GIOVANNI Van Bronckhorst insists there ‘won’t be complacency’ in the squad as Rangers head to Galabank this weekend to face Annan Athletic in the Scottish Cup.
The Light Blues travel South on Saturday to take on Peter Murphy’s side in the Fifth Round of the tournament and the Gers boss outlined that the squad must play their own game.
Speaking to the press ahead of the cup fixture, he said: “I think that there won’t be complacency from our side, you have to respect the opponent, but we are there to win the game and go to the next round. When we just play our level we should win the game, it’s our obligation and it’s also our aim.
“We want to compete with every prize and competition that we are in. For the Scottish Cup, we want to be winning the cup, that’s our aim and goal that we want to achieve.
“It’s different than what we are used to, but it’s also circumstances that we’ll have to deal with. It’s still a pitch, eleven against eleven and one ball, there’s no difference for me. It doesn’t matter if you play in front of 50,000 or for 2,000 in a small stadium, in the end we want to get to the next round and be focused and respect the opponent we are facing to get a good performance.
“We know the surface we are playing on tomorrow, and I think this time of year it is maybe better to place on artificial grass than to a really bad pitch due to the weather conditions. I think that we can play our normal game, it’s different than grass but we should be okay.”
Van Bronckhorst added that this fixture provides an opportunity for players to get more minutes under their belt as some return from injury.
He continued: “I’ve got a big squad, there are so many players available, and we had a good transfer window to raise our level squad wise. For me, it’s a case of keep going and playing the way we want to play and there will be changes tomorrow but our intentions will be the same. It’s good for me to give other players minutes.
“We are travelling with a big squad so you want to use the players who didn’t play as much lately, the youngsters will travel with us to Annan so hopefully there is room for them to also feature in the game.
“Aaron [Ramsey] will start tomorrow; he has been doing well and he had more team sessions in training and some minutes against Hibernian. He’s getting better and fresher, and the rhythm is coming back, and he will be starting tomorrow as well.”
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