Rangers' team meeting details revealed after Hearts defeat as Danny Rohl sets out Christmas plans

A 2-1 winter solstice reversal at Tynecastle to the Premiership leaders has led to some onlookers ruling the Ibrox side out of the title race. The end of an eight-game unbeaten run puts Rangers 12 points behind Hearts, albeit with a game in hand.

This is new territory for Rohl in that since his arrival in October, this was his first league defeat of his fledgling tenure. Rangers had quietly moved back into contention on the back of some good form but needed a statement victory to propel them firmly into the mix.

Rohl is now challenging his players to go on another run. The German is well aware that despite there being 20 games left in the season, there isn’t a whole lot of wriggle room - especially with Hearts showing no signs of letting up.

Rohl addressed his players on Monday morning to rake over the ashes of their trip to Edinburgh. He saw enough positives to imbue his squad with confidence.

“I think at first the emotion in the changing room was really down, but this is my part to bring them back,” said Rohl. “I think especially yesterday after the meeting, I felt the players went out of the meeting and the confidence was back, because it's my job to lead them straight, give them a clear message. And now it's the next game. I think this is in football, the next game, and with the next game you can influence the confidence.”

Asked to expand on what he said to his players, Rohl continued: “Different messages. The first thing, what I tried to tell you as well, six, seven weeks ago, there was not one thought about the title race, and I think we feel what it means, that we have a chance, even in eight games, to close the gap again.

‘I believe we need a better run’

“But it's about results. I believe we need a better run. And this is not easy, especially with the upcoming eight games. And the second thing is that I give them a picture of what we have to improve, and what I want to see in the next days and weeks. And I give them as well a picture of what we did good in the last couple of weeks, because with five clean sheets, I think that helps a lot.

“And to go a little bit back to the Hearts game, this game has a bit of its own story. I totally believe if we would be on top [in the match] after 20 minutes, it would be 2-0 to us, because then the goal would be not offside, and the second big chance for Nico [Raskin] is maybe a goal, and then we would speak about a different number, but this is football.

“Then you've got these two conceded goals in four minutes, and this gives us, of course, a little bit of problems. And then in the second half, one goal could be helpful to come back to the game, but the goal comes too late. And then in the end, Hearts did everything in the second half to defend the lead.

“I think the last eight league games was exactly the same. We could win games, games, games. The discussion and the problems were at other places, we could do a workshop. But this is about the next game now, you can speak about a lot, about the title race or not, it's about the results from the next games, and we have to start on Saturday again. If you do it, you make the next step, the next few points, and this is our job.”

Rohl knows that going on the sort of run that sets a team apart as title challengers will not be easy. He puts that down to the strength of the league, that sides are capable of taking points off each other.

“Even though I wasn’t here before, I think I see this year we have more competitive teams,” explained Rohl. “They can take points in other games. I think that helps. If you do your job, the other teams have to play against teams that can take points, and I think this is helpful to have in this league.

“We spoke about going from game to game. This weekend we will face a team [Motherwell] that are also on a good run. They are flying, a lot of good results, a lot of good points. But it will be a good game, I think. We will have a lot of supporters, it's Christmas. Let's try to create a good energy in the stadium, a togetherness, and we have to deliver a proper fight, a good performance on the pitch and take the next results, and then we can look to the next game.”

Before the visit of Motherwell on Saturday, Rohl will enjoy some rare time with his family as he celebrates Christmas - although the best present would come two days later if they win at Ibrox.

“Yesterday, my family arrived after a long, long time which is good,” added Rohl. “In Germany, Christmas is on the 24th, in the evening, not on the 25th. We now train for three days, and then we’ll give the players the 25th off. Then we have the 26th. We still have four training sessions.

“It's the first time since I’ve been here that we have four training sessions in one week. We're looking forward to all the games that are coming. I'm used to it, in the last three years, it was the same. Games, games, games. It's not really Christmas. Yeah, we take these few hours, and then we're looking forward to the next games.”