Following Sunday afternoon’s win over Kilmarnock at Rugby Park, Steven Gerrard spoke to RangersTV.
The Gers boss was delighted to walk away with three points, courtesy of a late winner from Connor Goldson.
With Rangers unable to create sufficient chances from open play, it was prowess from set-pieces that got them over the line in the end.
Therefore, the manager singled out a member of his backroom staff for special praise. Technical coach, Tom Culshaw.
Rangers manager Gerrard praises member of coaching staff
“If we can’t win in open play and we are finding it hard to beat the block because the pitch is not suiting us or because they are very disciplined and have so many men behind the ball then a lot of set-pieces are scored and decide matches,” Gerrard told RangersTV.
“I have to give credit to Tom Culshaw – he works so hard and puts a lot of effort and a lot of small details into making sure from an attacking point of view, the delivery is right.
“Tom deserves to take a lot of credit for the goals we scored, and I am sure he will be speaking to people about people switching off and giving silly fouls away in the first place as, at 1-0, we need to learn to finish games and see them out better.”
Heading into this fixture, it was always likely that set-pieces would be a factor.
Killie’s pitch is notoriously difficult to play freely on and was even more of a challenge given the recent reduction in dimensions.
In James Tavernier, the Gers possess real quality in terms of delivery and both Goldson and Nikola Katic bring considerable aerial threat.
Clearly, though, individual elements only get you so far. Gerrard sees the hours that Culshaw puts in behind the scenes to try to make the Gers as effective as possible from set-plays both in attack and defence.
The ex-Liverpool coach is bound to be frustrated at the manner of Killie’s goal. Yet, at the end of the day, in a game decided by set-pieces, Rangers emerged 2-1 winners and that’s all that matters.
