ON RED ALERT
Gerrard tells his title hunters to keep discipline
STEVEN GERRARD has warned his Rangers players that too many red cards could derail their title bid.
The England legend convened a dressing room summit yesterday after Scott Arfield’s dismissal in Sunday’s 2-1 win over Hearts saw him become the seventh Ibrox player to be sent off this season.
Arfield is suspended for tonight’s home clash with Aberdeen as Rangers look to stay top of the Premiership.
Insisting his team are not overly physical, Gerrard’s league leaders are yet to suffer defeat when they have lost a man. Fearful that will change unless they cut out the needless red cards, however, he has warned his players to be careful.
‘Look, some red cards we have deserved,’ he said. ‘Some we feel a little bit hard done by — but it is what it is. We’ve had seven red cards, which is too many and we’ve told the players that.
‘That’s not my main concern because I’m confident we can help the players and channel it in the right direction.
‘We want them to be tough and compete and be fair — and be as hard to play against as we can.
‘But we have to make the players aware of the knock-on effect.
‘We have played over 280 minutes with either ten men or nine. We’ve coped very well in those
circumstances but it’s the knock-on effect it has. ‘Players have to work hard in those minutes. They do more sprints, more accelerations and decelerations. It has more strain on the body so that makes it more of a high risk of injuries. ‘We also lose key players for important fixtures in the future, so it’s not just the isolated incidents that concern us. It’s the knock-on effect on the squad.’ Rangers remain unhappy over two red cards shown to winger Daniel Candeias against St Mirren and Villarreal, with a strongly worded club statement concerning referee Willie Collum landing the club in hot water with the SFA. Admitting his team have to put their house in order, though,
Gerrard said: ‘We don’t want the players to go over the top. We want them to be fair and I don’t think we are a dirty team. ‘We have players who will compete but Daniel Candeias has had two red cards and he’s not a dirty player. ‘Scott Arfield isn’t a dirty player but he made a mistake and will be rightly punished for it. ‘We all have to improve our discipline. It’s a bit of a shock that we’ve had that many but we haven’t deserved a couple, so it looks a lot worse than it is.’ In the immediate aftermath of an opening-day draw at Aberdeen in August, Gerrard claimed that Rangers had been on the receiving end of bad decisions from Scottish referees for years. Asked if he still felt the same, he said: ‘Probably not as strong, no. Sometimes you speak as a manager, your emotions are running and sometimes you get it slightly wrong, I suppose. ‘But I don’t want to get involved in talking about officials. I said what I said at the time and that’s all in the past.’ The biggest victim of contentious refereeing decisions, Candeias admits he still has no idea why he was sent off against St Mirren. Rangers lodged a formal complaint about Collum’s performance that day, the SFA responding with five charges, including bringing the game into disrepute and inferring bias. The club had until yesterday to respond, with a hearing on December 19. Asked why he was dismissed, Candeias responded: ‘I don’t know. It was just the decision of the referee and, okay, sometimes you don’t believe this decision but it is the decision of the referee. I just need to forget the red cards now. ‘The gaffer talked this morning with the team and spoke to me after the red cards. He told me to forget the red cards and focus on the game because this is a hard month for the team.’ Shown a subsequent red card against Villarreal, Candeias admitted he feels victimised. ‘Yes, I do think about it,’ he said. ‘But just after the game. ‘A day later, I had started to focus on the Hearts game because it was the next one. And now I am focusing on Aberdeen, which is another big game. ‘Now it is two times. That is too much for me — but it is okay.’