James Tavernier breaks post-Aberdeen silence as Rangers captain addresses criticism and Philippe Clement future
Ibrox skipper back manager amid fan revolt
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Rangers captain James Tavernier insisted he is doing everything in his power to improve results and performances as he addressed the fall-out from the midweek defeat at Aberdeen.
Tavernier faced the media for the first time since the 2-1 loss at Pittodrie on Wednesday that has left Rangers nine points behind both Celtic and the Dons at the top of the William Hill Premiership. The loss – coupled with a recent defeat at Kilmarnock, losing 3-0 in the opening Old Firm match, and failing to reach the Champions League play-offs – piled pressure onto the shoulders of manager Philippe Clement, who is facing calls to be sacked.
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Tavernier insists, however, that the players remain fully behind the Belgian ahead of the must-win Premier Sports Cup semi-final against Motherwell at Hampden on Sunday.
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Rangers captain James Tavernier at full time after the 2-1 defeat by Aberdeen at Pittodrie. (Photo by Craig Williamson / SNS Group)
Rangers captain James Tavernier at full time after the 2-1 defeat by Aberdeen at Pittodrie. (Photo by Craig Williamson / SNS Group) | SNS Group
“The players are obviously fully committed to everything around.. the lads want to win games,” Tavernier said. “The manager is getting criticism, the team is getting criticism but that happens when you don’t get the results that you want and it’s down to us as players to improve ourselves and deliver the results that the club want and the fans want.
“We’re in it together, collectively, as one team. We’ll all put our hands up and be responsible for when the results are going bad. It’s a collective team performance, It’s not just the starting XI it’s the full squad. It’s up to us to improve each other, and demand from each other, to get what we want out of the season. We’ve just got to continue to do that.”
Put to him that the players are now in a position of playing for the manager’s future, Tavernier replied: “Everyone plays for everyone’s future in every single game. You start the season with ambitions and targets of where you want to be and you train every day, and play every game, to get to those targets. You’re always playing for a future but at a club like Rangers you have to win things. That’s the demand this club has and us a team have to back that up.”
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Tavernier refused to contemplate the consequences of defeat at Hampden for both the team and Clement. “Our aim is to win on the weekend so we’re not thinking any other way as a team or about not winning the game. Our main focus is to get ourselves into a final and that’s all we’re thinking about.
“It’s obviously not the spot we want to be in at this stage of the season. But it’s still very early in the season, and there’s a lot of games to play. Obviously it’s important this weekend in the cup that we try to get ourselves into the final. That’s the first competition you can get your hands on so it’s very important for us to try to retain the trophy. That’s our aim. Obviously in the league we’re nine points behind and it’s not good enough for our standards. But we know where we need to improve and we’re continuously working hard to be where we need to be. In football, you can’t continue to dwell on the past because the games come thick and fast. You need to reapply yourself and go out there and get the results.”
James Tavernier promotes Premier Sports coverage of Motherwell v Rangers at Hampden on Sunday. Photo by Alan Harvey / SNS Group)
James Tavernier promotes Premier Sports coverage of Motherwell v Rangers at Hampden on Sunday. Photo by Alan Harvey / SNS Group) | SNS Group
Tavernier and his team-mates were met with a furious reaction from irate Rangers fans at full-time at Pittodrie and the club has yet to sell-out its full allocation for the Hampden showdown.
“I totally understand their frustration because ultimately they want to see us win games,” Tavernier said. “There’s frustration among ourselves. We never want to go to a place and drop any points and lose games. So you can understand the frustration. But as a captain and squad player for Rangers I’m doing everything in my power, and I know all the players in the deresing room will be doing everything in their power, to put it the performances and results that the fans can be proud of. We can do all the talking we want but we’ve got to do our talking on the pitch.
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“It’s part and parcel of football. You’re going to get praise and criticism. It’s how you deal with it and we had the same situation against Kilmarnock when we dropped points, then we responded really well. It’s about keeping those performance levels and results where we want them to be. It’s just about us being consistent and in the small finer details, being more clinical when we go forward and more clinical defending as a team. It’s small things but they all add up.”
Related topics:James TavernierPhilippe ClementRangers
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