Top line summary:

  • Lessons learned from last two encounters against Rangers
  • Baffled by Clement's comments on previous matches
  • Wants Hibs to play Rangers like Rangers played Benfica
  • Says Marcondes is key to how he wants to play

How important is it that the players don't play the Rangers jersey?

“It is important not to do that but it is something that is in Scottish football.  When you play Rangers or Celtic then you are playing teams with huge budgets and huge market values compared to yourself.  

“There is always that mentality from the fans and people who watch the game, but, as a player, you have to see it as an opportunity to be the underdog and to succeed.  That is a pressure that the likes of Celtic and Rangers have to deal with every week, home and away and in every competition because the expectation is to win the games.  

“The managers of both those clubs are there because they can handle that pressure and they need players who can handle that as well.  

"Being the underdog, which is most teams against the Old Firm but it is a football match, 90 minutes and you know if you perform then you have every chance of coming out on top."

What have you learned from the previous two games against Rangers?

“I have learned not to give sloppy goals against good teams! That is something you cannot do.  “We also need to be more clinical with the chances we do get. We didn’t deserve to get anything out of the last two games because defensively we gave away some really poor goals.

“If you are going to chase goals against top-level opposition then it becomes an uphill task.  “Some were individual mistakes and others were team mistakes but what you have to do is stay in the game and know we can create.  In both games, we created opportunities but we weren’t clinical and we didn’t punish.  That is one thing I have learned.”

How does the gap between Hibs' and Rangers' budgets compare with Central Coast Mariners?

“You cannot compare them. I don’t think you can compare in most leagues in the world.  It is still 11 players on the pitch and teams have shown they can compete.  

“It is the quality they can recruit and they don’t need many opportunities to score goals, that is the difference.  When you are playing in the Premier League they don’t need a second invitation to score a goal.  You need to score to win games.  

“You can’t compare but it is a great opportunity for players to go up against Old Firm players that are Champions League and Europa League players and have come from bigger clubs and leagues. It is always exciting to come up against them."

How important has Emiliano Marcondes become to what you want to do?

“Emi’s really important. I brought him in because I know his qualities as a player. Everybody knows the story - it was a chance meeting in Dubai; he was on our radar but he’d been out injured for eight or nine months and it’s always going to be a risk when you bring in a player who hasn’t played for such a long time.

“When I went to speak to him he was out there training with other Premier League players who weren’t on international duty and that spoke volumes about him wanting to get back playing. We had a real good conversation about him coming to Hibs and how I saw him impacting the team and I think he’s really important to us, not just on the field but off it as well. He’s a really good influence, a top professional, and I think he’s lifted the group. 

“This is a player who has played in big games, scored the winning goal for Brentford to get them promoted to the Premier League and he’s had a good career.

“He’s still only 28. I think I read somewhere that footballers peak around 27-32; maybe I’ve got that wrong, but right now he’s in the peak of his career and enjoying himself.

“He’s a player with real quality and has a lot more to give as well because you can’t expect anyone to be out for nine months and three or four weeks later be on top form. But he’s done more than enough to show what a top-quality player he is.”

What did you make of Philippe Clement’s comments?

“I don’t think I ever said we were unlucky in either game so I’m not sure where Philippe’s got that from. We deserved to get beaten both times because we didn’t put our chances away and we got punished because they’ve got quality players and we made mistakes.

“Maybe he’s just trying to take pressure off himself; it’s a big game, we know it’s a big game. They just went to a team with ten times their Transfermarkt value, and they’ve got ten times our Transfermarkt value so that’s a pressure that Philippe has to cope with. He’s coped with it really well since arriving in Scottish football. He’s got Rangers playing very direct football, very aggressive, and I think they’ve had a fantastic run.

“So I definitely didn’t say we were unlucky! We didn’t deserve to win either game so I don’t know where that’s come from.”

Does Rangers going toe-to-toe with Benfica show that Hibs can do it to Rangers?

“Yeah, for sure. If you look at Benfica, they’re in a bad place at the minute. They lost 5-0 to Porto and they lost to Sporting so you could see the pressure on them on Thursday night. 

"They’re still a quality team and I thought Rangers defended really well - resolute, and so many blocks in the 18-yard box and it was a fantastic result for them. So it shows that you can get results [against teams with far bigger budgets].

“They caught Benfica at a good time but you could still see the quality in that Benfica team as well. It was a great result for them and an exciting return leg at Ibrox next week.”

A fast start, at home, could make a big difference on Sunday… 

“Yes. A full Easter Road with the fans behind us is a great place to play but we want to start all games quickly; we never want to start off slowly.
“We’ll try to approach the game in the right manner and that’s to go out from the beginning and try to start on the front foot.
“The biggest change we’ve had in the last four or five weeks is that we now have a squad of players where I can look at the bench and know that I’ve got attacking players who can come on and have an impact. That’s something that’s really important in modern-day football with the intensity the game is played at.
“It gives you an opportunity to change things and bring fresh energy off the bench, and that’s something that we have now and probably didn’t have for a large part of the season.”