Rohl relishing 'big responsibility' of driving Rangers recruitment

Rangers head coach Danny Rohl says he's relishing the extra responsibility of reshaping the squad this January, when he's looking for "quality over quantity" and more players who know "what it means" to represent the Ibrox club.

The clear implication is those kind of players are in short supply in Rohl's squad at the moment, meaning he's in regular contact with chairman Andrew Cavenagh to identify the correct "profile" of player for what he hopes will be a busy start to the new year in the transfer market.

His task has been made clearer by the injury-enforced absences of Derek Cornelius, John Souttar and now Oliver Antman, as well as the imminent departure to the Africa Cup of Nations of Nasser Djiga and Mohamed Diomande.

"In general, I'm in conversation with Andrew nearly every two or three days. I think this is crucial," said Rohl.

"He'll also be here in the next couple of days, so we will have meetings. I give my feedback every matchday back to him.

"What I see, it's not just about positions. What's important for us as a group is which profiles we need: from the skills, from the tools, from a specialist in some areas. I think this is crucial.

"It's crucial to prepare well for this window. Hopefully the market then gives us the opportunities to do what we want. And the earlier the better.

"We need players to have a natural aggression against the ball. This is crucial for me. We need players to also understand what it means to play for Rangers.

"This is what I feel I've learned these last weeks, step by step: which players can handle this environment, which players have to improve. I try to help them, give them a positive mindset. But it's about confidence, and confidence is important."

With Rangers having sacked chief executive Patrick Stewart and sporting director Kevin Thelwell last week, Rohl is comfortable to take on extra responsibility in tandem with his chairman for what could be a season-defining period for the club as they try to chase down the nine-point gap to Premiership leaders Hearts and seven-point deficit to city rivals Celtic.

"Andrew is very clear, I think we are both very clear, on what we want to do," he added. "We see what we have to do and now it's about which opportunities we will get in the market and of course we have to make the right decisions. I think this is crucial.

"There's a big responsibility on both of us, for the club. I have a big responsibility now after we lost Kevin and Patrick. I think this gives me more and more influence and hopefully we make a good step forward. The key is we are on one page."