The Light Blue’s will host Malky MacKay’s side at Ibrox on Saturday afternoon for their next Premiership fixture, and the Gers continued to outline the importance of maintaining concentration ahead of each match across all competitions.
Speaking at this afternoon’s press conference, he commented: “This game is just as important as what it was on Wednesday night, I said this in the Scottish Cup last season – the game against Annan on the first round of the cup was just as important as Seville.
“You need to win every game, the challenge is to be as competitive and earn the right to play, you can’t take your eye off the ball because if you do so, it sets you up for a disaster. It’s as important as anything and we’re not taking it lightly.”
Rangers were drawn into Group A of the Champions League on Thursday evening for their first group stage football in the competition since 2010, and Arfield emphasised that the squad must continue to aim higher as they progress through the tournament.
He added: “You always have to aim higher, particularly at this football club. I’ve said this numerous times throughout the campaign last season to get to the final, no matter who we were drawn against we felt as though we could beat them.
"That doesn’t change, we feel as though we could do something and hopefully get a bit of luck on some occasions because it’s always massive to get that. We feel as though we can aim higher and be as competitive as possible.
“We’ve definitely got different structures to play from and the most important thing is to have freedom and pace in your team – we’ve definitely got that.
“We can hit teams on the break, or we can play further up and suffocate teams like we do at Ibrox. He [Giovanni van Bronckhorst] has certainly brought a great level of intelligence to us as players, and it can only help us going into these six massive games.”
Arfield took time to reflect on his past experiences playing against Liverpool during his spell in England but emphasised that it’s a challenge that the squad are looking forward to facing.
He added: “I remember touching the ball twice and scoring, that was nice and the most important thing about it.
"They’re an amazing team, they’ve gotten better since I played against them, and they’re hard to play against. The atmosphere is always electric, the four years since I’ve been up here, they’ve only strengthened in their players and have everything going for them.
“They’re well organised and are definitely going to be a difficult task to take anything from them, but as always, we’re confident and optimistic about our chances to play against anybody – it will be a special night hopefully.
“It’s a completely different team, you like to draw in experiences, but it will make no difference. It’s going to be a tough game, but one we feel that we can win no doubt.”
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