Lundstram: That was for Gio
JOHN LUNDSTRAM last night admitted the Rangers players owed manager Giovanni van Bronckhorst the powerful performance that overwhelmed Aberdeen at Ibrox.
Speaking after the 4-1 victory, Van Bronckhorst declared the display his team’s best of the season, a view echoed by midfielder Lundstram, scorer of the team’s crucial second goal.
The boss’s position has come into question after a heavy defeat to Celtic and a succession of Champions League drubbings. The pressure intensified after a draw with Livingston last weekend.
‘The players need to take a massive ownership of the way we’ve been performing,’ said Lundstram. ‘The gaffer puts a lot of work in and sends us out to play the style of football which we showed today. That’s how he’s wanted us to play every single week.
‘It’s been on us that we haven’t been performing the way he’s wanted us to.’
Lundstram admitted that there has been serious reflection within the Ibrox dressing-room following last weekend’s result.
He continued: ‘There have been conversations, honest conversations, about how we need to react and keep our standards, how we all need to look ourselves in the
mirror to get it back to where it needs to be. 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 disappointment for everyone. Everything comes from the individual.
‘After the Livi game, I said to the lads you should turn up every day wanting to win. Individually, you need that drive.
‘This place can be a hard place to be when the fans get a little bit unsettled. There’s no shying away from that fact — 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.
‘We’ve felt the pressure in weeks gone by but we didn’t today because we played a lot more free.
‘Today the fans were behind us and I thought we played for them and played with them.
‘We know what the fans here want. We’re not silly, we know what it takes to be Rangers players. And it’s not as if we haven’t been trying, it just hasn’t been quite clicking. Today it clicked.’
Rangers’ win narrowed the Premiership gap to one point behind leaders Celtic, who play at Livingston in today’s lunchtime kick-off.
‘Celtic have never been spoken about, not once in our dressingroom,’ insisted Lundstram. ‘When we’re not playing Celtic there’s no need for us to speak about Celtic.
‘We were 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 — it’s nothing to do with them.’
In turn, Van Bronckhorst praised his players for their resilience.
He said: ‘Even after we went 1-0 down there was no panic, we just kept going and created chances. I am really satisfied with the overall display, to play at home against Aberdeen and have 70 per cent of the ball and 35 shots in goal, that is a really dominant performance.’
Already missing defenders Connor Goldson, John Souttar and Filip Helander, the downside to Rangers’ victory came in two new injuries to the team’s backline.
Turkish international full-back Ridvan Yilmaz lasted less than eight minutes after sustaining a hamstring injury while centre-back
Ben Davies was kept inside at half-time after feeling the effects of a groin strain. ‘Ridvan was decelerating in the box and he felt it straight away,’ explained Van Bronckhorst.
‘I think he will be out for a couple of weeks. Ben had a moment at the beginning of the game.
‘He could continue to half-time but I didn’t want to take any risk with him. We will see tomorrow how he is and assess him.’
Rangers’ focus now switches to their final Champions League fixture against Ajax on Tuesday night.
Having watched the uplift in standard from his team, Van Bronckhorst is targeting a first victory if not the five-goal margin that would secure the safety net of a Europa League place.
He said: ‘It is our last game in the Champions League and we are ready to get the first points of this campaign.
‘I think we have a chance to do so at home against any team.
‘Another 90-minute performance like this will give us a chance against a quality opponent. If we win the game, we have even points with Ajax and that shows the strength of this group.’