Wonder strike eases
Gerrard. “Hopefully, he can make up for the time he has lost. I think he owes it to his team-mates to come back in a good place and try and finish the season in the best place he can.
“Alfredo has had a fantastic run in this competition. He has been really consistent for us domestically as well, but these games seem to give him an extra spark. His goal return is the reason why we’ve had success in this competition during the time I’ve been here.”
“But all the players are in a really good place. I must say the standard of the training has been fantastic. We’ve obviously had the situation this week where the group has been shortened down through no fault of our own in terms of the players still involved.
“But the level, intensity and quality has gone through the roof. So we are going into it really excited and looking forward to watching the players play.”
Gerrard himself will rack up his 23rd win in Europe if his men triumph against Antwerp this evening. That is a record for a Rangers manager that his legendary predecessor Walter Smith currently holds by himself. But the current incumbent of the Ibrox dugout is only concerned with his side performing at their best.
“We’re really proud of our results in Europe, the majority of them,” he said. “The players deserve all the credit for our record in Europe. They’re the ones that have gone out and put in the performances.
“In terms of being named in the same category or the same conversation as Dick Advocaat (who won 22 European games) and Walter Smith? I don’t think I’m ready for that. For me, it’s just about getting the boys prepared, giving them a game plan to try and execute.”
Gerrard added: “Every time we have given them that responsibility and challenge, they have stepped up. This is a competition that we really enjoy playing in. And we want to strive for better. In the short term, we want to qualify. To go further than we did last year is the dream.
“Further down the line, we have aspirations of playing in the Champions League at some point. That’s what we’ve all got to strive for. There’s no harm in dreaming, striving for the top and reaching for the stars. But you worry about what’s in front of you first, before you get too far ahead of yourself.”
As this week’s events has shown, he can never tell what is lurking around the corner.
NEITHER of the managers in the Celtic Park dugouts here are likely to win a popularity contest with their club’s supporters any time soon, but at least Neil Lennon has earned a little respite as his side’s 1-0 win over Aberdeen brought up their fifth win on the spin.
This resurgence of course will be too little and too late for the title race, and certainly for a great many Celtic fans whose minds have long been made up on their manager. All he can do is keep winning games, and hope that will be enough to win over hearts and minds.
As long as he has David Turnbull, he may have an outside chance of doing just that. The former Motherwell man scored his eighth of the season to settle this early on, with a low strike from long-range that was so pure that the ball barely spun in the air. He has been the one real consistent light in the darkness that has enveloped Celtic’s season to date, and he is the man Celtic should build around as they look to find their way back out.
As for Derek McInnes, it is difficult to know what this loss will mean for him. A narrow loss at Celtic Park, where they had some bright spells, is no cause for concern in isolation. Florian Kamberi and Fraser Hornby looked quite bright in attack, and there may just be a seed of a partnership which could flourish there for the Dons.
The wider context though hardly allows time to allow such things to be nurtured. McInnes needs goals now, with the blank here giving him the unwanted record of being the only Aberdeen manager to have watched his team fail to score in six consecutive games.
They have now won just one in their last 10, and their home match against Kilmarnock which is sandwiched by their two quickfire visits to Celtic Park looks to be hugely significant, both for their chances of making the top three and for McInnes’s future.
Given their goal drought, it was perhaps a surprise that the visitors made just one change from their goalless draw with St Mirren, and that it was to throw in an extra centre-back in Ash Taylor.
This proved a game too far for 35-year-old Celtic captain Scott Brown after his recent run in the starting XI, dropping out to be replaced by Ismaila Soro. Stephen Welsh returned from injury to replace Shane Duffy beside Kristoffer Ajer in defence, and Albian Ajeti came back in up front with Ryan Christie going over to the right and Tom Rogic dropping out.
The Swiss striker did very little before being replaced by Rogic just after the hour though, and worryingly, it is difficult to see exactly what he offers to Celtic even this far into his first season at the club.
The hosts as a whole were
Turnbull is the man Celtic should build around