SO WHO CALLS THE SHOTS?
THE BIG KICK-OFF Gerrard asks if manager or players are in charge of Killie tactics
WHEN Rangers kick off the new Premiership campaign at Kilmarnock tomorrow, there will be an unfamiliar foe in the home dugout at Rugby Park.
But Steven Gerrard mischievously predicted yesterday that, despite Angelo Alessio having replaced Steve Clarke, the Ayrshire team’s style may well remain unchanged from last season.
Formerly a right-hand man to ex-Chelsea and Italy manager Antonio Conte, Alessio is already under pressure before he has even taken charge of a league match in Scotland.
His only two competitive matches in charge saw Killie exit the Europa League in humiliating fashion to Welsh part-timers Connah’s Quay Nomads.
Amid rumours of dressing-room unhappiness, Gerrard couldn’t help but wonder if Alessio will stick by his own coaching philosophy.
Or, as he thinks is more likely, the Italian allows his players to dictate a return to the successful methods under Clarke that saw Killie claim ten points off Rangers last season.
‘I have never come across Angelo Alessio
but I know his way of playing,’ said Gerrard. ‘It’s an open brand of exciting football, so it will be interesting to see whether he sticks to his principles and his way — or whether he lets player power dictate how they move forward.
‘It’ll be interesting to see whether they carry on trying to do what they did in pre-season, which was to play quite wide open, expansive football, building through the thirds.
‘Or, having had the setback they had in Europe, will they go back to more the Steve Clarke way of playing, with a lot of men behind the ball, being organised, no space, slowing the game down and hitting us on the counter-attack? That is what I predict.
‘They still have the same players and they know they can carry out Steve’s plan and be successful. That is why it will be intriguing to see how they go about things.
‘Whether that style satisfies their punters and blah blah blah is none of my business.
‘I have to focus on Rangers, our style, and how we play. One thing is for sure, it will be a tough game.’
Gerrard knows that the heightened scrutiny Alessio is under would start to ease if he can mastermind a victory over Rangers tomorrow.
‘He’s faced criticism already? Welcome (to Scotland),’ said the Rangers boss.
‘It’s intense up here. You suffer a setback and at times it is tough. You have to be thick-skinned as a manager, take it on the chin and try to bounce back.
‘But he has been around the game a lot more than me in terms of coaching and management, so I am sure he was aware of all that before he took the job.
‘I am sure he will be looking for a reaction from his players and there is no better way to bounce back than taking points off the Old Firm.
‘Steve Clarke will be a tough act to follow because he always got every little ounce of everything that group of players had inside them.
‘He pushed them to the maximum and to deliver European football was a good way for Steve to leave at the end of last season. It’s big shoes to fill for the new manager but I wish him well — after Sunday.’
Kilmarnock spent the summer laying a new state-of-the-art plastic pitch at Rugby Park.
A long-time vocal critic of artificial surfaces — particularly Kilmarnock’s — Gerrard said: ‘It can’t be any worse (than the last pitch at Rugby Park). That’s what I’d say on that. So, yeah, we’ll see what happens.
‘But we look forward to a very tough match. Even on a brand new AstroTurf, it’s a different surface and one we’ll have to adapt to very quickly.
‘They’ve certainly got the advantage when it comes to the surface but it’s a game we have to try to win.’
Whether a match is played on plastic or grass, Gerrard will be drilling into his side the importance of seeing games out after a sobering analysis of late goals conceded last season.
Fail to stamp that out and Celtic will be in pole position to reach nine-in-a-row.
‘If games finished after 86 minutes we would have won the league,’ added the Rangers boss.
‘That’s the brutal truth. We have to be better in our game management — and when we get ourselves in a decent position we have to get over the line.
‘You go back 12 months to Aberdeen on the first day of last season and we put in an outstanding performance which probably deserved three points — but we conceded a late goal.
‘And, throughout the season, fingers were pointed at us for conceding late goals or not finding that consistency.
‘Those are the things we want to try to rectify this season moving forward and it all starts on Sunday. But it’s not easy because we’re playing against good teams with good players.
‘For every team, Rangers is a scalp for them. So they are never going to give up or down tools. We have to go right down to the wire in every game.’ Steven Gerrard was speaking to promote the rangers Foundation’s Buy a Badge day at Ibrox on august 11 before the visit of Hibernian. all money raised from the sale of badges goes to the foundation’s work in the community and to charity. visit www.rangerscharity.org.uk