Philippe Clement has urged his Rangers players to rise above the Pittodrie atmosphere and focus on the “battle” on the pitch as his team aim to make up ground on Aberdeen on Wednesday, live on Sky Sports.
An inconsistent start to the season means Rangers find themselves six points adrift of Aberdeen going into the midweek clash in the Granite City, with the Dons yet to lose a game under new boss Jimmy Thelin.
The fixture is always a hotly-contested one in the Scottish Premiership calendar as Clement found out last season when Rangers needed a 94th-minute James Tavernier penalty to rescue a point in late November.
There is added spice to the game this time around with Aberdeen joint top of the table and Rangers struggling for consistency and form, but Clement has called on his players to stand up to the challenge on and off the pitch in front of what is expected to be another sell-out at Pittodrie.
“It is a huge part of it, in every game for every team,” Clement said of his players needing to handle the occasion. “Apparently, Rangers are not really liked there [Aberdeen] as I saw the last time we played there.
“But in the end, it is between these four white lines that the game is played and it is about what you do on the pitch and we need to be focused on that to play our game and to match also the battle that Aberdeen is making on the pitch in the games.
“It is a really positive, aggressive team going hard in the duels. We need to be prepared for that, to match them in the battle and show our football qualities, also.
“It is excitement, looking forward to it – it is a big game. Aberdeen started the season exceptionally well, taking a lot of points and deserving to take these points. It is a good challenge for us.”
Clement wants Rangers to improve on their performance in the 2-1 win over St Mirren at Ibrox on Sunday but says it is difficult to compare the two fixtures and is adamant that his team need to be on the front foot, despite Aberdeen’s good form.
“We need to be better in a few things,” he said. “It is also a different kind of game. You cannot compare it in that way, in the style.
“Playing at Ibrox against St Mirren is a different game to playing at Pittodrie against Aberdeen. So, we need to step up like we did in other games, against Steaua Bucharest, for example.
“Aberdeen is a team with their style of playing and they like getting space behind the defence. They use that really well. They used it well at Celtic Park where they could have scored more than the two goals they did.
“Of course, we need to pay attention to that but we need to create our own chances so it will not be a game where we are only going to defend.”
“We want to win every game”
The Rangers manager has come in for criticism from supporters this season due to some lacklustre displays but is not entertaining the prospect of falling nine points behind Aberdeen before the end of October.
“I don’t want to think about that [falling further behind], I only think about winning and every game like that. It is still the start of the season; we will still be in the quarter of the season after this game, around that, so there is still a long way to go to take really big conclusions. But, of course, we want to win every game.
“We want to take points against all the teams. If we lose points against teams that are not close with us then the other ones get the advantage. It is about every game going full to get the three points and that is what Rangers is about.”
Souttar and Lawrence available
Clement said Rangers will make a decision on Wednesday as to whether John Souttar and Tom Lawrence will be fit enough to start the game but insists they will be ready to play some part after recent injury concerns.
“They will be okay to take part,” he said. “We need to decide tomorrow if it will be for 90 minutes or not, so starting or not starting, but they were training today [Tuesday] for the first time again and they felt good.”