Caixinha shares how he was forced to change Rangers team talk after assistant’s observation

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Ibrox boss Pedro Caixinha saw his Rangers side lose 2-0 to Celtic today.

Rangers manager Pedro Caixinha gestures to the players

Rangers manager Pedro Caixinha has told The Scottish Sun that advice from assistant coach Helder Baptista forced him to change his pre-match team talk before losing 2-0 to Celtic.

The Gers took on Celtic in today’s Scottish Cup semi-final at Hampden Park, with a spot in the final against Aberdeen up for grabs after their win over Hibernian on Saturday afternoon.

Having gone five games without defeat under new manager Caixinha, Rangers fans went into the game with some optimism – but that quickly evaporated when Callum McGregor put Celtic in front on just 11 minutes.

James Tavernier then gave away a penalty by fouling Leigh Griffiths, with Scott Sinclair stepping up to score from the spot, sealing a 2-0 win for Celtic and keeping up their unbeaten domestic record this season.

Whilst the Bhoys are now closing in on winning a domestic treble without losing a game, Rangers are left reeling after a fourth defeat of the season at the hands of Brendan Rodgers’ men.

Rangers just couldn’t impose themselves on the game at Hampden Park, often being guilty of giving away possession too easily and ultimately looking overawed on the big stage.

Now, Rangers boss Pedro Caixinha has told The Scottish Sun that assistant coach Helder Baptista watched the Gers stars warm up before facing Celtic, and told Caixinha not to be tough on them in his team talk, as the Rangers player were tense and anxious.

Rangers manager Pedro Caixinha and Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers

Caixinha admitted that he couldn’t change his approach to the game, but did change his team talk to try and ease his players – something that may well play on his mind this week given that the two teams face each other again next weekend.

“Helder, my assistant coach, came to me at the end of the warm up and told me, ‘Please, in your speech before the match, don’t be that strong. Don’t be so tough, They need to feel a little bit more freedom’. When you don’t feel that freedom you don’t enjoy it and you don’t perform the way you need to,” said Caixinha.

“So we were a little bit blocked. And if you are blocked, even if you have the best ideas in the world, you cannot perform. So that’s what I really felt regarding to the first half. Helder said he felt they were really tense. They were really focused on the idea of playing the game but totally focused without enjoying what was going to happen. I need them to be focused but I also need them to be open minded in order to let my ideas and strategy flow.”

“It’s not a question of being frightened. It’s a question of letting things flow in the right direction. No, I cannot change my approach with just one minute to go before we go on the pitch. What I changed was my speech in order to ease the tension they were feeling,” he added.

What did you think of Rangers’ performance against Celtic?