I’m far from disgruntled with it
Burnley beat Rangers 3-1 in the penultimate pre-season friendly with both managers seeing positives and negatives in their respective teams performances.
Mark Warburton, about to embark on his second season as Rangers boss, saw his side beaten 3-1 and, reflecting on the game, said: “We knew it was a tough test, and it was a huge jump in quality in terms of opponent with them being a Premier League side. They have good players, were well organised, worked really hard and made it difficult for us, but at the same time we will take lots of positives out of the game as well.
“We have got to recognise goals change games, there is no doubt about that. I’ve seen their penalty back five or six times, and I can’t see how it can be given. A goal against you after three minutes at home is difficult.
“For them, Andre Gray is a quality striker, and is a £15 million striker, there is no doubt about that. He showed his pace but we dropped too deep and showed them too much respect, but there are lots and lots of positives. We played with the ball well at times, didn’t penetrate enough which I appreciate, but we have to look at the game and recognise who we are playing against, and step up.
“You learn something in every game, and we all learn something today It’s not about just the players, it’s about all of us together and we need to see what we can do better in training, what to focus on in training, and at the same time, what can we do in terms of our environment at the training ground. You have to look every day of every week and get better. We need to keep pushing and that’s what we will do.”
Sean Dyche had to be happy with the performance as we move ever closer to the new season. “It was a very solid performance and that’s probably doing the lads down a bit,” he said. “It was a very good performance in the sense that our game plan was good.
“We understood how it might pan out and we have to get used to different ways of playing, particularly in the Premier League. They try to make the pitch big and a lot of Premier League clubs do that, so it was a good exercise in how we could counteract that with the shape of our team. I thought our game plan was very good and executed very well.
“I was just a bit picky with the players in the last 25 minutes because we were 3-0 up and had control of the game and we eased away from it and got loose. We gave away a couple of maybes and if you are playing at a higher level, those maybes turn into chances and in the Premier League, players take them. That was the only thing because the organisation and shape was very solid.
“I don’t think Tom had an enormous amount to do over the whole game, other than a few things from distance. I’m far from disgruntled with it; it’s another win and that’s another step forward.
“I’m just trying to get them to understand that if you give players that little glimmer in the Premier League, it’s a different story, so we have to make sure we are locked into our habits all the time.
“The fitness and focus are getting better and that was more game time today, so we’ll have a strong week this week into the Sociedad game. There may be a bit of fatigue because this is our last week when we can do some really heavy work, before we go into the season nice and sharp.”
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