Graeme Souness: Rangers are a superior team to Celtic this season providing one major caveat can be resolved
The Ibrox legend has seen enough progress under Danny Rohl to suggest that Rangers are a better team than Celtic
Rangers may have been left disappointed by the outcome of BOTH Old Firm derbies earlier this month - but that hasn’t stopped Ibrox legend Graeme Souness from suggesting his old club are a better team than Celtic.
Danny Rohl’s side faced the Hoops twice in the space of seven days at Ibrox recently, drawing the Scottish Premiership clash and losing the Scottish Cup quarter-final tie on penalties in a game overshadowed by crowd disorder.
But Souness - the man who fronted the Rangers revolution alongside David Murray in the late 1980s - is convinced the Light Blues have proved they are the superior side this season.
And while admitted Rangers only had themselves to blame for not converting their dominance into wins, he’s seen enough under Rohl’s leadership to take a bullish outlook on the future - providing they start to find a ruthless streak in front of goal.
Souness told the Daily Record: “I think they need more goals. They’re a better team than Celtic. That game the other day was decided on penalties, but there was only one team going to win it.
“If you’re trying to attach logic to it, a team that has 24 shots and 120 minutes of football. A team that has one shot in 120 minutes, there should only be one winner.
“So Rangers can only look at themselves and blame themselves for not winning that game. That was the game I saw. I watched it… unfortunately, I was abroad at the time, and only saw the previous Old Firm game, where Rangers were fantastic in the first half.
“And then the second half belonged to Celtic, but I think there’s a fundamental reason for that.”
Tavernier pleased by Rangers response to concession of Aberdeen goal
Rangers did exactly that on Saturday evening as as they eased aside lowly Aberdeen with a compelling 4-1 victory as goals from Tochi Chukwuani, Mikey Moore, Nico Raskin and a stunning James Tavernier ree-kick rendered Dennis Geiger’s brief reply a mere consilation.
And Gers captain Tavernier believes his teammates ability to remain calm after conceding early in the second half to hand the Dons a lifeline was pivotal in securing maximum points.
Speaking post-match on Premier Sports, he said: “It was important to get the win today, we’re probably disappointed with conceding the goal in the manner wedid, but I still felt that we were good defensively apart from that and attackingly, we know we put some goals in.
“Mikey (Moore) was phenomenal for us tonight and the boys who stepped in off the bench did their part so we have to continue to work hard and keep pushing. We had to stay calm (at 2-1), because it was us that cost ourselves that goal, and I think we responded well.
“We got a goal not too long after that, so we responded really well, kept control of the game, and just kept pushing each other to try to get as many goals as we could.”
*Graeme Souness was speaking at Flutter’s Cash4Clubs initiative, that will see 250 community clubs receive grants totalling £500,000