How Rangers manager Giovanni van Bronckhorst laid down the law as he demands hunger and discipline from squad

Giovanni van Bronckhorst has warned the Rangers players that any lack of desire to build on last season’s Premiership title-winning success will not be tolerated under his management.
New Rangers manager Giovanni van Bronckhorst saw his new team lose 3-1 to Hibs in the Premier Sports Cup semi-final at Hampden on Sunday. (Photo by Ian MacNicol/Getty Images)New Rangers manager Giovanni van Bronckhorst saw his new team lose 3-1 to Hibs in the Premier Sports Cup semi-final at Hampden on Sunday. (Photo by Ian MacNicol/Getty Images)
New Rangers manager Giovanni van Bronckhorst saw his new team lose 3-1 to Hibs in the Premier Sports Cup semi-final at Hampden on Sunday. (Photo by Ian MacNicol/Getty Images)

The Dutchman will meet his full first-team squad for the first time on Tuesday morning as he prepares for his first game in charge of the club at home to Sparta Prague in the Europa League on Thursday night.

Van Bronckhorst was a spectator at Hampden on Sunday as Rangers slumped to a 3-1 Premier Sports Cup semi-final defeat against Hibs at Hampden which saw defender Connor Goldson claim afterwards that they had ‘lost the hunger’ which drove them to become champions under Steven Gerrard.

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At his formal unveiling as Gerrard’s successor on Monday afternoon, van Bronckhorst made it clear that the team he is taking over can expect an uncompromising approach from him as he bids to emulate the success he enjoyed at the Ibrox club as a player.

“I expect that everyone is on board with me,” he said. “It’s my duty to prepare players for games.

“I will prepare them in their attitude, their hunger, whatever. For me as a coach and a player, I think the hunger has to come from within yourself. It starts with that. That would make it a lot easier as a coach.

“Being involved in football all my life,I know what needs to be done and what you have to do to be successful. That message I got across as a coach from when I started. I will keep doing that. If some player thinks otherwise, they will have a tough manager.

Work, work, work - it starts from working. Of course if you work hard and you have the quality, it will make it easier to win games.

“I am a coach who is very strict. I like discipline. It is very important for the way that you behave and the way you play on the pitch.

“But also I like an attacking style of football because this has been my way of playing when I was a player and I am like that as a coach. I am a coach that sees what I have and what the squad is.

“The most important thing is to make sure your team plays to its strength and to make sure they are comfortable in their way of playing. I am confident we will find a style of play that will suit myself as a coach and also suit the players.

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“I saw footage of the team and games they had played this season. It’s a great squad, they won the league last year. In the second year, to be champions is more difficult.

“But we are still in a good place. Of course we are not happy with the result on Sunday. We can see some things I want to change and we have to be better at.

“But my first meeting with the players will be tomorrow. It’s better to tell them first and look them in their eyes, to make sure that from tomorrow on we do everything to be successful with this club. That’s my goal, that’s my ambition. That’s the message I want to get through to the players.”

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