Josh Windass urged to improve by Rangers boss Pedro Caixinha
Saturday 21 October 2017 14:07, UK
Josh Windass has been challenged to raise his game by Pedro Caixinha as Rangers prepare to face Motherwell in the Betfred Cup semi-final on Sunday.
Windass impressed on the opening day of the season when Rangers won 2-1 at Motherwell, but has struggled to hit the same heights since then.
Speaking ahead of the game at Hampden Park, Rangers boss Caixinha urged Windass to recapture the form he showed during the win back in August.
He said: "The last game with Motherwell is a good memory for Josh. He did great. He did four or five actions where he was looking like an explosive player and unstoppable in those actions.
"So it's a good situation for him to review. Josh can be an important player again for us as we look to explore the wide areas."
Caixinha overhauled his Rangers squad in the summer, making 11 new signings as he looked to improve on last season's third-place finish.
The Portuguese admits, though, that his new-look team needs time to gel. He said: "Like all the players, Josh needs minutes in the team to get his rhythm up. He's getting those minutes as we're not changing the first 11 much.
"Not having too many games and having long weeks for training is helping him in that direction.
"Players need to play regularly and Josh is doing that. We need to coach him in several directions - defensively as well as to take more chances when he has the ball out wide.
"He can be a triple threat for us. He can go one-v-one for the assist, he can switch the play and he's a good shooter from distance.
"Those are the situations we are working with him on an individual basis as well as with the team. But the confidence and the trust depends on the minutes he is playing."
Progression to the final would mean that Rangers had won three matches in a row for the first time since Caixinha arrived in March.
However, he says this isn't something that he is focusing on. He said: "I want them to enjoy it.
"Is this an opportunity to go on longer winning run? Yeah it is, because I really consider a winning cycle starts with three matches so we need to win it.
"But we have only two options this weekend - win or win - so I'm not thinking about it."
