Steven Gerrard’s statement to his Rangers players is loud and clear – show some pain.
The Rangers manager is still hurting from Sunday’s 1-0 defeat to Aberdeen in the Betfred Cup. It was a massive set-back for the club as they failed to give themselves a chance to lift the first trophy of the season.
The manager said after the game that he needed his players to step up or risk being dropped. Gerrard threatened new signings if his star-men didn’t improve, and the recovery period starts on Wednesday against Kilmarnock.
Gerrard has been speaking in the build-up to that clash tomorrow night. He’s stated that any side feeling some hurt would go out and show it in their next match.
“If you’ve got anything about you it should hurt for a little while and in the coming performances you should take that frustration out on the other team.
“We’ll do what we do, nothing changes. We’ll recover. We will analyse, debrief and we hope some players self-reflect and we get a reaction.”
Good responders
If there’s one thing this Rangers side have done well under Gerrard this season, it’s respond to set-backs. After losing to Celtic, Rangers swatted aside Dundee and St Johnstone. After being knocked off by Livingston, the Gers answered again with big wins against Rapid Vienna and Hearts.
There is an element of the wounded animal when Rangers fail to win games. They now have to show that character once again as Gerrard faces his first set of tough questions in his managerial stint at Ibrox.
The performance at Hampden wasn’t as bad as the scoreline suggests, but it was the forward play that let Rangers down. They dominated much of the contest, however, and only have themselves to blame for not making the most of it.
Scoring goals has been an issue in the last three games. Despite bagging four at Hamilton, Rangers were poor going forward for the most part. Against both Spartak Moscow and the Dons, Rangers lacked quality going forward.
That’s something that’s going to have to be rectified very quickly, and hopefully against Killie for Gers fans. A win could see Rangers move as far up as second if results go their way.
