Michael Beale has encouraged his Rangers players to "step up" for "the biggest test" in Saturday's Old Firm derby away against rivals Celtic in the Scottish Premiership.
Since taking over as Gers head coach in November, Beale has won 18 of his 20 games in charge across all tournaments, but the two matches in which his team have failed to come out on top were both against Celtic.
Indeed, Rangers played out a 2-2 draw at home against Celtic in the Premiership at the start of January, before suffering a 2-1 defeat to the Hoops in the Scottish League Cup final at Hampden Park at the end of February.
Rangers have been attempting to chase down their Glaswegian rivals at the top of the Premiership table throughout this season, and despite putting together an impressive 10-game winning run, they still find themselves nine points adrift of the summit heading into the final eight matches.
Beale has urged his Rangers side to make a strong start to Saturday's contest to give themselves the best chance of prevailing in front of an intimidating Parkhead crowd.
© Reuters
Speaking to reporters on Friday, via Rangers' official website, Beale said: "Both games since I have come back in the derby we have started slow, we have improved after half time but we certainly need to make sure that we start this game well, that we are strong defensively and we carry a threat going forward with our key players.
"That is the importance of any big game that you stay strong in your structure but also at the right times you go and play and express yourself, we will pick a team to go and win the game.
"The team arrive at the game in fine form of 10 consecutive league wins and this is the biggest test going away from home that we have had, albeit our away form has been very good, we are certainly looking forward to the game.
"We are in a positive place and it is game that we have been looking forward to as a squad and now it is important that that the players now execute the game plan and perform."
Rangers have failed to win each of their last five league meetings with Celtic, including a 4-0 loss in their last visit to Parkhead under former boss Giovanni van Bronckhorst in September, and another defeat would all but end their slim hopes of winning the title.
Beale is keen to see his key players, including Todd Cantwell, Malik Tillman and Ryan Kent, perform when it matters on the biggest stage and hopes that his side are able to successfully execute their gameplan as they bid to claim maximum points at Parkhead.
© Reuters
"If you look at the majority of the games we play we are a possession based team, it is important that we take the ball and we stay with it and we get our attacking players on the ball, whether that is Todd, Malik and Ryan breaking from midfield it is important that those guys go and show their quality and if we get moments we have to execute them," said Beale.
"We had big moments at Ibrox and Hampden as well and we didn't, ultimately it comes down to the boxes, you'd like to be dominant in between them but big games are won in the two penalty boxes and the games are always tight and generally won and lost in moments, whether that is off a set piece or a moment of brilliance, they generally are won in the final third, it is important that our big players step up tomorrow."
Rangers captain James Tavernier has reiterated his managers' desire to turn up on Saturday, adding: "We must display a good performance throughout the 90 minutes, we cost ourselves 45 minutes in the last game when we definitely weren't at pace.
"We didn't show our game plan and going into tomorrow we have to do that from the get-go and really put in a performance that we are proud of.
"There is determination, it is a game against our rivals and we didn't display what we wanted to against them in the final so it is a chance to rectify that. It is a chance to close the gap in the league and we are all looking forward to it."
Rangers have been boosted by the return of January signing Nicolas Raskin, who has trained throughout this week after recovering from a fitness issue.
No Data Analysis info
