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Gerrard: I don’t have gift of the gab – I just tell my players what I expect of them
FOR Steven Gerrard it’s pretty basic. Simple and straightforward.
During a career spanning almost two decades at the highest levels for both club and country the Scouser has been in enough dressing rooms to have heard plenty. Not all of it good.
With modern technology and sports science providing catalogues of data and manager-speak changing year on year, it seems putting together a formation and spelling out tactics to a group of players has become a more complex affair than ever before.
Not though if you are the Rangers manager. Gerrard has taken some of the past information on board. Some of it he has cast aside as utter drivel.
In fact some of it’s even been “bollocks” in the words of the gaffer himself. When it comes to the game it’s black and white. Or blue and white for him.
You see it, you say it, you get the messages across to your players in the most concise, simplest fashion possible.
Archie Knox assisted the best in the likes of Sir Alex Ferguson and Walter Smith. They were old school and the former No.2 stated this week he sees Gerrard in a similar vein when it comes to taking charge of Rangers.
That suits Gerrard just fine. He said: “Football doesn’t change. It’s exactly the same as it was 100 years ago. I’m telling these players now what I got told in 1999 by Gerard Houllier and Rafa Benitez.
“It doesn’t change. Winning teams have the same principles, the same tempo, desire, commitment, it’s all the same.
“Some coaches try to overcomplicate things, they’ve got the gift of the gab and the silver tongue but I haven’t.
“I just tell you how it is, I tell my team how it is and what’s expected at this club and we will go into these tests and give it a go.
“I’m not going to stand here and try to change the game of football. It’s been going on long before I was created.
“I have listened to certain people throughout my career and they just talked bollocks. They did.
“They are about, they are in the game, the game is littered with a lot of them. I don’t. I don’t complicate it.
“I just say the same things Walter said or Graeme Souness did. I bet if you compared the three team-talks there wouldn’t be many differences.
“I’m not starting to say sports science is not important but the eyes don’t lie, more often than not.”
It’s an outlook and approach most would expect from Gerrard. The no-nonsense style that took him to the top as a player is being translated into management.
Whether it’s commonplace in the modern game or not is down to conjecture but what isn’t up for debate is that it seems to be working within the confines of Ibrox and the Hummel Training Centre.
The Rangers squad he has assembled is responding to his straight-shooting and, in Europe, they have been vibrant.
Rangers’ 3-1 win over Rapid Vienna in their last outing didn’t just take them top of Group G, it put down a marker in terms of intensity both in the stands and on the pitch.
Gerrard says they go hand in hand and given his experiences at Liverpool he should know.
He said: “I wouldn’t be standing here now as a Champions League winner without the atmosphere at Anfield, there’s no doubt about it.
“And another thing is I wouldn’t be standing here doing this press conference if it wasn’t for the Ibrox crowd because they have certainly helped to get us where we are.
“If we have any ambitions of getting out this group we need these fans to keep pushing us.
“I was happy with every aspect of our last performance against Rapid. That’s the type of performance I’m looking for.
“We did so much work in the first half, matching their aggression and grinding them down. We got our rewards late on. Of course the atmosphere was excellent.
“All the talk afterwards was it was like the atmosphere of old. I don’t think Ibrox had been like that for a long time. I would love nothing more than to see that atmosphere again. It’s a big lift for the players.
“It drives the team on. I felt it as a player myself, I know how much it pushes you on. We have to ignite it all though with our performance.”
Just like Rapid Vienna, Spartak Moscow arrived in Glasgow having bagged their boss. The signs are again positive for Gerrard but there’s caution with his calm confidence.
He said: “It’s slightly different to the situation with Rapid as Spartak have made a promotion from within.
“When you promote from within you normally wouldn’t make such drastic changes. Of course it’s very difficult to predict how they will approach it and
indeed the outcome of the match. It’s nothing we can control, we have to look at ourselves as we always do.
“They are seventh in their league but I think it’s a false position.
“That said if that’s where you are in the league and because of the size and stature of a club like Spartak then you know you are going to be under pressure.
“A club like Spartak with so much Champions League experience expect to be competing at the top of the league. In terms of us, it doesn’t change anything.
“We are at home, we have a gameplan and whether they have changed the manager or not it doesn’t impact on what we want to do.”