St Johnstone boss Simo Valakari not surprised by Rangers’ rout against Nice

Simo Valakari was not surprised by Rangers’ thumping of Nice in the Europa League but insists they start off on an even keel against St Johnstone on Sunday.

Philippe Clement’s side have struggled for consistency in the Premiership this season and sit in third place, nine points behind Aberdeen who have played a game more and 11 points behind Old Firm rivals Celtic.

Rangers have played their best football in the Europa League and should be on a high following the stunning 4-1 away win over the French side on Thursday night, which put them eighth in the table with 10 points and on course for a place in the knockout stage.

Valakari, whose side beat Kilmarnock 1-0 last week for their first win in four games, noted the Gers’ European triumph but believes they will have to start from scratch in Perth.

At the pre-match media conference at McDiarmid Park, the Saints boss said: “The one thing we cannot control is the form the opponent is in when they’re going to play against us.

“So basically, what happened in Rangers’ last match doesn’t make any difference to us.

“Now they play against us, and we start from zero.

“It was not a surprise for me to see them to play last night and score those goals, because you see the quality of the players, and it has maybe been a matter of time before they start collecting these goals.

“European games. They’re always different games.

“I hadn’t seen Nice play. But what I saw from the first minutes from Rangers was a very determined team who have been hurting, their pride (hurting), because as you guys mentioned, they have maybe not got the (domestic) results.

“So they wanted to show they are a good team, they are good players, and they put on a performance last night but that was last night and Sunday is a new game.

“We are playing against very good players, and we know what it demands from us, and what we need to do. We need to do all the basic things as well as possible.

“And then when we do these basic things as well as possible for close to 90 minutes, on top of that, we need to add some extra moments, so that we can be successful in the match, taking our chances when we create them, or defending some moments when we need to defend.”