PEDRO IS NOT IN PANIC MODE
Misfiring Rangers jeered off again but boss declares his side are improving
PEDRO CAIXINHA insisted last night there was no cause for concern after Rangers dropped further off the pace at the top end of the Ladbrokes Premiership only three matches into the campaign.
A scoreless draw with managerless Hearts saw his side jeered off at Ibrox a week after the controversial 3-2 home loss to Hibernian.
Aberdeen and St Johnstone have been able to match strides with champions Celtic on nine points while Rangers are already five behind.
That did not put Caixinha off stressing that his team, whose season began in embarrassing fashion with a disastrous Europa League exit in Luxembourg, were improving.
Caixinha said: ‘It is the second game in a row that we didn’t win, I think we dominated the game from the beginning till the end.
‘We created enough chances to score but we couldn’t score. So I need to be happy with the efforts of the players and how they didn’t let the opponents even think about an attack.
‘But we could not score, so I am frustrated about that and disappointed. But we know that we are growing as a team and we keep looking forward. It is not a concern.
‘The only point which maybe I need to understand is that we need to play with a bit more tempo in our possession, keep the ball moving and be aggressive, to create and attack space. We must focus on that and keep working in that direction.’
Rangers, winners of only two of their first seven top-flight matches last season under Mark Warburton, are off to Dingwall next Sunday to face Ross County in a bid to close the gap on the early front-runners.
Caixinha consoled himself with seeing Hearts, under the interim command of former Ibrox striker Jon Daly, resort to a defensive stand to keep his team at bay.
‘I’m just surprised in a good way about how opponents are respecting us,’ said the Portuguese coach. ‘You see a very good striker like (Kyle) Lafferty spend the entire match acting more like a left-back. That shows the respect they show us. We need to have solutions to turn back what opponents come up with.
‘We are disappointed, because of the last six points available we have taken just one. I know this club is about winning games. And we know that the boys we have in the dressing room are winners. So we keep working in that direction.
‘When I arrived at Ibrox last season, I understood that other teams were not respecting us. Now, after today, I feel that respect from the way the teams approach the game. That is one step ahead.’