IT’S always easy for players to talk about their unstinting commitment to the cause and being prepared to go the extra yard. Proving it is a different matter.
When Derek McInnes addressed his squad following last week’s victory over Kilmarnock, he recognised that, for the majority in the room, the international break had been anything but a chance to rest up.
Hard miles were travelled and tough matches were played across the globe before they reconvened and got back down to club business.
Sensing that a belated day off at the start of this week might be welcomed by all concerned, the Rangers manager anticipated the offer being taken without debate. The response was not what he was expecting.
‘I gave a lot of them the option to take Monday off because they had been travelling,’ he explained.
‘And not one of them took it. They all came in.
‘They came in, did the work and did the recovery. We thought it was an opportunity for them just not to think about football, be with their families and all the rest of it.
‘But they all came in, barring one or two who had felt the effects of the bug that was going about.’
McInnes was delighted to see his players refuse a day off following a long international break
The Rangers boss won the Premiership’s Manager of the Month award for September
Players voluntarily forgoing a day off because they enjoy being at their place of work so much? Something that must surely be encouraging?
‘Yeah, unless their family lives are not great and they want to come into work. I’ve played with plenty of players like that,’ McInnes smiled.
‘They had the option to come in. It wasn’t a test. For me, it was genuinely about taking the time off if they wanted it.
‘They all responded on Sunday to the message in the group chat saying they wanted to be in, which was good. We’ve tried to look after those ones because they have been away for so long.’
It’s this buy-in to McInnes’ ideas which has helped to turn things around. At the end of August, with league points being spilled and two European defeats chalked up, a new-look squad was in a dark place.
They travel to Dens Park this evening seeking to claim a seventh straight league win for the first time in three years with optimism steadily growing around the club.
The improvement has been fuelled by the desire of the raft of new faces to succeed in a new environment.
For those who saw the side rally after a poor start last season then collapse after the split, there’s also a motivation to atone for what happened.
McInnes hails Ryan Naderi after his winner at Celtic Park just before the international break
Not normally the most vocal of characters, Dujon Sterling recently laid bare his angst.
‘When I first came in, I had conversations with a lot of the lads who were here last season,’ said McInnes.
‘He was one of the lads who still had a grievance about how last season played out. He was still annoyed at how Rangers had allowed themselves not to be right down the line and go to the last few games.
‘He was honest enough about that and said it was down to them as players.
‘I would like to think that the players coming back for pre-season had that grievance and were ready not to let it happen again. They had to be ready to step on.’
After an inauspicious start, the road to redemption began with a scrappy win at Aberdeen.
Three further narrow victories over Falkirk, Motherwell and St Mirren duly arrived. Then came that thumping 3-0 win over Celtic in the League Cup – a display which came with bells and whistles attached.
A follow-up win in the league at Parkhead was no less impressive for the tighter scoreline. Any fears that the international break would prove to be a rude interruption on the progress were washed away with a comfortable win over Kilmarnock last weekend.
Seven wins on the spin with six coming in the Premiership. The best league run since the early days of Michael Beale’s tenure when 10 victories were chalked up at the start of 2023.
Kevin Kelsy celebrates making it 2-0 as Rangers cruised to a win over Kilmarnock
A far cry, certainly, from those early weeks of McInnes’ reign when you wondered where all of this was going to end up.
‘We’ve got to make sure we’re maximising the effort and the mindset all the time, ready to go for the next challenge,’ the manager stressed.
‘The next challenge is just around the corner tomorrow in Dundee and the game is going to need our full attention.
‘We were pleased that we managed to have a home game last week on the back of all the disruption.
‘We’ve got to understand now that when we go away from home against a team in good form, who have started well, we have to be ready for it.
‘Having the players in this week has allowed us to go into the game in better shape. It doesn’t guarantee anything, of course, but once the game starts, hopefully we can deliver a big performance.
‘We can’t have the performance we had in the second half last week. The drop-off was too big, although there were maybe a lot of reasons for that.
‘There will be no reason for that this week. It’s up to us to deliver a big performance and recognise that we need to get more. We need to keep stepping on the gas and deliver the big performances we’re looking for.’
While Dundee haven’t beaten Rangers at Dens Park since 2017-18, the Ibrox men have drawn three times in that corner of Tayside since.
Despite a crippling injury list, Steven Pressley’s side have been the surprise package of the season to date, defeating Motherwell and Falkirk either side of the international break.
Sitting in fourth spot after eight matches, they have good reason to believe that a famous night awaits.
‘Very good,’ McInnes said of the Dark Blues’ campaign so far. ‘I know a lot of the staff there and I know how they work. They look like a good staff and I think they’ve got a good thing going.
‘I had Yan Dhanda on loan there last year and he spoke really positively about how they worked.
‘What they’ve done is cope with injuries themselves. It was mentioned earlier that we’ve had major injuries, but I think they’ve had six, seven or eight out at a time in recent weeks.
‘They still managed to go to Falkirk and win the game, and they were strong in the game.
‘They’ve committed to a system this season with two strikers, two wide players who work off shape, two sixes and two overlapping full-backs. You can see what they’re trying to do.
‘They also have the ability to mix the game up. They’ve got good physicality, decent strength and experience in the right areas.’
