James Tavernier makes bold claim about Rangers ahead of Premiership clash
By Matt Farr
Defender James Tavernier believes that no team can live with Rangers when they are in-form.
The Ibrox outfit showed tremendous fight in their last Scottish Premiership outing against Motherwell to come out with three points, having gone down to 10-men after just five minutes.
However, even after the priceless 2-0 victory, it’s a bold claim for Tavernier to make.
Rangers have lost all three games against Celtic this season and are 22 points adrift of their Old Firm rivals, with hopes of a league title this season are all but lost.
The premier target for Rangers now will no doubt be to ensure they finish second-best, and they are going to have to perform very well to stave off competition from the likes of Aberdeen and beyond.
Three points in their next game against Hearts would be the perfect way to go. But it won’t be easy, as they suffered a 2-0 defeat when they visited Tynecastle in November.
Since the defeat, Mark Warburton’s side have accumulated six wins in all competitions from a possible eight, including a victory over Hearts at Ibrox.
25-year-old defender James Tavernier, who has been a key figure for the Glasgow giants this term, insists that their good form can see them beat almost anybody.
He told the Daily Record: “It will probably be the first time for a lot of the players going there with the fans on top of you. But the guys will soak it up, and if we play the way we did at Fir Park then teams can’t live with us.
“It is about the consistency in keeping the ball, when teams are tiring. It proves, in these last two games against Motherwell when the goals have come late, that teams can’t defend the whole 90 minutes against us.”
Even with the Scottish Premiership title pretty much out of reach for Rangers, Mark Warburton can still achieve success for his side in the Scottish Cup – and stop Celtic from completing a historic treble.
Their fourth round victory over Motherwell little over a week ago demonstrated much of the steel they will need to trump their rivals later in the competition.
They have since been handed a favourable home tie against Greenock Morton, while they can hope that Inverness can get a result over rivals Celtic at Parkhead.
Rangers travel to Hearts on Wednesday, before they return to Ibrox to host Ross County on Saturday.
In other Rangers news, the club have been issued an ultimatum in their pursuit of this January transfer target.
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