WHAT A WASTE
Gerrard left furious as his side fail to see off ten-man Dundee
STEVEN GERRARD told his misfiring fringe players not to waste their time in knocking on his door again after ‘failing miserably’ to see off ten-man Dundee.
The Rangers manager criticised the ‘stupid’ decision-making of his players after they failed to claim victory despite having an extra man for 71 minutes following the dismissal of Dundee defender Nathan Ralph.
Needing a four-goal win to move back to the top of the Premiership table, Gerrard made six changes to the side which lost to Aberdeen in midweek.
Trailing to an early strike from former Ibrox striker Kenny Miller, Gerrard’s side equalised through Andy Halliday from a free-kick award which also saw Dundee left-back Ralph
sent off. Despite enjoying a numerical advantage, though, the Ibrox men failed to cut Dundee open and are now two points behind Celtic, having played a game more. And Gerrard, who introduced Joe Worrall, Kyle Lafferty, Ryan Kent, Halliday, Jordan Rossiter and Eros Grezda to the side, bluntly stated: ‘It won’t happen again. People knock on your door, people shake their head when they’re not in the team, people are disappointed. That’s fine, that’s football. ‘But when you are given your chance, go and back it up, go and perform, give me a problem or a headache. ‘I think it’s pretty easy and straightforward for me now. I know the players I can trust and it’s a reality check today that we’re not good enough to make five or six changes. ‘We didn’t look like a Rangers team. Individually, we didn’t look like Rangers players. ‘We kept making stupid decisions. We never really carried out the game plan that we worked on for the last couple of games. ‘It should make my job easier going forward because there should be fewer knocks at the door. If players are honest with themselves and watch that performance back, I don’t really think they’ve got a leg to stand on. ‘But I welcome the knocks because I’ve got all the evidence and the ammunition to maybe show them why they’re not in the team in the future.’ Reflecting on a week that saw five points lost across matches with Aberdeen and Dundee, Gerrard added: ‘The last two performances have been really poor and I take responsibility for that. ‘Seven days ago we were top and it’s looking like we have Rangers players who can handle the responsibility of being a Rangers player. ‘The last two performances don’t look like us and the team I’m trying to build. ‘Individuals are not stepping up and playing at a level that is acceptable. The players were complicating a game that didn’t really need complicating.’ Asked if he felt his players had got carried away after the win at Tynecastle, he replied: ‘I don’t think so. I just don’t think we’ve done the things that have got us a lot of praise. ‘The performances are out of character and individuals are putting in bad performances. ‘We started the game really poorly and Kenny Miller — who we know really well — ran us ragged from the start to the time he left the pitch. ‘The decision went our way with the sending off and Andy puts in a fantastic free-kick. We should have then played with our brains, made the pitch big and passed and the chances would have come. ‘Instead we did the exact opposite. We took too many touches, made bad decisions all over the pitch. ‘I’m very surprised with our last two performances because I haven’t seen that since I came in. ‘We were top of the league seven days ago. We beat a really strong Hearts team but the last two performances have just shocked and surprised me. ‘I can maybe understand one but then you expect a reaction. Good players normally give a reaction but we never got it. ‘Even if there was no red card, you would expect us to come to places like this against bottom of the league, with all due respect, and we should dominate the ball and we should create chance after chance after chance. ‘Nobody is playing with character and personality at the moment. People are making mistake after mistake and it is difficult to watch.’ Gerrard’s side travel to Austria to face Rapid Vienna on Thursday, needing a win to prolong their Europa League interest into the new year. ‘It’s not ideal,’ said the manager. ‘You want your confidence to be high and to be in a good place. But it’s certainly a welcome break from the league as our last two league performances have been miles away from what I’m looking for. ‘We’ll see what Thursday brings but if we perform anything like the last two games we’ll be out of Europe on Thursday night.’ Gerrard’s only complaints on the day were the ruling out of a Lafferty goal for offside when the striker appeared to be on — and the bizarre behaviour of the match delegate thereafter. ‘It looked okay to me, good to me,’ he said. ‘The official delegate (Jim Neil) has asked me if I had anything to say about the officials but before I could open my mouth he walked past me and left. ‘I can’t say any more or I would get into trouble. He said: “Was everything all right?” and woooof — he was off! I’d have asked him: “What do you think of our second goal?” And I’d have liked an answer. He must have plans because he was gone sharpish.’ Midfielder Rossiter said he could understand Gerrard’s anger at how his team performed. ‘The gaffer has given a lot of lads their chance today and we haven’t repaid him,’ he said.