Philippe Clement does not expect Aberdeen’s new boss Neil Warnock to make any significant changes for the Dons’ trip to Ibrox on Tuesday night.
The 75-year-old, who has managed QPR, Sheffield United and Cardiff among a host of other clubs, is the talk of Scottish – if not British – football after being confirmed on Monday morning as Pittodrie manager until the end of the season .
Warnock replaces Barry Robson, who was dismissed last week with the club eighth in the cinch Premiership.
However, Gers boss Clement, whose side can leapfrog leaders Celtic with a three-goal victory, does not foresee any surprises.
“I know him of course, he has a long history in football but we have never met,” said the Belgian, who described his Scottish Premiership Glen’s manager of the month award for January as a “collective” achievement.
“He is someone with a lot of experience but I don’t think it will change a lot.
“I don’t think Aberdeen will play suddenly in a totally different style.
“I think the style they were playing is also the style he wants to see, so I don’t see big changes but whatever happens, we are ready for that.
“That is the good thing. The last couple of months we have met a lot of different playing styles and the team knows better and better how to react
“It is going to be a good battle.
“They are one of the three, four best teams in the league in quality of squad so I am a bit surprised about the position in the league but there are a few reasons for that in my mind – but I don’t want to speak about that, I want to speak about Rangers.
“It is a team with a lot of quality and we need to be at our best to take three points.”
Clement, who revealed defender Leon Balogun will see a specialist on Monday to see if he requires surgery on a facial injury picked up against Livingston, insists the prospect of overtaking Celtic – albeit potentially only until Wednesday when the Hoops play Hibernian – has not entered his thinking.
The former Genk, Club Brugge and Monaco boss said: “Totally not. Zero. Nobody in the building is talking about that.
“We are just busy with our own game, having respect for our opponents, having respect for their qualities, trying to use their weaknesses, and taking the points and playing good football entertaining our fans and keeping this really strong mentality in the dressing room.
“I know what it takes to win trophies, I have been there enough times as a player and as a manager.
“There is only one way and to focus on yourself and play it game by game. People who look too far ahead they fail because they lose their focus.”
Midfielder Ryan Jack will not be available against his former club as Rangers manage his game time after coming back from injury.
Barcelona must 'work hard' to achieve Champions League glory, says Flick
Hansi Flick tempered expectations of Barcelona's chances of silverware in his first season in charge ahead of facing Red Star Belgrade in the Champions League.
Flick has led Barca to 13 wins from 15 games in all competitions, scoring 50 goals in those games while conceding just 14 times.
Some standout matches have seen Barca thrash Clasico rivals Real Madrid 4-0 while also brushing aside Bayern Munich 4-1 in the Champions League in their last match in the competition.
While Flick understood the fans' excitement after those results, he urged his side to keep their feet on the ground with a long season still in front of them.
"We have to work hard. There are many teams who dream of the same thing, of winning (the Champions League)," Flick said.
"For the moment, we're going to focus on working hard and grinding out, so then we'll see what happens. We have to focus on our goal which is to keep improving.
"A team's form fluctuates a lot over a long season. The important thing is to focus on winning the next match. Sure, after the match against Bayern everything changed.
"But we are just starting. The important thing is how we finish the season. We could say that our goal is to be in the top eight."
Flick, however, insisted he was not surprised by his side's impressive start to the campaign despite enduring a trophyless season last term.
Barca are nine points clear at the top of LaLiga and 11th in the Champions League table ahead of facing Red Star, who are without a win from their three games so far.
"Before we came here we analysed the whole team, every player. We realised that there was very good quality overall," Flick said.
"Another thing to point out is that we wanted to improve how we defend and did small changes in the way we play. The players liked it and they are happy working on it.
"The players play a big role, they are helping us a lot.
"The start was already good on the pre-season in North American and the players are very happy, although there are still many things to improve."
And Barca will be confident of keeping their fine form going against a side that has lost 81% of their matches in the Champions League (P21 W2 D2 L17).
This is the first European meeting between the two sides since October 1996 in the Cup Winners’ Cup, a 1-1 draw with Giovanni cancelling out a Zoran Jovicic's opener for the Serbians.
PSV 4-0 Girona: Dutch side get first win of Champions League
PSV Eindhoven won their first match in the Champions League this season as they thrashed Girona 4-0 at the Philips Stadion on Tuesday.
Ryan Flamingo got the scoring under way after 16 minutes as he turned Malik Tillman's long throw home, despite replays showing that it should have been disallowed as Tillman's foot was over the byline before releasing the ball.
Tillman got himself on the scoresheet 17 minutes later with a fine finish after he arribed into the box unopposed.
Things went from bad to worth for Girona after half-time, with Arnau Martinez receiving a red card 10 minutes into the second half for a second bookable offence.
From then, it was all one-way traffic and PSV might feel aggrieved not to have won by a bigger margin given their glut of second-half chances.
Ismael Saibari was next to put the ball in the back of the net, although his effort was ruled out for a foul in the build-up following a VAR review.
Johan Bakayoko did get PSV's third with seven minutes to go, before a Ladislav Krejci own goal wrapped up the rout in the 88th minute. The result leaves Girona 26th in the table on three points, while PSV are 19th with five points.
Odegaard returns to full Arsenal training ahead of Inter tie
Arsenal captain Martin Odegaard has returned to full training after spending two months out of action with an ankle injury.
Odegaard has missed 12 matches for the Gunners in all competitions after damaging his ankle ligaments against Austria while on international duty with Norway in September.
The 25-year-old midfielder trained with Arsenal ahead of their trip to the San Siro to face Inter in the Champions League on Wednesday.
Mikel Arteta's side have, however, struggled in Odegaard's absence recently, failing to win any of their last three games in the Premier League.
In the seven games that Odegaard has missed in the top-flight, Arsenal's win percentage dropped from 66.7% to 42.9% after going unbeaten in their first three games.
The Gunners have also averaged 1.6 points per game without Odegaard, compared to 2.3 points won with the Norwegian in their ranks.
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