RANGERS manager Pedro Caixinha has accused tonight’s Betfred Cup opponents Partick Thistle of not showing the same levels of aggression against other sides as they did towards the Ibrox club last Friday.
But ahead of the quarter-final rematch at Firhill, his Thistle counterpart, Alan Archibald, stated he didn’t believe his players were aggressive enough on occasions.
During Friday’s 2-2 SPFL Premiership draw in Maryhill, Thistle finished with just 10 men after Chris Erskine sent off with five players booked.
That left Caixinha pointing an accusing finger at the Thistle players ahead of the second instalment this evening.
“It's interesting, because normally when you watch the opposition teams playing against maybe the four opponents before they play against us, and normally in those opponents are top teams like playing against Celtic and Aberdeen - and I don't see the same behaviour,'' said Caixinha.
“I don't see the same aggression that they have with those teams that they have with our team.”
He added; “I'm not criticising. I'm saying that we need to know how to deal with it because it's happening and it's happening on a regular basis. So it's one more thing that we need to care about, playing our football.
“But when it's time to fight, it's time to fight.''
However Archibald dismissed Caixinha’s claims – and reckoned his players could show even more spirit in key games.
“I can only talk about our own team and I don't think so. We are probably not aggressive enough. I really wish we were a bit more aggressive,” said Archibald, who despite the caution count, still only conceded ten free-kicks against Rangers.
Archibald added; “I don't think there were the amount of bookings in the game that there was the other night. But we treat every game the same, it's not any different.
“It maybe just seems like that, when other teams get more of the ball, there are more tackles going in. Maybe that's something that could be looked into with stats.
“But it's not 'we are playing Rangers, we are going to go and kick them', by any manner of means.''
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