Russell Martin 'won't get stressed' over Rangers team leaks

Rangers head coach Russell Martin says he won’t get stressed about his team selection being leaked – and is sure whoever shared the team didn’t mean to hurt the club.

Martin made four changes to his side for the Champions League clash with Viktoria Plzen, with captain James Tavernier and key midfielder Nico Raskin dropped. Oliver Antman made his debut a day after signing for the club.

That team was leaked and widely circulated on social media, but Martin was relaxed about the opposition potentially knowing his selection in advance of the game.

“I can’t really control any of that,” he said. “I think it’s become a bit more common in the modern game.

“I don’t think anyone would do it from inside this building to intentionally hurt us.

“I’ve always named the team really early when I’ve been a coach or manager, then people don’t waste energy and time wondering if they’re in a team and we can actually work on certain things.

“People are left out. They tell agents, they tell their friends and family, then somehow it gets to you guys (in the media) very quickly. Again, I choose to trust that no one does it to try and hurt us intentionally, so I can’t really control anything else.

“I said to the guys that it’s not ideal, but also I’m not gonna lose sleep over it and it is what it is. I’m not sure it changes the opposition’s plann finding out about the team hours before they’ve done pretty much all of their work. I presume so.”

Martin, who is preparing for the Premiership match against Dundee at Ibrox before the return match against Plzen, said he has plenty on his plate without being concerned about the issue.

“I think there’s enough stuff in this job to be concerned about and to focus on all the time,” he added. “So I’m not going to stress overly about the team being leaked.

“We spoke about it here. It’s not ideal, but I also believe that no one’s done it to hurt us or harm us. If I ever felt that, it’d be a different thing. But it’s modern football, and I think when people are saying if they’re in or out of the team, you just have to have awareness of who you’re telling and all of that stuff.

“There’s other stuff for me to get stressed about, and I don’t think that’s one of them.”

The head coach revealed that Thelo Aasgaard and Hamza Igamane are now on the pitch training but not yet fit enough to be involved.

Martin also gave an update on Tottenham loanee Mikey Moore, who is still waiting on paperwork being completed before he can make his debut.

“We’re still not quite there with Mikey, which is frustrating for him and for us,” he said.

“Because he’s deemed a minor by FIFA (he turns 18 on Monday), there’s a lot of protocol to go through, and we aren’t there yet.

“It can take a while. He’s 18 soon so he’d be available then for us. We might have to wait until then. But hopefully we’ll get him ready for Tuesday.”