Propper ‘maybe underestimated’ Scottish football

Rangers’ Dutch defender Robin Propper has admitted he may have underestimated the challenge of playing in the Scottish Premiership after signing in the summer from Twente Enschede.

The 31-year-old helped his side thump Nice 4-1 away from home in the Europa League on Thursday to put them eighth in the table on 10 points.

Propper and his team-mates produced another excellent European performance in stark contrast to some of their domestic displays and Propper acknowledged that personally he has been better in continental competition.

“Maybe I underestimated it [the Scottish Premiership] a little bit,” he said. “Of course you know about Rangers and how big the club is, but you don’t know that much about the competition.

“I took some time, played some good games and some not-so-good games. I need to be at my highest level possible again. I think you see that in European games. I can be more myself, I’m more related to the European games maybe than the Scottish ones but I think I can adjust.

“It’s really different. Of course I needed time but I needed to adjust really fast because we play every three or four days.

“Sometimes it’s more easy to play on the counter-attack than if you play at home at Ibrox.”

Rangers are currently sitting in one of the automatic qualification spots for the last 16 with three games to play.

But with Tottenham up next at home before a trip to Old Trafford to play Manchester United in January and a final home game against Union Saint-Gilloise, Propper is not yet setting his sights on a top-eight finish.

“That’s difficult,” he said. “We have a lot of big opponents coming but we want that of course. Ten points is a really good start so we can build on that.”