Stevie’s intending his own message
STEVEN Gerrard and Brendan Rodgers exchanged texts on Thursday night, each presumably congratulating the other on reaching the Europa League group stages. Come tomorrow, however, the pair will try to send out an entirely different kind of message.
He might be a novice when it comes to this famous old fixture but the Rangers manager knows enough about these derby-day duels from the best part of two decades at Anfield to acknowledge that the first Old Firm clash of the season is the perfect chance to lay a marker down about his side’s ambition to wrest back ascendancy in the league, if not exactly a knockout blow.
While his former gaffer will of course be hoping to do something similar with Celtic, at least the text conversation puts some meat on the bone when it comes to what degree these two men are on speaking terms these days.
At first the eyes and ears of Rodgers’ Liverpool dressing room, by all accounts the relationship between Gerrard and his then manager became a tad strained when the veteran player found himself being left out of some of the Merseyside club’s bigger matches.
When pushed, the Rangers manager accepts that this shared hinterland of these two men probably makes even the Old Firm match ‘spicier and juicier’ than usual.
“I spoke to him last night,” said Gerrard. “You want to know the details of it? We exchanged messages.
“It was nothing major. There were not many details which will excite you lads. But yes, we last contacted each other last night.
“I don’t think me and Brendan will magnify it any bigger just because it is me and him,” the 38-year-old added. “But it does make it that little bit spicier, and juicier. It’s great for the neutrals and whoever else wants to enjoy that.
“But for me the focus is on my team and giving them a game plan to get a result. We cannot focus on the magnitude or how much people want to blow this game up. For us we have a job to do and that is get a result at Celtic Park.
“Obviously I know how he likes to play and I know a lot about his tactics and stuff. But this is about two sets of teams and players. Once the whistle goes, especially in these types of games, sometimes it goes out the window, especially in the first 10-15 minutes. We will present a game plan to the players, give them Celtic’s strengths and weaknesses, and then the responsibility is on the players to go and carry that out. I am not sure it is a huge advantage me knowing what Brendan is trying to do. I am sure he has worked out pretty much how we like to play. You pick these things up pretty quickly.”
Twelve matches unbeaten, greeted by a thousand-strong throng of boisterous fans in the wee small hours at Glasgow Airport after triumphantly taking the club back into the group stages of a major competition, all is going swimmingly thus far for Rangers’ new manager. But everything could change again – for good or ill – depending on the result of this one.
“I think it’s a chance to put a marker down,” said Gerrard. “Having said that, if we go and win the game I won’t be sitting here getting carried away thinking we’re the next champions. I won’t blow it up to something that it’s not. At the same time, if it doesn’t go well I won’t think the world is going to