BUBBLE EDGED SWORD
Gerrard loves his stars playing for their countries even if it’s now a big worry
IT wasn’t so long ago, when the world was a simpler, saner place, that a manager would be fretting at his training ground over his international players returning with a torn hamstring or sprained calf.
Turns out, those were the good old days.
In the here and now, a gaffer is more likely to be keeping his fingers crossed that 10 days out of their internal bubble hasn’t exposed any of his players to a deadly virus.
Steven Gerrard heaved a mighty sigh of relief on Thursday when he counted the 11 he had waved off on national service – Ryan Jack, Jon McLaughlin, Steven Davis, Jordan Jones, Glen Kamara, Alfredo Morelos, Ianis Hagi, Borna Barisic, Cedric Itten and Under-21 players Nathan Patterson and Glenn Middleton – back safe, sound and healthy.
Across the city, Neil Lennon has had no such luck with four of his players affected by Covid-related issues as the Glasgow giants gear up for their first meeting of the season at lunchtime today.
But Gerrard is adamant clubs will simply have to cope with this, another new normal, and he won’t be considering pulling his international players out of future fixtures.
He said: “It’s very challenging for every club and there has been a lot of clubs, not just in this league but around Europe, that have had their own challenges from Covid and the virus.
“When your players leave your bubble, you lose control of them.
“You’re hoping the national teams take over responsibility and keep them safe.
“But a lot of clubs are facing different challenges at the moment. Celtic obviously of late but it’s pretty similar to the challenges we’ve faced for the last month, not having Joe Aribo, not having Kemar Roofe, missing Ryan Jack for three weeks.
“These things happen when you’re managing squads of players and that’s the reason why we try to build squads so we can cope in these situations.
“We’ve coped extremely well missing three of our important players, arguably three starters.
“All the managers, not just myself and not just Neil ( Lennon), are faced with different challenges week to week during the season and you have to cope and get on with it.
“Assuming that players can be safe, I want international football to continue. Of course I do.
“I remember sitting in the house and there was no football on at all. I was bored out my mind.
“So we’re in a privileged position domestically that things can continue, even though we are facing these challenges.
“We know it’s not perfect but two weeks ago we got a fantastic highlight, qualifying against Galatasaray, so I can’t sit here and say international and European football should be cancelled because it might suit my team here domestically.
“It is what it is, we have to manage the situation and try to keep all the players safe.”
Quarantine rules have denied Gerrard the option of throwing new South African international midfielder Bongani Zungu in for an Old Firm debut but the Rangers manager has plenty of options in the engine room and expressed his delight in the form that the likes of Jack, Kamara, Davis and Scott Arfield have shown in recent weeks.
He said: “We have four central midfielders all in decent form now. We arguably have the most in-form midfielder in the league, in Scott Arfield, who thankfully doesn’t go on international duty any more and we can keep an eye on him here.
“Hopefully in a couple of weeks time, we’ll have Zungu to add to that as well.
“Unfortunately we won’t see him for possibly another 10 days.
“He arrived in the country three days ago but coming from France, it’s a country where he has to quarantine from for two weeks, so we’ve managed to get him some bikes and gym equipment at the place where he’s staying and he will be quarantined for another 10 days.
“We have some time when he’s in quarantine to get some fitness into him as well, so we are looking forward to having him available as well.
“We are still in the process of assessing a few international players who have arrived yesterday afternoon or evening.
“But nothing has popped out or came up that is extreme.
“Joe Aribo and Kemar Roofe are really close now but this game might come just too soon. Besides Nikola Katic, we have near enough got a clean bill of health, which is fantastic.”
That means Alfredo Morelos will almost certainly lead the line after returning from duty with Colombia.
The striker hasn’t enjoyed a prolific scoring start to the season but Gerrard said: “Alfredo arrived yesterday afternoon but he’s fine. He’s available to train.”