Dundee boss Tony Docherty has tasked his players with changing their mentality when facing Celtic and Rangers.
The Dee welcome Rangers to Dens Park on Sunday in a buoyant mood following a dominant win over Aberdeen last time out. They are in a good place, sitting nicely inside the Scottish Premiership top-six as the season run-in approaches.
But Docherty’s side have also been on the end of some buising results against Celtic and Rangers this season. Losing 5-0 at home to Rangers and most recently suffering a 7-1 away defeat at Parkhead since their return to the top-flight.
And the Dark Blues manager understands why both teams have dominated the Scottish football landscape and how difficult they can be as opponents. However, he's challenged his squad to show their qualities and perform like they did when they beat Aberdeen 1-0 on Wednesday night. A result the manager reckons oozed style.
Speaking ahead of the weekend’s showdown, he told Sky Sports: "I think it's really important that you get the balance right. You have to realise who you've got, your opponents what you are up against.
"Like every game you will identify strengths and how to try and negate them, and you will look at weaknesses and how you can try and exploit them. So, we will be endeavouring to do that against Rangers. "It's getting the balance between in possession and out of possession, defending and attacking.
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"Listen, we've been working at it already. We will be working on it today, we will work on it tomorrow (Saturday) to make sure we are as prepared as we can be for Rangers coming.
"But there has to be a mentality to make sure we do improve in terms of performances and results against the Old Firm."
He continued: "That's the mentality of the Old Firm, they try and win games at the start of the first half and at the start of the second half. We know that as a team and we've got to be ready for that.
"We need to be resolute and we need to get our balance right between defending, but also, we've got good attacking players at this football club, real good quality.
"You seen that on Wednesday night (against Aberdeen). The level of performance, quality of play, we never just won the game, I thought we won it with a real style and that's something I'll be looking to iterate to the players. I will tell them to remain that team."
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