Rangers boss Steven Gerrard took his pre-match press conference looking forward to the match with Young Boys to address criticism over his players showing their emotion.
At the end of the 1-0 Betfred Cup Final defeat to Celtic, the likes of Ryan Jack and Connor Goldson were visibly upset by the manner of the result.
Jack in particular has come in for criticism from some quarters – namely BBC Scotland’s Tom English – and Steven Gerrard has leapt to the defence of his players.
“People respond in different ways to a situation, players in my day got criticism for not showing emotion,” said Gerrard [Rangers].
“I will make no apologies for my players’ reactions. We show that we care for this club and all I care about is that my players recover from it and go again tomorrow.
“I want to stay at Rangers and I am as hungry and determined to get the good days back here as I have ever been.
“I think we are going in the right direction, I believe in these players and the direction the club is going.
“I don’t think a Rangers team has ever topped a European group and if you think about where the club was at when we arrived to potentially going through top it is great for the club for many obvious reasons.”
The criticism from Tom English has been shot down from many quarters with many finding his comments to have no place in modern football.
The BBC writer also praised the perceived machoism of Scott Brown as he gunned for Jack.
“At full-time… Ryan Jack has played a really top class game for me and I think he’s a superb player,” said English [BBC Sportsound 09/19/19].
“But he breaks down in tears and goes into the embrace of his manager. Now he’s one of your go-to guys, and he’s in tears on the pitch.
“If Celtic had lost that match yesterday, would Scott Brown have dissolved into tears in Neil Lennon’s arms? I don’t think so. So the optics of that were not good.”
The likes of Darrell Currie [Twitter] and Jamie Langfield [Twitter] have also been outspoken about the BBC chief sportswriter’s comments.
