Steven Gerrard was direct as ever speaking to Rangers TV after the poor performance and result v Livingston.
And whilst the attention should quite rightly go to Gerrard’s self-assessment and his own personal criticisms after the game, he also didn’t really hold back about his assessment of some of his players.
He stingingly said that “we’ve learnt a lot about some individual players”. Was this a dig at some of the gutless performances on Sunday?
Gerrard right to look at himself but some players not at it
Gerrard admitted he had to shoulder a lot of the responsibility on Sunday and he made his own mistakes.
The Rangers Gaffer said: “There is a saying in football “You learn more through defeat” and I can definitely understand that.
This defeat will improve me because I made a few mistakes within that game on Sunday as well.
The first thing I do is I always analyse myself and my staff, what did we do? Did we do anything wrong? Could we have done anything different or better?”
And whilst it’s commendable he took responsibility, the eleven players on the pitch were not at it on Sunday. There was a gutlessness when the going got tough and Gerrard is right to look at individuals.
So who could he be talking about?
Honestly, almost any one of them. A few players have come in for overtly harsh criticism from fans but there might only be three who escape a reassessment. Gerrard named them post match – Kent, Candeias and Tav.
The rest collapsed during a real test of character and I expect we’ll see a much more settled starting XI from here on in.
At the end of the day though, dwelling doesn’t help. Rangers must get over this and move on. Gerrard has once again said he didn’t want to criticise players who’ve been fantastic for him.
But behind closed doors I imagine there’ll be a wake up call to the players that this league is going to be a lot harder than some of them think.
