THIS CAN BE OUR SEASON

FROM BACK PAGE the players to succeed domestically and again in the Europa League where they still have a last-16 second leg to play against Bayer Leverkusen in two weeks’ time.

The 37-year-old striker, speaking on the Beautiful Game podcast, said: “Sometimes when I sit and look at the players and the squad we have, there is some unbelievable talent in that dressing room.

“We just need to believe that we can do it this year. We have to see what happens and learn from our mistakes.

“It is a massive season for everyone and the good thing is that everybody knows how big it is.

“I have sensed that in the pre-season and the training, how hard everyone is working and everybody is putting it in.

“We are trying to tick all the boxes.

“We have had loads of meetings with the gaffer and the staff looking at loads of videos where we can improve and where we went wrong.

“We don’t want to make the same mistakes we made in the second half of the season.

“I look at the dressing room and I believe we can go all the way and compete in Europe as well.”

The experienced marksman, who has been capped 57 times for England, reckons a big part of Rangers’ success has been their ball retention.

And he reckons that the Light Blues will take a lot of confidence from their Europa League run.

Defoe said: “In terms of keeping the ball we might be No.1 in Europe.

“The players need to take a lot from that because we are talking about Europe against some top teams, like Porto.

“We just need to bring that in the league because it is a massive season for us at Rangers.”

Defoe has seen first hand the pressure of playing for Rangers and that was the reason why he decided to move north in the twilight of his career. He knows that there is a desire to win trophies and is determined to deliver.

Defoe admitted: “Everybody wants to beat Rangers and the players who play against us want to play for Rangers so the games are tough.

“They come to Ibrox and are difficult to break down because they will block and frustrate us.

“If they get a 0-0 then for them they feel as if they won the game.

“The mentality that we have is that everyone is against us.

“It’s one of these things. The demands, when you play at Ibrox you need to win and you need to win in style, that is the sort of pressure I wanted at the back end of my career.

“At the end of the day, it is a massive football club and you need to bring trophies.”