REACTION FROM BIG GAME

BY DAVID McCARTHY STEVEN GERRARD admits he’s a perfectionist – but there are times he wishes his players weren’t.

Like yesterday for instance when his team scored three goals, picked up three points, kept a clean sheet and had a very good day at their deserted office against St Mirren.

And that was before Celtic spilled two points at Kilmarnock to give Rangers an early edge in what will be a tumultuous season.

There was a lot for Gerrard to like about his team’s performance but he believes his players would have had an even better one had they not spent so much time trying to score the ‘perfect’ goal.

The stats showed 29 shots at goal, 12 of them on target. Gerrard reckons with more ruthlessness, more would have been converted.

In the end, three was plenty and the fact Alfredo Morelos got two of them – the Colombian’s first league goals of 2020 – brought a smile to the manager’s face.

Gerrard wants more of his stars to shoot on sight like Morelos.

The boss said: “I’m very pleased. I would have liked that second goal a bit earlier so we could relax a little bit more.

“But we were asking a lot of questions of St Mirren.

“We could have two or three in the first half but what pleased me most was that we stayed on the gas and never came off.

“We kept trying to find the answers and it came in the 70th minute. After that we finished the job off nice and strong.

“If I’m being critical, I want a lot more goals. The display and our style deserved more goals.

“Our build-up play was really strong, really good. We were getting into the right areas but we were