SPECIAL COUNSEL
Ibrox icon Smith will always be there for Gerrard if a few home truths are needed as he tackles Rangers’ woes
ON the eve of victory at Celtic Park in December, Steven Gerrard welcomed a special guest through the gates of the Rangers Training Centre.
The precise contents of the conversation shared by the Ibrox boss and Walter Smith over breakfast remain strictly between the two men but Gerrard has made no secrecy of his eagerness to tap into his predecessor’s vast reserves of experience.
That’s why, as Gerrard attempts to ride out the first full-blown storm of his managerial career, Smith can probably expect the phone to ring over the coming days.
Under Smith, Rangers secured nine titles in a row but there were knocks too, notably in his second spell in charge when his tired team fell short in the league after reaching the UEFA Cup Final in 2008.
Gerrard’s woes cannot be attributed to fatigue but he does need to find the roots of what he describes as a ‘head-scratching’ contrast between European and domestic performances.
The midweek defeat to Hamilton was merely a continuation of Rangers’ rotten domestic form since the team returned from its winter training camp in Dubai, yet the club has a Europa League last-16 tie to prepare for.
As he readies his players for a week that will take his players to Dingwall and back to Glasgow for the visits of Bayer Leverkusen and Celtic, Gerrard admits he can rely on Smith to not only provide support but tell a few home truths about what is currently being served up.
‘I have had chats with Walter since day one and he is obviously someone who has been round the block and got the T-shirt,’ said Gerrard.
‘I think things are different now in my reign compared to when he was the manager but he has been honest with me since day one.
‘Even on the back of a good game Walter is the type of person who will not just talk about the good things. His advice has been absolute gold dust and it will continue to be because I genuinely think he wants to help and support me and this club.
‘You can hear his love for the club when you speak to him. He is still as passionate as he was when I looked up to him from the outside.
‘Will he be there for me this week? I’m sure he will if I need it.’
Gerrard’s last direct contact with Smith was a congratulatory text to mark the retired coach’s 72nd birthday a fortnight ago.
That number alone should render as entirely hypothetical the thoughts of those Rangers fans who quietly wonder how Smith might fare in comparison to the current regime’s efforts to stop Celtic’s pursuit of a record 10 consecutive titles.
Smith may have stepped away from the frontline in 2011 but that doesn’t mean he has no useful knowledge to impart. His words over cornflakes and coffee certainly did no harm ahead of that postChristmas derby but Gerrard’s great conundrum now is trying to fathom just what has gone wrong since.
That win at Parkhead seemed pivotal. Both teams had cut a swathe through a hectic December league fixture list but a scheduling quirk meant Celtic played a game more and went into the derby five points ahead and favourites to extend their lead.
Rangers turned that presumption on its head, cutting the gap to two, while holding a game in hand.
As he gathered his players under the Middle Eastern sun little more than a week later, Gerrard scanned the faces and inspected the body language.
Their smiles suggested a group buoyed by their win at Celtic
Park but the tempo applied to some taxing training drills in Dubai suggested a focus on the job still to be done.
Yet somewhere between the emirate and the re-start there came a malfunction.
‘I saw a real hungry squad and, with the results we had worked ever so hard to get, we went into the break on a wave of confidence,’ he continued. ‘We were in a fantastic place and there were no signs of complacency. Sometimes in football things come out of the blue and can smack you in the face.’
So, if not complacency was the mental problem simply a reaction to scaling such a significant peak?
‘I think there could be an element of that,’ he added. ‘There was definitely a relief in the dressing room that we had won at Celtic Park for the first time in a long time.
‘There had been a lot of hurt and pain there prior to that.’
Where Smith was always the arch-pragmatist, Gerrard’s team has adhered to the more aesthetic principles that run through the blood at his spiritual home of Anfield.
The established Liverpool 4-3-3 formation has been a staple under Gerrard as has been a commitment to playing out from the back and deploying the team’s wide forwards as auxiliary playmakers.
It hasn’t always worked and Gerrard acknowledges that there needs to be a greater emphasis on the battle.
Writing in his programme notes for the Hamilton game no less, captain James Tavernier made the alarming admission that ‘whenever anybody gets in our face it affects us’.
Like Hamilton, Ross County may have taken encouragement ahead of today’s lunchtime kick-off, but Gerrard insists his team will stand up.
‘You have to fight when you are in our position. It’s the only way.
‘And that’s why I’m saying we need everyone now. At times you can carry a few but when the chips are down and the heat and the pressure is on we need everyone to pull in the right direction.
‘If I spot or see anyone who is not prepared to fight, then I am going to have to deal with that situation.
‘I think you have to adapt. I don’t think you rip everything up and throw it away. You don’t say everything in the last 12 months is no good, we’re starting afresh.
‘We just have to really stick together in this moment and all pull in the right direction. I believe we will get through it quicker than some people on the outside think.’
While Tavernier’s captaincy is under scrutiny, Gerrard has again felt compelled to praise midfielder Ryan Jack’s mentality. The former
Aberdeen man has been a solid and trusted performer over the past two seasons and has stepped up particularly well during the club’s European run.
Yet, ahead of the Leverkusen game, Jack questions the suggestion that the players feel liberated playing in those Europa League matches.
‘When you play at club like Rangers there is always pressure,’ he insists. ‘Every time you go on the park there is an expectation and demand.
‘We have to live with that. It’s what we are paid to do.’
However, judging by the performances at Tynecastle in last weekend’s Scottish Cup exit to Hearts and again in midweek, this group of players seems inordinately burdened by the pursuit of domestic trophies.
Set against the preceding performance of controlled intelligence away to Braga, the team was a quivering imitation of itself.
‘It’s frustrating to go from the Braga win to losing domestically,’ added Jack. ‘The European success shows that when the mindset is right and when everyone buys into the game plan and is on the same page, that’s what we can produce.
‘Yet in the next two games, we just switch off and make errors. We were nervous and I don’t know why.’
Although they have proven a match for Celtic in a one-off game, perhaps the Rangers players simply remain intimidated by the continued consistency of their big rivals.
Celtic may have tumbled out of Europe just as Rangers triumphed in Portugal but their immediate response was tough — grinding out results against obdurate opponents at St Johnstone and Livingston, where they mustered the late equaliser that proved beyond Rangers at Ibrox.
‘To go from Braga to Hearts and then Hamilton is a bit headscratching,’ added the manager. ‘Normally in these situations it’s every game that’s a struggle. Your form is there consistently.
‘You have a contrast of games here at Rangers. In Europe we deserve a lot of credit and respect because we have got the club beyond expectations.
‘At the moment our domestic performances and results are not good enough — but we are capable of bouncing back very quickly.’