Simo Valakari issues ‘defend from the front’ rallying call to St Johnstone ahead of Rangers clash

Simo Valakari has called for another huge defensive effort from every St Johnstone player in Sunday’s visit of Rangers.

Valakari watched Gers cut loose on Thursday night in TV coverage of their 4-1 Europa League victory in Nice.

In netting three times before the interval in Nice, Rangers scored more goals in the first half than they’d managed in five full Premiership away games this season.

From Valakari’s studies, this type of production had been coming from Philippe Clement’s team.

He believes, despite their domestic struggles, Rangers could be a potent threat in Perth.

Valakari wants a repeat of the defensive fortitude shown by Saints last week in securing a 1-0 victory over Kilmarnock.

Croatian centre back Bozo Mikulic made his first start and Valakari was thrilled by how his men defended their penalty box.

However, he stressed the hard work begins up front in the effort to unsettle Rangers on return from their travels.

Valakari cautioned: “We know it’s a thin line. As well as we defended 14 corners against Kilmarnock, all it takes is the ball going one centimetre higher above our player – and it goes in.

“We cannot let opponents have big pressure on us all the time. We need to defend these moments but, at the same time, we need to take that pressure off.

“Is it keeping the ball a little better? Or putting doubt in the opponent’s head that St Johnstone can really hurt you with fast guys?

“We need to be proactive and hurt the opponents. It was top-class defending from us – and we need to do it again.

“But it wasn’t just the back line, it was how Makenzie (Kirk) and Benji (Kimpioka) were pressing their centre backs and how Sven (Sprangler) and Holty (Jason Holt) collected those second balls.

“It was as good a defensive display by the team that I’ve seen in my time here.”

Rangers have crashed to road defeats at Celtic, Kilmarnock and Aberdeen.

Last weekend’s 1-1 home draw against Dundee United dropped them 11 points off the title pace.

Valakari hopes to add to the domestic woes of Clement’s European heroes at lunchtime on Sunday.

But he won’t be able to call upon Barry Douglas who missed the Kilmarnock win with a calf problem and is set to be absent for several weeks.

“Barry got a knock at Motherwell and it hasn’t improved as we had hoped,” Valakari reported.