Manager Jimmy Thelin spoke to the media on Tuesday lunchtime to preview our William Hill Premiership match with Rangers at Ibrox. RedTV subscribers can watch in full now by clicking here.
The Signings of Alexander Jensen & Alfie Dorrington
“The situation we are in right now, with some injury problems, it’s challenging the squad, like I said before, when you get injuries, long term injuries in specific areas of the team, it’s also more high risk for the players who are fresh, because there’s no availability to rest them. We need to strengthen the squad to cope with the last part of the season. We need to just be sensible, to arrive and give them some time to prepare themselves, but they’re going to be involved in the squad tomorrow. We also need to be sensible so they don’t get any setbacks themselves so that we can keep everybody fresh to compete to the end of the season.
“With Alexander Jensen I know him well from Sweden. He can play on both sides, left and right. His game understanding is really good, how he anticipates the game with the ball, and his capacity to run. He’s coming from pre season training, so we need to give him time. He has the capacity to keep the intensity of the game. Alfie is a good centre back who is good with the ball, his pace, and his background, how he understands the game, can help us also during the season.”
Future Transfer Business
“The window is open, and let’s see what’s happening. We always try to strengthen the team, as I said before, sometimes we don’t do anything more, sometimes maybe we do. Let’s see how the team develops now and which players are close to coming back, but there is still a lot of weeks for most of the players who are out. Let’s see how the game tomorrow goes and the cup game at the weekend.”
Team News
“Rubi is still suspended. Jack (MacKenzie) is not available, he is still on the treatment table. We will see for the weekend. Otherwise some players are under some assessment, and let’s see what’s happening in the next coming hours.”
Rangers at Ibrox
“A tough challenge, every game is difficult. You have to be ready to compete and also the intensity between these two teams when they play against each other, the atmosphere, it’s a good challenge to have right now, and all focus is for us to do the best performance that we can and try to get some points from there.
“The pressure is always there in some way or another but I don’t think it’s a bad thing. The pressure is good because then you have to grow as a person, as a footballer, as a team, and you need some pressure to be better. There should be some intense feeling about games, and so it’s always going to be there. That’s why you want to be in this business, to feel this tension and to be the best you can be. So I don’t think the pressure is off or whatever. For us the most important thing is how we grow, and because we have been in a challenging time, and we need to get a bit better every game. So we’re going to try to keep building on some parts from the last game and move onto the next game and try to be better tomorrow.
“You always have to believe that you can do something and go into a game and compete, and we have a clear plan of what we want to do tomorrow. Also Rangers have been good at home, we know that, and so we have to be really, really good tomorrow and believe in what we’re doing and give everything we can.”
James McGarry
“Even the Celtic game at home, I think he was really good. For him, it’s more to keep that level. He has a lot of attributes that are good. The last game against Hearts, he was good in many ways, both defending and attacking. If you take that challenge now, and challenge him to take the steps he can do it. That’s why he is playing and also the period last time Mackenzie was out, he did well but there was also so many games in a short time. His level, the high level he has, is really high now you have to be consistent in this part.”
Attacking Threat
“As a team, we need to create more dangerous chances. I talk about after the Hearts game, at least we’re arriving to some chances, but we need more players to arrive. We also need to create space for each other when we arrive into the box. It’s teamwork.”
