Derek McInnes knows all about not always getting the chance to prove yourself at Rangers Football Club.
The former Ibrox midfielder spent five years at his boyhood club between 1995 and 2000 but played only 34 times in the league for the Gers.
So when Derek McInnes gives advice to the likes of Robby McCrorie, then the former Rangers academy goalkeeper would do well to listen.
McCrorie – who at 26 is only now getting that run of consistent men’s football – spent 11 years coming through at Ibrox but only ever mustered seven appearances.
This summer the highly-rated goalkeeper finally said enough is enough, with the Rangers stopper eventually moving to sign with McInnes’s Kilmarnock team.
Now set to make a return to Ibrox this week – McCrorie’s first since leaving the Gers in the summer – Derek McInnes has urged his goalkeeper to focus on the basics and not the emotions surrounding the Scottish Premiership clash.
It comes just days after Philippe Clement singled out St Johnstone goalkeeper Josh Rae and lamented the form of goalkeepers against his profligate Rangers team this season.
The Rangers manager reckons the Gers have been unlucky with opposition goalkeepers having the ‘game of their lives’ at Ibrox.
Given McCrorie left under Clement’s watch, a showstopping McCrorie performance at Ibrox is a nightmare scenario for the Belgian.
Derek McInnes on Robby McCrorie’s Rangers return
“I just like my keeper to make the saves I expect him to make every now and then,” McInnes told the Daily Record.
“I’ve worked with a lot of goalies who can pull off the big save and it may be the big save that gets you something but I just want a trust in my goalkeeper, I want him to make the saves I expect him to make.
”And I kind of feel that with McCrorie.
“He’s obviously learning on the job, he’s 26 maybe now and he’s played the same amount of games as maybe a 19, 20 year old so we’re all learning with him so he’s learning on the job too really.
”But what he has got is good attributes, he made a good save against Dundee.
“It was still a save I’d expect my goalkeeper to make and as long as he keeps doing it then hopefully he gets the opportunity to show even more of himself, but we’ve got two good goalkeepers here.
”I think he’ll be in familiar territory obviously.
“The reason he’s with us is because he never played so many games at Rangers but over a period of time he was very at home, that was his home for a long time.
“There’s no doubt when you’ve served at a club for so long, there is that emotional aspect of it but I’m sure the motivation to come away from Rangers for Robby is still there.
“He’s still got it all to do, he’s still got to keep showing week in, week out he’s a capable goalkeeper.
“It didn’t quite happen the way he wanted it at Rangers but there were always good keepers ahead of him.
”So he should just go there and not overthink it and just try and be the keeper we expect him to be and hope he is.”
Kilmarnock manager rattles Ibrox battle drum
Rangers know all about the dangers Kilmarnock pose, especially at Rugby Park, under former midfielder Derek McInnes.
The Rugby Park side have proven a thorn in Rangers’ side in recent seasons and defeated the Gers 1-0 in Ayrshire earlier in the Scottish Premiership season.
Things have been different on the road however, and Derek McInnes is hoping to take some of that homegrown spirit to the Gers in Glasgow tomorrow evening.
The Kilmarnock manager has urged his team – which includes another ex-Rangers star in Lewis Mayo – to handle the occasion and be confident in getting a result.
”I think what we’ve got to expect going there is just to try and reference a lot of what we did against them here not so long ago,” said McInnes.
“It’s a totally different environment, a totally different set of circumstances but the game’s still the game and it’s important that we try and be as good as we were.
”Individually you almost need to be perfect out of possession when you’re playing a team of Rangers’ quality.
“They’ve shown what they’re capable of particularly in Europe. So we’re well aware of Rangers, they have got players that if given time and space and a chance to really enjoy the game, then they can have that impact.
“You don’t see it all the time but they’ve certainly got that and I think they’ll be buoyed from the fact that they had such a strong performance in France last week.
“I think any time I’ve managed a team going to Rangers you’ve always got to expect a tough evening and for my team to do as well as we possibly can individually and be almost pitch perfect as I say out of possession.
”But we’ve also got to demonstrate a confidence that we’ve won at Hearts a few weeks back and beaten Rangers already.
“My players have got to have gone to the pitch feeling confident with their work because if you’re not confident with your work then there’s only going to be one outcome.”
