THERE is much for Jack Butland and his Rangers team mates to mull over in the wake of the chastening 3-0 defeat they suffered at the hands of Celtic at Parkhead yesterday - and an awful lot of time for them to do it in.
Butland admitted that not having a game for a fortnight – they are not back in action until Sunday week when they travel to Tannadice to face on-form Dundee United in the William Hill Premiership – will exacerbate the pain of an excruciating loss.
There will be no chance to get it out of their system quickly.
Yet, the former England goalkeeper feels that actually may, with so many areas which they need to improve in if they want to challenge the defending champions for the Scottish title this season, not necessarily be a bad thing.
“We've got a tricky period now where we don't have a game for a couple of weeks,” he said. “That's going to be difficult. We're going to be thinking about it for a long time.
“We're going to have days to look back at it. We're going to have a lot of training sessions between now and the next game. The next day we're in, it's not going to just disappear. There's no danger of that.
“It's going to be something that's going to be fresh on people's minds for a while. And it needs to be because that's how important it is to us and to the club. So, yes, there are things to work on, things to get better at, be more efficient. But I think the belief is there and I hope that shows at least that we're still fighting.”
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Philippe Clement and his coaching staff will spend the coming days poring over footage of the Old Firm loss and identifying the areas where Rangers need to improve before they next face Celtic.
However, Butland, like most observers of the one-sided encounter in the East End of Glasgow, already knows they will have to be far more ruthless up front and a lot more organised at the back if they want to vie with their city rivals for silverware during the 2024/25 campaign.
“We’re hugely disappointed,” he said. “In previous games we felt that we didn't have enough control over the game, control over the ball and found ourselves defending way too much.
“We showed early signs in the game, really positive signs of that, of being a bit braver on the ball, trying to control some of the game ourselves and not feel like we were under the cosh.
“They [Celtic] obviously do that well at home, trying to put you under pressure early. And we created some chances out of that early on. We didn’t take them and we defended a couple of situations poorly and then you find yourself facing an uphill battle.
“That's the reality of what we need to do better in these games. We've given away too many opportunities that we can avoid. And that's something we need to be better at going forward.”
Butland expressed hope that derby debutants like Robin Propper, Jefte, Connor Barron, Vaclav Cerny and Hamza Igamane will learn from the experience. He did, though, confess they can ill afford to make the same errors in the future.
“We’ve got lots of new players in, some new faces, different people that we need to get up to speed,” he said. “But It's a concern if you keep doing it. All of us as a collective, we need to address and defend these moments better because it then becomes difficult to get a foothold back in the game once you've done that.
“So while there was positive stuff early, we've given away some opportunities and conceded goals, and then it's a tough day.”
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There were angry exchanges between the Rangers players and manager and their supporters when they returned to Ibrox yesterday following a reverse which left them trailing Celtic by five points in the Premiership after just four games.
But Butland, who has vowed, as one of the senior professionals in the squad, to help raise the spirits of the squad in the coming days, believes that returning to their spiritual home will be a game changer for them.
They have been forced to play their matches at Hampden so far this term due to delays to the redevelopment work on the Copland Stand at Ibrox – but chairman John Bennett has stated he is optimistic they will be able to return following the international break and the goalkeeper hopes that is the case.
“It’s huge, I think in general, just for the club. I think the fans are desperate for it. We're desperate for it. But it's no excuse. It's something that we have to deal with. We have dealt with it fairly well, I think. We appreciate the fact that the fans have made differences and changes to their weekends to come and support us.
“Hopefully we're back in Ibrox soon. But that's by the by. We're disappointed about Sunday. I hope that we've shown some things that the fans can be hopeful from. But we need to be better because we don't want these results anymore.
“We’ve got some great fixtures, some great European sides to look forward to. The league is still our main focus, so we've got some work to do. While there was good signs on Sunday, we need to be better. And that's why I'm here. I'm here to try to help that. It's important that we do pick them up.”
