{"id":310645,"date":"2025-08-02T01:01:12","date_gmt":"2025-08-02T01:01:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/310645\/"},"modified":"2025-08-02T01:01:12","modified_gmt":"2025-08-02T01:01:12","slug":"joe-rothwell-knows-rangers-have-a-target-on-their-backs-as-he-plans-to-put-on-a-show-for-those-taking-aim","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/310645\/","title":{"rendered":"Joe Rothwell knows Rangers have a target on their backs as he plans to put on a show for those taking aim"},"content":{"rendered":"

Russell Martin starts life in the Scottish Premiership away to Motherwell on Saturday and Rothwell wants to make a statementJoe Rothwell of Rangers takes a corner kick<\/p>\n

Joe Rothwell says everyone wants to beat Russell Martin\u2019s new-look Rangers<\/a> – but insists they\u2019re ready to get off to a Premiership flyer against Motherwell.<\/p>\n

The Ibrox midfielder has already helped the club navigate a difficult Champions League<\/a> qualifying tie against Panathinaikos.<\/p>\n

And now he\u2019s gearing up for their league opener at Fir Park on Saturday night.<\/p>\n

Rothwell <\/a>expects it to be frantic in Lanarkshire with The Steelmen out to spoil Gers\u2019 Premiership start.<\/p>\n

But the 30-year-old – who arrived from Bournemouth this summer – is adamant that Martin\u2019s men can compete with Celtic for the title.<\/p>\n

Rothwell said: \u201cThe need for a fast start in the league doesn\u2019t have to be emphasised to us.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs players, we know it\u2019s massive. We want to get off to a winning start and we\u2019re ready to go.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s going to be fast and erratic at the start of the game but it\u2019s down to us to take control and build momentum as quickly as we can.<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone is going to want to beat us so we want to put on a show.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a result-based business and we\u2019re going there on Saturday to win.<\/p>\n

\u201cUltimately, winning the title is what everyone wants to do. But we can\u2019t get ahead of ourselves.<\/p>\n

\u201cWinning breeds confidence so Saturday is huge for us. Hopefully we can go there and get the three points.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rothwell admits it\u2019s been a shock to the system, coming to Ibrox from English football.<\/p>\n

Joe Rothwell and Panathinaikos’ Filip Djurisic in action<\/p>\n

There was huge pressure on the Panathinaikos tie<\/a>, with Rangers now facing Czech outfit Viktoria Plzen as they attempt to reach the Champions League group phase.<\/p>\n

But Rothwell says that\u2019s why he joined the club.<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cWe\u2019re trying to implement a new style here and we\u2019re doing it with less training because there are so many games.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo to come through the European tie and get the result we wanted was massive.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a bit strange playing European games before the actual season has started.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut it has given us a chance to put things we\u2019ve worked on into practice.<\/p>\n

\u201cI said when I arrived that European football was a massive pull for me and we\u2019ve now given ourselves a chance to get to the Champions League, which is what we want.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re guaranteed group stage football now which is great for us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rothwell is used to playing for a big club having helped Leeds United win the Championship in England last term.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s loved playing in front of the Rangers support so far and hopes his experience of winning at Elland Road can help him at Ibrox.<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cThe fans are going to be key for us all season. We could hear them up in the stands in Athens the other night.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s another away game on Saturday so I\u2019m sure they\u2019ll be loud there too.<\/p>\n

\u201cBoth Rangers and Leeds are massive clubs but obviously playing European games here is different to being in the Championship.<\/p>\n

\u201cLast season was a great experience for me and it was part of the manager\u2019s reasoning for getting me here.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Russell Martin starts life in the Scottish Premiership away to Motherwell on Saturday and Rothwell wants to make…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":310646,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[1614,47272,78418,1946,28104,1638,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-310645","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-champions-league","9":"tag-joe-rothwell","10":"tag-motherwell-fc","11":"tag-rangers-fc","12":"tag-russell-martin","13":"tag-scottish-premiership","14":"tag-sports","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114956473973986633","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/310645","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=310645"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/310645\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/310646"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=310645"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=310645"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=310645"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}