Rangers Under-20s manager Graeme Murty has admitted that the youth set-up at the club are working towards mirroring the first team's activities to provide players with experience of senior level football.
Murty, who has had caretaker spells as first team boss, is currently leading the group of coaches handling the Under-20s team at Rangers.
The Gers have revamped their youth set-up in recent years, with the aim of initiatives like the Games Programme to help the youngsters at the club come on leaps and bounds with respect to exposure and experience.
Murty admitted that the Under-20s are now aiming to mirror the activity of the first team so that young players get an idea of the mental and physical challenges that come with senior football.
The former Scotland international also revealed that the young players face a lot of challenges, both mentally and physically, while preparing for big games and insisted that the program is aimed at helping them garner the experience at such a young age.
“What we are trying to do is to mirror the first team”, Murty said on Rangers TV.
“So we have a regular game, a league game and then we go and get this European challenge so the players know that there is no acceptance of a dropping of level, dropping of standard, that they make sure that they go and hit the heights that we expect from them.
“But also they understand the fatigue element and the travel element and the management of self when you go to an away game, you have to make sure that you are not too hyper, you are not too excited, you control your emotions.
“That’s a big factor for our young players, going away to a big game and managing that energy level throughout the day is difficult for them.
“So we are trying to get them as much experience of that as we can so hopefully we can prepare them well for whatever career they have.”
Rangers Under-20s will face Rapid Vienna's youth team ahead of the first team’s crucial Europa League meeting in Austria today.
