Rangers told to chase domestic treble and take advantage of Celtic schedule.
Rangers have been urged to make the most of Celtic’s hectic schedule and sweep up every domestic trophy this season after their recent resurgence under manager Derek McInnes.
The Ibrox outfit failed to win their first two league games before being knocked out of Europe entirely when they lost to Jablonec on penalties in the Conference League qualification playoffs. However, McInnes’ side responded strongly, winning their last seven games in all competitions, including back-to-back wins over Celtic.
Now two points behind their Glasgow rivals in the title race, former Rangers right-back Alan Hutton believes they are an entirely different prospect this season and can go on to win all three domestic trophies, having already knocked Celtic out of the Premier Sports Cup at the quarter-final stage.
“Rangers will want multiple trophies, absolutely,” said Hutton. “It doesn't matter whether Rangers are in bad form or whatever, or whether the team at the start of the season doesn't look great. Fans go into the new season stating ‘treble’. That's the bar. Celtic have won it for a number of years so that's the bar for the two Glasgow clubs.
“Unfortunately, Rangers have fallen short. I think this is probably a real sense now from this Rangers team that they can go and do something like that. It's easy to say it, it's harder to go and do it. They've got their foot in the semi-final. Again, the fans will feel that they should go on and win that. It's not going to be easy, but there's an opportunity there.
“Without European football, you've just got the domestic side to really focus on. That's what they'll be aiming for, this hasn't changed since I was there. So it's always going to be the same. The pressure's there, it's whether they can deal with it or not.”
Meanwhile, moving to the Green side of Glasgow, the ex-Rangers defender has questioned the wisdom of Celtic centre-back Cameron Carter-Vickers after the American sparked major debate with his post-match comments following the 1-0 defeat to Rangers prior to the international break.
Asked for his thoughts on the team’s performance, the 28-year-old stating the team's play was "too random" and lacked a clear identity - but Hutton think’s he should not have gone public with his thoughts.
“When you get asked certain questions right after defeats, it can be difficult,” Hutton told FootballPredictions.com. “The emotion's there, and part of me understands it as an ex-professional. Sometimes you just need to take a beat, sit back, relax, and then go in and answer the question. That's something that should be kept in-house personally. Carter-Vickers shouldn't really be telling the media that sort of stuff.
“If he's got questions for the hierarchy or the backroom staff, then you say it behind closed doors and then sort it out that way, because it then just becomes a big problem if it's out in the open and everybody's talking about it. So it's not ideal.”
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