Determined Katic ready to fight for his jersey at Ibrox
THE challenges are twofold for Nikola Katic this season. First, he must earn a place in the Rangers side and then he will look to play his part in a title success.
The tasks are considerable for the Croatian, but he is more than up for the fights on both an individual and collective basis in the coming months.
The departures of Joe Worrall and Gareth McAuley pushed Katic up the Ibrox pecking order, for a few weeks at least, this summer as he and Connor Goldson remained in Steven Gerrard’s squad.
But the competition for places is even more intense now than it was during his first campaign at Ibrox after the arrivals of George Edmundson and Filip Helander from Oldham and Bologna respectively.
All four stoppers have been given a fair crack of the whip during preseason and had their respective chances to impress Gerrard as Rangers have made an unbeaten start to the campaign in four friendly matches and three Europa League outings.
The fourth will be played in Luxembourg on Thursday night as the Gers look to finish the job against Progres Niederkorn and take another small step towards a second consecutive group stage berth.
Then Gerrard and his players will get down to business in the Premiership as they head to Kilmarnock and kick off their title bid on Sunday.
The decisions over who to start at the back will be difficult for Gerrard in the coming days but Katic, who scored the winner in the victory over Derby County yesterday, hopes he has done enough to earn himself a jersey.
He said: “If you want to win the league and if you want to compete in the Europa League, you have to have good players in each position.
“I think every position has two or three quality players and, if you ask me, I am ready for the battle with my team-mates. They are all good players so we will see who gets the jersey and makes the appearances this season.
“Filip is a player with a lot of experience and he has played in Serie A which, I think, in defensive style is maybe the best league. It is quite similar to the Premier League and their defenders are really good players.
“There are a lot of tactics there and he has a lot of experience from the national team, and has played Champions League. He has played a lot of good games. He helped me and I helped him. He is a good player but when you arrive at Rangers it is something different from other clubs. He did well against a good opponent.”
The first season that Katic spent at Ibrox was a mixed one for the defender and his team-mates. It was a case of good, but not quite good enough overall.
The 22-year-old started the campaign impressively but then found himself out of the side for long spells. He would finish the season back in the team and back in the groove, though.
His challenge in the coming weeks and months is to continue to improve and impress as he looks to play a key role in a side that have set their sights on domestic silverware this term.
The acquisitions of Edmundson and Helander are two of the eight deals that Gerrard has completed this summer and Katic is encouraged by the quality around him heading into the new campaign.
“Definitely,” he answered when asked if the squad was better this time around. “We kept maybe 95 per cent of the squad and with the new players, who have quality, I think we have a really good team. I think we will show that during the season.
“I don’t want to go with the predictions. We will start with the league after Europe but what I can say is that we will go for every point 100 per cent and we will give everything to try and win every game, and at the end celebrate together with our fans.”
Rangers will head into the Premiership opener at Rugby Park in fine form after a satisfying few weeks for Gerrard and his players.
The level of opposition in both of their European ties has to be taken into consideration, but Marseille were dispatched with ease and Blackburn should have been beaten as Rangers conceded their only goal in seven outings in the 1-1 draw last weekend.
Katic clinched victory over the Rams with a powerful header in the closing stages on Sunday and reckons it was another positive step in the right direction for Rangers.
He said: “I am really pleased because I scored for the win but I was more happy because we got a win against a really good team and made a few really good chances. I think we should have won the game by more goals.
“The one goal [we conceded] was my mistake! So we should have finished pre-season without conceding any goals. There were tough games but I enjoyed it.”
Every position has two or three quality players and if you ask me, I am ready to battle with my teammates. We will see who gets the jersey