View: Rohl to earn every last penny of Rangers wages as mind games begin

Danny Rohl needs to block out Derek McInnes’ mind games and let his Rangers side’s quality speak for itself.

When Rohl took over Rangers in early October, the club was in a real mess following Russell Martin’s brief and unhappy Ibrox reign.

Rangers trailed surprise Scottish Premiership leaders Hearts by 11 points as they languished in eighth. Fast forward to the present and they are now three points adrift of McInnes’ team, with Rohl deserving a lot of credit for that.

And if they beat Dundee United on Saturday afternoon, they will go top of the table on goal difference, before Hearts take on lowly Livingston on Sunday.

McInnes has tried to heap extra pressure on Rangers ahead of the Dundee United clash at a time when Rohl needs to earn every last penny of Gers contract, which runs until 2028.

Gauntlet thrown down to Rangers

Due to the budgets of Rangers and Celtic, the Old Firm teams should be competing for the league title every year.

That is nearly always the case but every now and again, a challenger can threaten to upset the apple cart. This season, it’s Hearts.

As per Transfermarkt, Celtic’s current squad value is £126.5million and Rangers are second at £106m. There is then a vast drop with Hearts in third at £25m.

Rangers and Celtic have more quality across the park than Hearts but so far that has meant little as they are three and five points adrift of them, respectively.

Ahead of this latest round of league fixtures, McInnes has stressed how Hearts are overachieving despite the gulf in quality between their rivals.

He told reporters: “The whole psychological thing, mind games and things like that, I think it’s a bit overplayed, to be honest.

“We’ll just need to concentrate on ourselves, regardless if Celtic win, lose, or draw, and Rangers win, lose, or draw.

“But I expect Rangers at home are favourites to win the game. Rangers being top of the league is no real surprise – any team who spends what they’ve spent should be expected to be top.

“If you look across all the leagues in Europe, there’s not a team who’s been at the top of the league for as long or as close to the end of the season, with the disparity in what we’ve got in terms of spending power and wages that we can pay against Rangers and Celtic.

“The disparity in everything is massive. It says so much for our team to be where we are for so long. We’re probably higher than where we all expected at the start of the campaign. That pleases me no end.”

Rohl needs to understand exactly what the vastly more experienced McInnes is doing here, and ensure his players just do their talking on the field.

Rangers have shown they can outclass Hearts

Just before Christmas, Hearts secured a statement 2-1 win over Rangers to put them 12 points clear of the Gers.

That was a fairly even game but at Ibrox in mid-February, Rangers’ quality told against McInnes’ team. A 4-2 win on home turf showed Hearts that Rangers are here to stay.

In that game, they had more shots, possession, touches inside the box, corners, and more. And yet, this is not far off uncharted territory for Rangers.

While their last title win came in 2021, they have only topped the Scottish Premiership once in 15 years.

So there is a lot of pressure to come out on top this year, especially with recent dominators Celtic off colour.

Rohl should not get sucked into the mind games with McInnes. The German’s attention should be focused on beating Dundee United, before seeing how Hearts respond.

Updated 24/7 with expert analysis from the heart of Govan.