Lundstram reveals crunch talks helped Ibrox side to victory
JOHN LUNDSTRAM has revealed the “honest conversations” behind closed doors that inspired Rangers to their finest performance of the season against Aberdeen.
Giovanni van Bronckhorst’s side were worthy 4-1 winners as Antonio Colak, James Tavernier and Alfredo Morelos joined Lundstram on the scoresheet at Ibrox.
Victory over the Dons came just a week after the Scouser had to salvage a point in a wretched performance against Livingston as pressure mounted on Van Bronckhorst and his players.
That lacklustre showing was followed by the Champions League reverse to Napoli in midweek and Lundstram admitted the squad owed their manager an improved outing in front of a demanding home crowd.
Lundstram said: “There have been conversations, and honest conversations as well, about how we need to react and keep our standards and how we all need to look ourselves in the mirror to get the performances back to where it needs to be.
“Our league form before the Livi game, results wise, was OK, we were in a good spot. We could have done better in the Champions League, of course we could, but that is a different level.
“The main priority has always been the league and before the Livi game we were in a good spot really. Livi was a massive dip and a massive disappointment for everyone and there was honest conversations that got said and was needed as well.
“Everything comes from the individual. I said to the lads after the game against Livi, you should turn up every day to training wanting to win.
“For me, individually, you have got to have a drive in you that you want to win.”
Rangers cut the gap to Celtic to a point ahead of their clash with Livingston as they rose to the occasion and were comfortable winners on an afternoon of several positives at Ibrox. The home crowd played their part as Van Bronckhorst’s side responded to the setback of falling behind to a Connor Barron strike midway through the first half.
Lundstram said: “Felt the pressure? If anything, I felt we never felt the pressure today because we played a lot more freely. I think we felt the pressure on other weeks going by.
“This place sometimes can be a hard place to be when the fans get a little bit unsettled. There’s no shying away from the fact it does, it’s a big place and it’s a massive fan base. But it’s about characters and trying to stand up and lifting the crowd, getting them behind you.
“This place can probably be one of the hardest for others to come and play football when the fan base is behind us.
“They can really be the 12th man for us. But sometimes when things aren’t going your way – of course they want you to win and they want to win by two, three goals which we should do in the league, let’s get it right.
“But today they were behind us and I thought we played for them and played with them.
“Celtic have never been spoken about. Not once in our dressing room. We don’t need to speak about Celtic. When we’re not playing Celtic there’s no need for us to speak about Celtic.
“We’re four points behind Celtic off our own back – nothing to do with Celtic. They beat us 4-0 away from home because we didn’t perform. It’s on us.”