A TRIP to England for a behind-closed-doors bounce game and a friendly with a Championship side isn’t the one that Rangers had been hoping to be making this week. It could still be a valuable one for Pedro Caixinha, though.

After crashing out of the Europa League to Progres Niederkorn earlier this month, the Ibrox club returned to public action on Saturday as they drew with Marseille.

Now Caixinha’s side will finalise their preparations for the league season with matches against Watford and Sheffield Wednesday in the coming days.

The match against the Hornets will be a quiet affair in the capital this afternoon before Rangers and a several thousand-strong support head to Hillsborough to face the Owls on Sunday.

Rangers will be based at Bisham Abbey before they return to Glasgow and count down to their Premiership kick-off against Motherwell and Caixinha is keen to make the most of the time south of the border.

“This week is going to be important in two other ways,” he said. “Not only to build on the bases of the last match, to build on the principles we have been building since day one, but also because this is going to be one moment when the team is going to be together for a period of time.

“We never have been together for a period of time and being together for a period of time in the pre-season is always important. It is important for gelling, it is important for balance, it is important for relations and for us to know each other deeper and the relations that we want to create beside football. As a group that work together knowing exactly the vision we have and the goals that we have to achieve together.

“That is one important side as well, besides the good sides that you are going to face and the good tests that we are going to see in order to find some more details to keep working to get the team to arrive at the point we need on August 6.”

The matches against Watford and Wednesday will give Caixinha a chance to fine tune his side before the Premiership opener against Motherwell.

The spotlight is on the Portuguese and his players after their embarrassing Europa League exit and Caixinha believes the final 180 minutes of friendly action will be beneficial before all attentions turn to the domestic kick-off.

He said: “They are totally different from the Scottish game. But at least we can see the way we deal with this sort of opponent for when we make the transfer to the Scottish game.

“You can control the game in two different ways. By having the ball, you need to have control of the game, and the majority of the games we are going to play in the Scottish game are like that. But even in some moments, if you say 70 per cent of the possession is yours, that means that 30 per cent is for the opponent. In that 30 per cent, you need to control the game.

“You need to control it defensively in order to create space when you need to attack. That is what we are looking for, to have one team that understands the game, that controls the game, that controls not only the moments but the momentum of the game. That is controlling the game to create that momentum.

“That is what we are trying to do here so that everyone understands the game in the same way in those different moments.”