different with and without them.
However, we have to perform well enough to win over the supporters before we can win them over. We set ourselves up for failure at the beginning of the game by failing to do so, and as a result, we faced an uphill climb. But we are aware of what must be done.
Clement acknowledges that his team is the underdog going to Lisbon. “We now have to recuperate over the next few days in order to be ready to play a completely different kind of game that we are used to playing on Thursday,” he stated.
We have to adjust because there won’t be nearly as much ball as usual.
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