‘BOARD MUST BACK BOSS IN JANUARY’

Rangers might have gone top of the league, but they will need investment in key areas if they are to stay there

MAKE no mistake, the Scottish Premiership has a title race on its hands and, if Rangers want to stay where they currently are in the table, then the board are going to have to back Steven Gerrard in January.

It’s great that Rangers have climbed to the summit once more, but I agree with the Rangers manager that nobody should be getting too carried away at the moment around Ibrox.

Since pre-season when Gerrard came into the club, standards have risen and they have been striving to reach the top of the league ever since. Maybe the last time they got to the top there was a bit of good press and the players became a little complacent. That is what will concern the Rangers boss.

A week later, they were off the top of the table and out of the Europa League with the results against Aberdeen, Dundee and Rapid Vienna. So they will have to heed the lessons of that. Football is such an unforgiving business and there can be no room whatsoever for complacency at a club like Rangers.

Complacency is like a poison to a footballer. If a player takes his eye off the ball at all, it is one of the worst things they can possibly do.

So, I hope the players will have learned from that and they won’t take their foot

off the gas. Even if they don’t, it is still a massive task to remain top of the pile come the winter break and, as Celtic have a game in hand, it would be a huge achievement for Rangers.

I think that had you offered Rangers the chance before the season started to be within one game of the last 32 in the Europa League and be within touching distance of Celtic at the top of the league, they would have taken that.

But now they are at the top of the league there is no way they can settle for that. They have to push on further.

Celtic are still a strong team, despite the hiccups they have had of late. The defeat to Hibernian showed they are vulnerable when they don’t have their full

squad. But their strength in depth is still far superior to Rangers’ depth and they have important players coming back into the mix.

The Old Firm game is around the corner and I wouldn’t blame people for getting carried away if Rangers win that one and go into the winter break on a real high. But Rangers have tough games before then – against Hibs twice and St Johnstone away. They have to concentrate on those before thinking about Celtic. But behind the scenes at Rangers they should already be looking ahead to January and what they need to do to sustain this charge.

Gerrard’s strike rate, and by extension Mark Allen’s, in the transfer market so far has been good on the whole. Umar Sadiq didn’t work out, of course, and they have now lost Ovie Ejaria due to personal reasons, so the priority has to be strengthening at the top end of the pitch.

For me, attacking midfield remains the priority, and I feel they may even need two new arrivals in there of real quality.

The problem Rangers have in that position was clear to see against Hamilton, and that is one they will continue to face. Teams had lost that fear of taking on Rangers for a while and were coming to Ibrox and having a real go. But now that respect has returned and we are seeing more and more teams packing their defence and often leaving just one body up the park.

That means Rangers require people who can unlock defences from the No.10 position, and I think Gerrard will be looking at players who can take the ball on the half-turn and beat a man as well as having a defence-splitting pass in his locker.

Up front, a striker is also a must, with just Alfredo Morelos and Kyle Lafferty there at the moment. Morelos has had his disciplinary issues, and Lafferty is just struggling a little bit for form, and there is no-one else to come in.

Andy Dallas has been doing well in the reserves, but Gerrard has already said he is a little bit away from being ready.

I am a fan of Ryan Hardie. He’s a guy I know well, who is doing well at Livingston and he has played in the first team before. I’m not saying he would be the answer to all the goalscoring problems, but he is something different … he just wants to run in behind defenders.

So I wouldn’t rule out Gerrard recalling him to even go in as a fourth option after bringing in somebody fresh too.

All in all, it is shaping up to be a huge transfer window in January for Rangers, and hopefully the board will back the manager again and get him the players he is wanting.

If they do, then the potential is there for a really exciting finish to the season.

Now Rangers are at the top of the league they have to push further