NEW Rangers manager Pedro Caixinha expressed his satisfaction with an opening 4-0 home win over Hamilton Academical and revealed he had asked his players to express themselves like children. Goals from Emerson Hyndman, Clint Hill, Martyn Waghorn and Lee Wallace handed the Portuguese the ideal start in his first game in charge.
“My first statement to the players in the dressing room today was, “I want you to enjoy it”,” said Caixinha. “If you are here and you are anxious, things are not going to work. So I want them to be happy. I want our team to play like they are kids. Kids love to play football, right? All the professionals start as a kid dreaming of one day being in this position. Now they are in this position they need to enjoy it the same. So they did it and I am pleased about that.”
Caixinha was afforded a rousing pre-match reception from the 49,090 inside Ibrox and hoped to harness that energy to make the ground “a fortress”.
"It was fantastic but I like Tina Turner and I would prefer to get out there when she is singing Simply the Best! Having 50,000 people supporting you and the team is something you will keep inside your mind and really appreciate. This is our home but we want this to be more than our home. We want to play all the time with an extra player, if possible 50,000 extra players. So I don't believe it just needs to be our home, it needs to be our fortress.”
Caixinha was pleased to see his early instructions taken on board by the players. “I believe you saw more switches of play, more wide combinations and arrivals, more regaining possession and looking for the space, and once the space was there, attacking that space.
“And also you see a team who, when didn't have the ball, they weren't happy and they tried to press to regain it, leading to the opponent to commit some mistakes. So the majority of the points I saw were good.”
Caixinha will stick to the regular training schedule over the international break and will arrange a bounce match next Saturday to finish their week’s work.
"I do believe that players need to have a biological pattern,” he said. “I will be delighted to give them days off when needed and when the schedule allows it. They will come back on Monday to train and from there we go until Saturday when we finish here playing with our squad combined with under-20 players because we want to finish with a match situation.”
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