We’re a work in progress
Pedro Caixinha’s side lie eight points adrift of leaders Celtic after just seven games – but the Rangers boss insists he’s never claimed they’d challenge for the title.
Instead he suggests his team are a work in progress.
He said: “We never said we’d make a title challenge. We just said we’d take it game by game. That’s the reality, we’re eight points behind the leaders.
“So we need to focus on the next match. And that’s very important. Because now we’re going to see what we’re made of.
“Now we’ll see if we react the way we need to.”
Caixinha was pleased with his team’s first-half display going in 0-0. But he was disappointed with poor defending after the break.
He said: “The team who made the least mistakes won. We made two mistakes that led to the final result.
“They were better than us as the game went on, definitely. They started to impose their game on us. We coped with it for spells and it was balanced – in the first half it was a good football match.
“But two moments were crucial. The first one was how we lost the opening goal. We had two or three chances to clear the ball and we didn’t.
“And the second moment was not equalising through Alfredo Morelos when he had the chance.
“And after they scored the second, of course, they could manage the game and feel more comfortable.”
Caixinha handed SEVEN of his Rangers players their Old Firm debut including £2m Mexican Carlos Pena.
He admits Pena toiled but praised youngster Ross McCrorie who coped well in his first derby as he deputised for Bruno Alves who is in Madrid having treatment for a calf knock.
The Rangers boss said: “Pena struggled a little bit but McCrorie did well.”
But Leigh Griffiths insists they’ll never stop him celebrating the goals he loves to score.
The Scotland striker rubbed salt in already gaping wounds with the clinching second goal yesterday, picking up a green and white scarf lobbed at him from the away end and joyfully dervishing it half the length of the Sandy Jardine Stand.
And he angered home fans by wiping his hands on a corner flag after cleaning his nose and also seemed to rub his nose on a fan tifo display.
Griffiths revels in these games and insists he’ll never tire of them.
He laughed: “Theyy like to pipe up a bit! Listen, I enjoyedd my goal – you need to celebratebrate any goal you score.e. I was delighted with it.
“You need to enjoyy those moments.
“It’s a derby at the end of the day and I’m sure if Rangers players had scored at Celtic Park theyy would do the exactct same thing. So yes,s, I enjoyed my goal – 2- 0, clean sheet, three points and we’ll go down the road and look forward to Wednesday.” Grif f iths’ goal took any wind Rangers had left in their sails out but the striker was quick to acknowledge keeper Craig Gordon’s role in the win. The Scotland No. 1’s save from Alfredo Morelos took the breath away, and with the score at 1-0, it was a game changer. He said: “It’s always a difficult scoreline at 1- 0 – 2- 0 settled us down a bit and knocked the stuffing out of them. “A f t e r t h a t we managmanaged to play footballball right up until the 90th minute. BuBut Craig’s save wwas massive. HHe’s a b i g ppresence at the bback. “It’s probably a rreaction more thathan anything but he’s kept his lank pointb n’s s’ Gordo Morelo Craig Alfredo pivotal . stop from was r at 1-0 that heade ngstop stunni Range A rs as ed to get thwartlooked they it. back in cleanl sheetht anddh’llbhe’llbe dlidelightedhtd withith that save. The games are all the same though – it’s three points.
“We came here last season and won 5-1 but the scoreline doesn’t matter.
“At the end of the day we only get three points for it no matter how many goals we score.”
Manager Brendan Rodgers was the picture of calm in the postmatch press conference.
Dishing out plain vanilla answers he’d earned the right to his serenity with a performance of consummate quality from his team.
But he admitted: “There’s always tension around these games.
“You can’t become complacent in these games, anything can happen. Especially when you come into today’s atmosphere.
“But what you see in my team is that development of how to cope. There’s a real courage physically to work and run but that mental courage to play.
“In a lot of games where you might not score in the f irst 10 minutes you need to work the ball, be patient, try to tire the opponent out and eventually make the breakthrough. And that ’ s what we did.
“When we did the space opens up even more forf us because Rangers have to attack and we get more opportunities.
“You’re never in your comfort chair. You’re always focused on the game and we tried to manage the game through with our substitutions. I thought the players coped with that very well.”
The win was the sixth over Rangers of his unbeaten time with the Hoops, the only blemish a 1-1 draw at Celtic Park last season.
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