James Tavernier insists Rangers are only concentrating on themselves after hitting a rare bump in the road under Philippe Clement.
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.
“With nine league games remaining, it goes without saying that we will battle to the very finish. We just want to keep pushing ourselves with that kind of mentality.
“Going forward, we just need to focus on ourselves and try to score as many points as we can, and that is what we will be doing.”
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 cause pain.” 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. We scored five goals when we did that against Hearts. We had a few of chances to score at Killie in midweek, but we failed to take them. On Saturday, it was absent.
Although it’s obviously frustrating, we are confident that we can get over this and that we have fantastic
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.
“We just need to acknowledge that this is a game and make the necessary corrections to resume playing as best we can.” No, we have to not be afraid of them.
“It’s a fantastic opportunity to visit them, and the mood will undoubtedly be pleasant. Since we are excited about it and will be returning to Ibrox after the first game, we will continue to push because we always think we have a good opportunity.
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 pitch when you have your own followers, so the atmosphere will be different with and without them.
“But we have to offer the supporters something to cheer for, and we didn’t give them that at the beginning of the game, so we set ourselves up for an uphill battle. Only then can we win the fans over. 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 need to adjust to the fact that there will be significantly less of the ball than there usually is.”
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