Rangers manager Steven Gerrard appeared to address premature criticism in the press about the exclusion of Filip Helander from the Europa League squad as he previewed the match with Legia Warsaw.
The Liverpool legend was speaking after Evening Times columnist Mark Hendry was berated by Rangers fans for his column claiming Gerrard had “escaped questions” for the move.
But after Helander was added to the squad yesterday, Hendry was made to look particularly foolish. Whilst not discussing Hendry directly, Gerrard gave a soundbite on the whole thing.
“The rules in this competition is you get up to 24 hours to confirm your squad anyway,” explains Gerrard.
“For some reason there’s a big rush to get 22 over. So when we qualified against Midtjylland, you have to give a squad of 22 players straight away.
“I don’t know why, so I wouldn’t really read into it too much in terms of who’s on that list.
“In terms of the media, it should be more concerned about who’s selected in the final squad because that has to be picked 24 hours before the game, before the kick off.
“So I didn’t confirm my squad until this morning but I wouldn’t read nothing into it really.”
The columnist in question may well have made a mistake, but it is how quickly he jumped on all of this to create a negative spin which is frustrating.
There appeared a real desperation to stir up a negative story surrounding the £3m signing [RangersTV] in the wake of Celtic’s disastrous £10m investment in their own squad.
But Gerrard has really shown the columnist up here after including Helander in the final squad – proof that it pays to do your homework!
