Hearts boss Derek McInnes aware of threats posed by 'different type of Rangers' under Danny Rohl
The Jambos welcome the Ibrox club to Tynecastle this weekend for the latest Scottish Premiership meeting of the two clubs.
Hearts head coach Derek McInnes says he has been impressed with the job Danny Rohl has done since arriving at Rangers and that he expects a ‘different type of team’ they beat at Ibrox earlier this season.
The Glasgow side are unbeaten in their eight Scottish Premiership matches under the former Sheffield Wednesday boss, with six wins and two draws, and have climbed up the table to third place since parting company with Russell Martin. They are nine points behind league leading Hearts with a game in hand prior to Sunday’s clash.
McInnes says he has noticed how pragmatic Rangers have been under the German gaffer and recognises that there are a lot of good players in their team that can cause his side problems. However, he also said the game ‘can’t come around quick enough’ as they look to make it three wins from three against the Old Firm this campaign.
Rangers have made ‘good progress’ under Danny Rohl says Hearts boss Derek McInnes
“Coming away from a more possession based approach from Russell [Martin] impressed with the job Danny Rohl's done,” said McInnes. “He's come in and been really pragmatic.
“I think domestically, they’ve made some good progress in terms of results. I went to Ibrox the other night and watched the game against Hibs and the game was pretty even and quite open at times in the first half,.
“Once Rangers scored I thought they were pretty secure with their work.I thought they never really put the game at risk too much, so I think considering when he came in the results have improved, he deserves a lot of credit for that.
“It's a different type of Rangers team but still a lot of good players and regardless of systems and approaches, managers, when you actually look at a Rangers team, there's still a lot of talent in there. They spend millions, they pay thousands of pounds a week to put a squad together and you can still see they've got some good talented players there.”
Hearts vs Rangers - two big clubs with big demands go head-to-head at Tynecastle
McInnes added that he believes there is a demand to win on both clubs ahead of Sunday’s game. The Jambos have home advantage while the visiting fans always expect victory.
“I think the two big clubs with demands,” said McInnes. “I'm sure every Hearts team that plays Rangers at Tynecastle there would be the demand to win and likewise with Rangers, the demand is clearly on them as a club to win home and away as well. I think there's huge expectation for the game, there's a lot of expectation on us from our fans which is fine but we put that same expectation on ourselves that if we turn up and do our work well we can hopefully get a result.
“Obviously this week is a wee bit longer week again, Saturday into Sunday but the game can't come round quick enough. I think the fact it's the last weekend before Christmas it's a good schedule for us in terms of high profile games.
“We've had a lot of that recently obviously, TV games and the like but Hearts Rangers is always a big deal regardless of where both teams are in the league and I think it's a game that the supporters will be looking forward to but they're not looking forward to it any more than we are as a team and as a staff, we're all looking forward to getting that ball rolling and getting to work.”