Warbs: Niko Will Come Good

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MARK WARBURTON has labelled Niko Kranjcar a special player, and insisted he is just one of a number of players who are yet to reach optimum fitness.

 

The Croatian internationalist came in for criticism following Saturday’s draw with Hamilton at Ibrox, but Warburton insisted his new man will come good.

 

The manager said: “There seems to be a lot of emphasis on Niko’s fitness, and from my point of view, I watch a really talented, special ball-player, who probably hasn’t been appropriately challenged for a fair while now, coming in and working his socks off to get his fitness levels up, and he has done a great job so far.

 

“I can’t speak highly enough about him, but he knows, as many others do, that they aren’t there yet. Pre-season, we came through, but there will be three or four bodies who still need a few weeks to reach their optimum level of fitness.

 

“In pre-season, our programme didn’t really challenge us in the appropriate manner. Niko has worked so hard, and some things went right for him on Saturday, but there is less emphasis on his fitness and more on how best we can utilise a very special player.

 

“There are many players at the highest level who take time to adapt to the different surroundings, the food, the area, their teammates etc.

 

“We are delighted with Niko, and indeed all of the new guys. We do a lot of work on their character, but there is no doubt sometimes it takes time, and in Niko’s case, there is no doubt we have a very talented ball player.”

 

Warburton also rounded-up his thoughts on the Accies game, and insited that despite not reaching the heights in terms of performance, Rangers should still have won the game.

 

He added: “We have to look at it and say, were we at our best? No. Can we move the ball quicker? Yes. Did we take our chances? No.

 

“You look at Ali Crawford’s goal – a great turn and finish, and all credit to him, but we then missed seven such chances in the second half.

 

“There were so many chances to put the ball in the back of the net, and we have to get the rewards. It’s something we suffered from last year, but we have to correct it and move forward, no doubt about that.

 

“We’re conscious we have moved to the next level, and the squads we’re coming up against have a greater depth of quality players, and there is no change to their work ethic.

 

“We saw last year that teams would run until they drop, and we saw Hamilton on Saturday had a fantastic commitment, organisation and desire that was allied to their quality.

 

“We know what we face week-in, week-out. Our squad is getting there, and we are OK.”

 

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