Gerrard hits back at Strach

teams before they moved to Glasgow.

But the Liverpool and England great is convinced his players, who have lost to Aberdeen and Dundee in their last two Ladbrokes Premiership games and slipped off top spot in the league, is confident his charges can handle the occasion and triumph.

“Alfredo is fine,” the Englishman said. “I wasn’t aware of any comments that were made, but if that’s what was said I’ll have to disagree with the Alfredo one.

“He’s scored 17 goals and his form is very good. It doesn’t irk me,” he added. “If I had an opinion on Celtic when Gordon Strachan was the manager I don’t think Gordon would have taken too much notice of it. So I don’t think I’m going to take too much notice of what an ex-Celtic manager says about my team.”

Asked if Morelos and his team-mates could prove Strachan wrong by ensuring Rangers beat Rapid this evening, he said: “They have an opportunity to do that every time they pull on a Rangers shirt.

“I think so far this season they have done the fans very proud. Seven days ago we were sitting top of the league with an opportunity to progress to the last 32 of the Europa League.

“That suggests for me that the players can handle the shirt and that we’ve taken huge strides forward.

“On the back of two results that weren’t good for us and on the back of two performances that weren’t good for us we understand that there will be external opinions. But I think it’s important we don’t focus on what’s being said and just focus on ourselves.

“I have experienced the highs and lows at another big football club. We have good people inside our dressing room and we hurt when we don’t get the results we are looking for – we all do.”