McAllister admits Gerrard is ‘an emotional guy’ but he keeps his cool for the players
RANGERS
WHEN Steven Gerrard entered the media room at Ibrox on Wednesday night, he had the look of a man who meant business.
The jacket and club tie were off and the expression and words said it all about how angry and upset he was with his players after a lamentable performance and surprise defeat to Aberdeen.
His assessment of the game and the key moments – Scott McKenna’s goal, the red card to Alfredo Morelos and the chances his side spurned – were honest and straight to the point, as always.
Supporters would have had no complaints if Gerrard had given his players a verbal rollicking inside the home dressing room. Indeed, many would have demanded it.
Rangers fell well below the standards that their manager has set this season as their unbeaten record on home soil and top spot in the Premiership were lost in one go.
It was a result that clearly frustrated Gerrard. It isn’t one that will be allowed to derail Rangers or undo their good work this term, though.
“He’s an emotional guy,” assistant manager Gary McAllister said of his former team-mate that is now his boss. “You saw the way we played.
“But times are changing. Young people are changing.
“He’s closer to the changing room in his age group than me. Those days actually don’t exist a great deal now, tea-cups and volleys and that stuff.
“It’s about taking stock and being realistic. We have had loads of plaudits, we’ve had some great nights, especially at Ibrox.
“This was a disappointing one. It’s about not getting too high and not getting too low.
“We don’t think there has been a cause for [losing the rag] at this moment in time.
“Because I think the line of communication between the players and the dressing room is good. We’d rather talk it through.
“We talk in compartments. We talk in groups. There is seniority and there are younger player and position-specific. There are loads of talks continually.”
Gerrard addressed
‘‘ Those days actually don’t exist now with tea-cups and volleys
his players on Tuesday morning to warn them about the consequences of their disciplinary problem after Scott Arfield collected Rangers’ seventh red card of the campaign against Hearts last weekend.
But the message didn’t have the desired impact as Alfredo Morelos picked up number eight with a moment of madness as he threw his arm into the face of Dons captain Graeme Shinnie.
Rangers had toiled to break down Aberdeen even after their visitors had been reduced to 10 men when Sam Cosgrove was dismissed for a second bookable offence.
The loss of Morelos didn’t cost Rangers the game but it certainly didn’t help their chances of salvaging something from an evening that could, and should, have been far more positive for Gerrard, his players and his staff.
“Yeah, we’ve been chatting quite a lot over the last couple of days,” McAllister said. “We can’t hide from the fact it was a disappointing result.
“Having said that, the level of performance was a big dip as well. I don’t think we anticipated that. Right throughout the team we never really got anything going on the night, right from early in the game.
“There was no rhythm. There wasn’t many combination or phases of play when we maybe got five, six, seven, eight, nine, 10 passes.
“It was very much stopstart, throw-ins and set-plays. We were uncomfortable the whole time.
“Even when numerically we had the extra man we still never got any rhythm to it at all. So performance-wise we were disappointed. The result was obviously massively disappointing, but it was the performance level as well.
“I think we have to applaud the opponent at times as well. They came to do a job and around the park they probably won more individual battles than we thought they would.