MARK Bowen says the players will be fully-prepared for the challenge of West Ham on Monday night after a weekend of work at the club’s Harlington training ground.
Rangers produced a scintillating performance in their last Premier League outing, where they narrowly lost to Tottenham, but Bowen admits the management and players were both frustrated with Wednesday’s Capital One Cup defeat to Reading.
“We were all bitterly disappointed,” he told London Call-In this week, but he said work is underway to ready the squad for the arrival of the Hammers.
“We will be looking through the video of the Reading game and going over different situations that occurred in the match, and try to prepare ourselves for the same sort of onslaught that we will get against west Ham,” he said. “We will also be looking at what we can do to try and hurt them.”
Bowen was as honest as always in his assessment of recent performances by Rangers, adding: “In possession we have been a joy at times this year with players like Ale Faurlin, Eseteban Granero and a few of the other lads controlling games.
“But at times we have left ourselves open defensively. And from my point of view, we have got to be better at defending set-plays.
“Last year we were very good at that but we have been caught out once or twice this season. We have switched off a couple of times for the second ball from set-plays, after the initial knock-down if you like.
“Our concentration levels haven’t been good and that’s cost us dearly. We need to make sure we work on that ahead of Monday’s game.
“We will work to prepare our players for what is likely to happen on the night. We will show them all the dangers that West ham possess.
“But we must also make sure when we are in possession we carry on playing the way we have been, and work on hurting them.”