GIOVANNI VAN BRONCKHORST has targeted an immediate improvement in Rangers' defensive showings ahead of his return to Ibrox as manager.
The Dutchman will begin his reign as boss when Rangers host Sparta Prague in their defining Europa League clash on Thursday evening.
The champions head into the matchday five fixture with a place in the knockout rounds in their sights but knowing they will have to raise their levels after a difficult few weeks domestically.
Van Bronckhorst saw Rangers ship three first half goals as they were dumped out of the Premier Sports Cup by Hibernian at the weekend.
And the new Light Blues boss knows addressing their weak defensive efforts must be one of his priorities during the opening weeks of his Ibrox tenure.
Van Bronckhorst said: “We weren’t happy with the result or the goals we conceded on Sunday. So we have to make sure we are defensively much more focused and compact.
“For me, the defending part of the game is for everyone. We trained tactically the last two days to make sure we are well prepared for Sparta Prague.
“The first thing you want to do, not only in Europe but in every game, is to be defensively solid, to keep the zero and try to win the game by scoring goals.
“That’s the main objective [on Thursday], to defend really well and make sure we keep the zero.
“We are preparing the boys well for [the game] Of course, you also take notice of the last game.
“Some things I saw which I thought we need to improve, all in mind to be better prepared for tomorrow.
“That’s always the case for me. If we can improve things, and obviously we have to, then I will take that into account.
“So it’s a little bit of both - looking a little bit back and to the next game in which areas we need to improve and how.
"We have to prepare ourselves tactically for when we have the ball and when we want to win the ball back.”
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