Sheffield Wednesday host Glasgow Rangers in the Ibrox side’s final pre-season friendly before the Scottish Premiership campaign kicks off.
Carlos Carvalhal has disclosed that he will be suggesting to Pedro Caixinha when they meet for Sunday’s pre-season friendly that he should make sure that he tries to avoid feeling the pressure while he is in charge at Rangers, the Daily Record reports.
Caixinha is gearing up for his first full season at Ibrox, and has made a number of signings during the summer in an attempt to start closing the gap to Celtic at the top of the Scottish Premiership – so some may suggest that he is under pressure to ensure that the Gers put up a much better fight this term.
Rangers manager Pedro Caixinha
But ahead of the Light Blues’ final pre-season friendly before they kick off the domestic campaign away at Motherwell next weekend, Owls boss Carvalhal has offered some words of encouragement for his countryman.
“I was under pressure at first but I don’t feel it so much now. I just focus on my players and how they play,” he said, as reported by the Daily Record.
“We’ve had relative success here because we’ve reached the play-offs twice. We’ve finished sixth and fourth in the Championship.
“So I’ll be telling Pedro not to feel the pressure. He can only focus on what he can control and that’s the players and the dynamic of his team.
“He’s a clever guy so I’m sure he’ll do that anyway. If he lives with this kind of reality he’ll be happy. And a happy coach always gives off good vibes to his players.”
Carlos Carvalhal
Though Carvalhal has done extremely well in his first two seasons at Hillsborough, he may perhaps be under the kind of pressure that he has not felt since he made a fairly lacklustre start to his tenure back in 2015 – as the expectation for Wednesday will surely be to convert a play-off finish into a promotion after two previous top six finishes.
As for Caixinha, the expectation that exists around Ibrox arguably means that he will be under plenty of pressure during the coming campaign, especially after the side’s poor Scottish Premiership showing last season – that was certainly not all his fault by any means – and their humiliating exit in the Europa League qualifiers earlier this term.
But Carvalhal for one, is clearly confident that Caixinha has the capabilities to thrive during his time as Rangers boss.
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