GIOVANNI VAN BRONCKHORST wants more of the same from his Rangers team when they take on Dundee United tomorrow afternoon, with the Dutchman impressed with his side’s performance in the 3-0 defeat to Napoli midweek.
The hosts competed well for long spells at Ibrox before James Sands’ second-half dismissal left them in the lurch and the Serie A league leaders’ quality shone through.
Coming off the back of 4-0 reverses to Celtic and Ajax, the loss was the Govan outfit’s third heavy defeat in a row but Van Bronckhorst saw plenty of positives to take from the performance.
Approaching the Premiership encounter with United in the same fashion is of utmost importance, he insisted.
“We need to switch because we had no [league] game last week,” he told Rangers TV. “We played two Champions League games in a row, which normally you don’t have.
“But we are prepared really well. We have to make sure we maintain our way of playing, especially the intensity and character we showed on Wednesday. We need to have that to get a good result at Ibrox.
“Our first intention, of course, is to break it early in the game because that will make it easier for us.
“Then they have to open up also to find a goal. I think it’s key to have the same start as we did against Napoli and also in some home games. It’s very important.”
Since United parted company with Jack Ross, interim manager Liam Fox has guided the Tayside club to a win over Livingston in the Premier Sports Cup and a hard-fought point at Motherwell in the league in his two outings in charge.
Nevertheless, Van Bronckhorst remains confident his team will pick up the three points in Govan.
“They had some positive results,” he said. “Of course they had a really difficult start to the season and a change of manager.
“They will come here and try to upset us with their play. You always expect a very tough match at home with a quite compact defensively well organised team.
“But as I said before, we have to keep our standards. We know how to overcome these opponents. We have to show it [against United].”
