Former Rangers midfielder Neale Cooper feels the defeat against Celtic was a lesson for Mark Warburton and his boys as they cannot always play risky football in the top tier of Scottish football.

Celtic handed out a footballing lesson to Rangers last weekend when they thrashed their Glasgow rivals 5-1 at Parkhead, and maintained their grip at the top of the league table.




Warburton has conceded that Rangers will learn the lessons from the big defeat at Celtic, but has maintained that his side will continue to play free-flowing football to get results.

Cooper admits that he admires Warburton’s zest for good football, but feels that Rangers take too many risks at times and believes that the manager sometimes need to realise that they can’t always play the same brand of football in the top tier that brought them success in the Championship last season.
 


And he feels that the defeat to Celtic could finally force Warburton and his men to assess their style of football this term.  

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Cooper told the Herald Scotland: “I like the way the manager gets this Rangers team to play.

“No doubt about it, he gets them playing good football. I like the passing and movement of the side. But sometimes they do take risks coming out from the back with the ball.

“When I first saw them last season I thought: ‘Oh, this is a bit risky!’ Sometimes his players will take a wee chance. But it worked well for him last season and worked well for him when he was at Brentford in England.

“But the way Rangers play is risky.

"When you are asking your goalkeeper to chip the ball to the full back you are taking chances. If it comes off, fantastic. But if it doesn’t you are in trouble.

"Maybe the game against Celtic at the weekend was a lesson for them.

“Maybe he has to stand back and say: ‘Wait a minute. In the Premiership we are up against better and sharper players’. There may be occasions and matches where he has to alter what he is doing."

Rangers will be looking to bounce back from the heavy defeat last weekend with a win at Ibrox over Ross County this Saturday.