Gerrard frustrated as Gers fail to take chance to close gap on Celts
RANGERS 0 ST JOHNSTONE 0
It was only 48 hours after Valentine’s Day but Steven Gerrard had quickly fallen out of love with his players.
He believes there’s no way Rangers can win the title if they play like they did yesterday.
The Ibrox manager looked a deeply frustrated figure as he spoke about his shock at the way his men performed against St Johnstone.
He said: “I’ve been seduced, as the players looked like they were looking forward to playing at Ibrox.
“We knew Tommy Wright would set St Johnstone up to frustrate.
“They offer a challenge and say ‘come and beat us’ but we didn’t have enough to find an answer to their challenges.
“That’s concerning for me. We lacked leadership and I’m struggling to find any positives.
“Right now, forget titles and closing gaps – that’s the reality if you perform like that in front of 50,000.
“If you have a group of lads and they give you that across the board, that’s not what’s required at Rangers. You’re miles away from it.
“At the beginning of the season we had direction, urgency and people performing like Rangers players. They were pressing and hunting. It was great to see and we gave them praise for it.
“There was none of that. There were normal players I can trust but I just felt we weren’t going to achieve it.”
Before the game it looked like the biggest question was how Rangers would cope without their two most consistent performers – suspended goalie Allan Mcgregor and goalscorer Alfredo Morelos.
At full-time there were much bigger questions to be asked of the Ibrox squad.
They had the chance to move within three points of Celtic and blew it big time.
Jermain Defoe was passed fit and led the attack but received little or no service.
Rangers failed to create a chance of note despite having 60% of possession.
It was as uninspired and insipid performance as we’ve seen during the Gerrard era.
Wes Foderingham proved himself a capable debuty between the posts and he had to be. He produced one RANGERS:
(4-1-4-1) – Foderingham 7; Tavernier 6, Goldson 6, Worrall 6, Barisic 4; Mcrorie 6 (Coulibaly 76, 5); Candeias 6 (Lafferty 68, 6), Davis 4 (Middleton 59, 5), Kamara 6, Kent 6; Defoe 6. Unused subs – Firth (Gk), Halliday, Katic, Polster.
ST JOHNSTONE:
(4-5-1) – Bell 7; Foster 7, Kerr 7, Shaughnessy 8, Tanser 7; Goss 6 (Alston 71, 5); Wotherspoon 7 (Callachan 89, 5), Davidson 6, Craig 6, Kennedy 7 (Swanson 80, 5); Kane 7. Unused subs – Hurst (Gk), Hendry, Gordon, Keown.
particularly fine, full-length save from a Shaughnessy header to stop his side going behind.
Earlier, he needed to be alert to push away a Kane shot.
His clean sheet very nearly went when Alston burst through on goal with 12 minutes remaining.
He chipped the keeper but watched his effort bounce back off the bar.
Gerrard shuffled the pack, bringing in Borna Barisic at left-back and handing a first-team debut to former Dundee midfielder Glen Kamara.
The Finland international played just behind Steve Davis, whom the Rangers management team have challenged to improve his fitness levels after a season at Southampton where his first-team opportunities were limited.
He again looked sluggish and it remains to be seen if the energetic style that won him 107 caps for Northern Ireland can return at the age of 34.
Glenn Middleton replaced the veteran just before the hour mark as Gerrard looked for a bit more zip going forward.
Davis performed poorly but he certainly wasn’t the only man in light blue looking off the pace.
Breaking down a deep-lying defence requires pace and precision. There was little of either
for most of the 90 minutes from the home side.
The tempo increased in the last 15 minutes but much of the build-up play was decidedly haphazard.
Kyle Lafferty was brought on to play alongside Defoe but his physical presence made little difference.
St Johnstone bounced back well after some disappointing results.
Former Ibrox keeper Cammy Bell made his Saints’ debut in place of the injured Zander Clark.
The 32-year-old was surprised to have such an easy afternoon.
“I’ve not had it so quiet, to be honest,” he said.
“We kept our shape well, frustrated them and they ran out of ideas.
“It’s great to be back paying in the Premiership.”
If there’s anything that summed up this 90 minutes, it was the way the Rangers manager spoke about a weak claim for a penalty by his team.
Gerrard, who has had plenty to say about referees in recent weeks, dismissed it out of hand.
He said: “We can’t be relying on decisions, we need to be better as a team and perform so we aren’t always talking about officials.
“We need to look at ourselves and admit it wasn’t good enough.”
MATCH STATS
REF WATCH:
STAR MAN
marshalled the St Johnstone defence superbly and was only denied a goal after a top stop from Foderingham.
JOE SHAUGHNESSY