GRAEME Murty stopped some way short of declaring, unlike the more excitable element of the Rangers support, that his team had a good chance of usurping their Glasgow rivals Celtic as Scottish champions this season as he surveyed the league table yesterday.
He appreciates that being nine points behind a Celtic side who will, as a result of their 3-0 defeat to Zenit St Petersburg in Russia on Thursday evening, no longer be competing in Europe this season, is not exactly a commanding position to be in.
Neither, though, does Murty, whose side can move to within six of the Parkhead club with a win over Hearts at Ibrox this afternoon, completely dismiss their prospects of challenging for their first title in seven long years in the months ahead.
The draws and defeats that Celtic, who went unbeaten domestically last season as they won the treble, have slumped to against Hearts, Kilmarnock, Hibernian, Motherwell and St. Johnstone, not to mention his own side, have given him hope they can contend.
“Let’s be realistic,” he said. “We have been in this situation before and not managed to complete a run as we would have liked.
“That’s not me decrying anything or telling people not to think about it. They can think about it all they want. But, in-house, we will purely be considering the next game and making sure we have a positive end to the season.
“I have said to the players now that we don’t want to be sitting at the end of the season looking back on opportunities missed or points dropped. We want to actually go and accelerate into the end of the season.
“If we take some things we have been doing recently and enhance them and improve them, we will put ourselves in good shape.
“People are taking points off one another in a way that hasn’t necessarily happened in the last few years. Hibs have taken points off us, we’ve taken points off Aberdeen, Kilmarnock have taken points off Celtic.
“It is going to be down to fine margins. I think it’s good for the league that we are still talking about challenges and pressure at this time of the season.”
Murty added: “This isn’t our last chance to apply pressure on them – we can do that right up until it’s mathematically impossible for us to win the title. We have a lot games, a lot of points and a lot of prizes to play for.
“At the end of the season, if we are talking about a good season? Fantastic. But the season isn’t over yet. There is a lot of football to be played.”
The return of Bruno Alves, the Portugal centre half who is fit again after recovering from the calf injury he suffered in the Old Firm game at Parkhead in December, could help Rangers’ cause.
Murty, whose side conceded three needless goals in the 5-3 win over Hamilton last Sunday, certainly seemed buoyed by having the experienced defender available for selection against Hearts this afternoon.
“Bruno has trained magnificently well,” he said. “He is a consummate professional. He is doing extras. The main thing that we have to do at times is to get him to do less. He has been fantastic in and around the place and we wouldn’t have any concerns whatsoever about putting him in.”
Having Alves available could be invaluable against rivals who have lost just one of their last 16 games - against Celtic away last month - and can field former Rangers players Kyle Lafferty and Steven Naismith in attack.
But Murty revealed that Russell Martin, the on-loan centre half who played with the duo at Norwich City, has provided invaluable advice about how to deal with the visitors’ formidable forward line this week.
“I’m tapping into Russell about Kyle and Steven, about what they do and what their mindset is going to be like,” he said. “His insight and his understanding has been really good. He’s very similar to Bruno in that way.”
Another individual who has lifted the Rangers dressing room since arriving on loan last month is the irrepressible Jason Cummings who has made sure his manager has been aware of his scoring record against Hearts during training this week.
The former Hibs player has scored five goals against them in seven matches during his career.
“He’s been telling me all about it and that is a factor,” said Murty. “But it’s not just about one person, although I respect everyone’s record against our opponents.
“It’s about us putting out the right threat to match the opponent on the day and, if I consider Jason to be that guy, we’ll go with him. If not, he’ll need to be content with a different role.
“We have a squad coming together, we have options and threats and opportunities for our attacking players to stake claims to play.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel