Steven Gerrard delivered a spiky response to a journalist following Rangers’ disappointing 2-1 Champions League Qualifying defeat in Malmo on Tuesday evening [RangersTV].
Søren Rieks and Veljko Birmančević netted for the hosts and Steven Davis scored for the Gers with a left-footed effort from the edge of the box deep into injury time.
Davis’ goal ensures the Light Blues are still very much in the tie, but the manager was in no mood to be messed with when he spoke to the media after the game.
When asked for his thoughts on the match, he was relatively open, expressing his disappointment with the result and performance but highlighting the potential importance of the late goal.
However, his mood changed quickly after receiving a question about substitutions.
“Steven, you noted pre-match that you were disappointed with the lack of substitutions on offer following Covid, is there any reason why you only made one substitution tonight?”
The journalist had totally misinterpreted comments made by Gerrard following Rangers’ win over Livingston on Saturday in which he suggested that he should have a larger bench to choose from in the Premiership.
The Gers boss was visibly annoyed by the question and replied [RangersTV]: “No no, that was relating to domestic games, so you obviously haven’t been reading the media very well.”
“I’m very happy with five substitutions in Europe. I’m also accepting the fact that there are three substitutes domestically but I would like more options to choose from.
“Tonight, we had a very young bench outside of Fashion Sakala. I didn’t want to stick any young bodies into a game of that magnitude, I didn’t think that would be fair….next week, hopefully, we have three or four different faces to choose from and we’ll be stronger.”
It’s the latest reminder from Gerrard that while he’s often happy to answer considered, relevant questions in plenty of detail, he won’t be shy in letting reporters know when he’s unhappy.
In the pre-Malmo presser, he shot down a different journalist for simply repeating a previous question.
