Mentally tough Rangers have silenced 'intense' Ibrox noise as 'special' player hailed for driving title assault

Winning just one of their opening seven league games under former head coach Russell Martin, Rangers’ title chances were largely written off by the time Danny Rohl was appointed in late October, having fallen 13 points behind league leaders Hearts with a third of the season already played.

However, ahead of their split opener at home to Motherwell this weekend, Rangers find themselves just one point from the summit after a huge turnaround under Rohl. With just five games left to play, Tavernier explained why there’s confidence that Rangers can oust both Hearts and Celtic to claim their most remarkable title in many years.

“I've been here a long time and I've seen a lot of players come and go,” said Tavernier. “From the outset of where we started the season, under Russell [Martin], there was intense noise around the place. It's somewhere where you can't just have a respite or breathing space to play for Rangers. You're chucked into the deep end. I felt that a lot of new lads maybe felt the weight of that, especially young lads.

“You try and give as much advice as you can. But you can never really control if they go home and go on social media. That's something that's completely out of everybody's control. I think that's just been the message I've tried to say all season. It's a very hard place to come mentally for people. I've felt that a lot of them have really turned it around.

“One of the people I'm really impressed with is how young he is Mikey Moore. I think he's really learnt a big lesson being here and I think you can see that in his performances that he puts on for us. From where he was at the start of the season compared to what he is now, he's going to be some special player in the future. If you're really in tune with blocking out the noise and really focusing on your craft, you will become a better player.”

Having endured their worst start to a season since the 1970s, Rangers have now taken 60 points from a possible 75 under their German boss, and Tavernier detailed the steps Rohl has taken to halt their slide and turn them into genuine title contenders in the space of five months.

“You never really want to go into a season and have two managers but he's [Rohl] come in and steadied the ship,” explained Tavernier. “He's put calmness on the boys, which has helped as well. Everyone's really progressed this season. You never really want to be in that position at the start, which is fully understandable for a club of our size and what it demands from every level of the club. It's somewhere that we never really wanted to be. It’s a long season and we've worked extremely hard to put ourselves into this position.

“We've always done it the hard way, like we did against Falkirk last weekend. We did it the hard way in that game, but I think it's showing the real resilience and mentality where this group of lads have shifted the goalpost on.”

James Tavernier was speaking on behalf of William Hill, the SPFL’s title partner. Check out the weekly preview show here.