Gough’s right .. we have to be strong in mind & body to go distance
STEVEN GERRARD’S VERDICT
In the grand scheme of things, it’s almost been forgotten about.
The Covid-19 crisis, the furore over ending the Premiership campaign early, the botched SPFL vote, the Rangers’ dossier and everything that followed.
Lost among it all was the Ibrox club’s disrupted Europa League last-16 tie with Bayer Leverkusen.
But despite a damaging 3-1 first-leg defeat in Glasgow, Steven Gerrard’s side are still in with a chance.
It’s only half- time. And now with his players back in – albeit for non- contact training – he can start to plan for it.
The return match is behind closed doors in Germany. It might not even be at Leverkusen’s home ground, the BayArena.
The Bundesliga side brought the curtain down on their league campaign yesterday with a 1- 0 win over Mainz so they will now head into their close season.
And, crucially, their squad might have been considerably weakened by the time Rangers visit in August.
Their star man Kai Havertz has already been heavily linked with a move to Chelsea or Liverpool.
Manchester United are reportedly after striker Leon Bailey who hit that stunning third goal at Ibrox to sicken Gerrard’s men.
And now that the Rangers manager can finally focus on football again, he’s refusing to give the tie up.
A quarter-final place remains up for grabs and in this unique situation – with UEFA effectively holding mini-tournaments to decide all European competitions – Gerrard insists his team will fight for their lives to stay in it.
He said: “It’s strange. It’s rare and unique. I haven’t seen or heard about this ever happening before.
“But one thing’s for sure, we’re not giving up on the tie. That’s the reason why I’m so keen to get back to full-contact training – to give ourselves the best possible chance of going through to the next round.
“We need a minimum of four or five weeks to be ready for serious games, especially at that level. So the quicker we can get the rules relaxed and get back to full training, the better prepared we’ll be to go into the Leverkusen game and try to turn it around.
“It will be a big challenge for us. And we’ve made the job more difficult for ourselves than we would have liked by conceding a third goal at Ibrox.
“But who knows what shape Leverkusen are going to be in by then? They are coming to the end of the season and will probably have some down time. “So you don’t know what their situation
will bee or what level they’ll be at by the time thehe game comes around.
“That’sat’s where there will be a strangeness for bothth clubs.
“Because,cause, ideally, the game should have been done and dusted, already dealt with.”
Whii le Gerrard can look ahead to Europepe and a new domestic season, he can’t help but question exactly how Rangers’ers’ campaign unravelled at the start of the year.
The trait that is continually questioned of this Rangers squad is mentality.
Whetherether you agree or not – that will probablybly be the case until skipper James Taverniernier holds a trophy aloft.
And Gerrard understands why. He admits tthat if mental strength doesn’t come from wwithin,n, it’s difficult to instil in players.
But he promised Gers fans that next sseason,n, with the addition of more quality tto theirr ranks, they will be physically AND mmentallyally stronger in their bid to stop Celtic aachievingving a historic 10-in-a-row.
Respondingponding to legendary captain RRichardard Gough’s asser tion that iimprovementovement is needed in both aareas, Gerrard admitted they can sstill stepep up.
He said: “I always welcome cconstructtruct ive cr it ici sm, eespeciallyally if it’s from someone wwho hasas been there, done it aand experiencedxperienced it.
“There’sere’s no doubt that to bbe successfulccessful over 60 games,s, you must have a
Who knows what shape Leverkusen will be in? It will be strange .. but we’re not giving up on the tie
certain level of pphysical and mental strength. From a mentalitym point of view, it’s something the players will have to prepare for individuindividually.
“We can help ththem, guide them, give them proper supportsuppor with the right people around them – anand make sure they’re ready to play physically.physic
“But we need to gget them some help by identifying the righright players to come in.
“We have to be betterbe prepared to go the distance because ono two occasions now we’ve been consistentconsist to a certain point then fell away.
“If we can be moremo physical as a team and more mentally strong,s it will certainly help us achieve our ambitions.
“You would like to think the players will learn from the experienceexpe last season. “We’ve got to use that to drive them on and be mentally ststronger at key areas in the campaign.”
Recruitment can help him achieve that goal and Gerrard ssaid: “We’re looking to bring more leadeleaders into the team and there’s many otherothe things we can try. “But we believe tthe players have enough support to be prprepared for whatever challenge is thrownthrow at them.”
The coronaviruscoronaviru lockdown has given him plenty of time to reflect and re-assess his squad’s strengthsstreng and weaknesses. Their PremiershipPremier col lapse after beating Celtic at ParkheadP on December 29 just before the winterw break is history now. But that won’won’t stop the Ibrox gaffer from fathoming whwhat went wrong – and
ensuring that it doesn’t happen again.
He said: “If you look at us falling away, it was a combination of things.
“In the final third, we stopped firing. Up until the Old Firm game we were terrific, really consistent and defended really well.
“We were hungry, looked a threat and our main scorers were scoring goals. That changed after January. “And that’s the reason that in certain competitions we fell away.
“Whilst that was happening we were on an incredible European run.
“We’d perform at such a high level then under-perform days later.
“We’ve had time for reflection now, to try to find solutions and ways to address it so that moving forward, it doesn’t happen again.
“That question of why we tailed off, has come up a lot in recent weeks.
“It ’ s easier said than done to pinpoint one issue that you can fix so everything will be rosy and perfect.
“But the players had to be better after the break, it’s as simple as that.
“They must have the hunger and produce more consistency.
“We went to places like Celtic Park, Porto, Braga and got results against top teams.
“But to lose 1- 0 to Hamilton is not acceptable for this club. Those are the situations that set us back.
“It’s a combination of things we need to improve on and address if we’re going to stay the distance next time after January.”