Defoe the humble hero can help call shots in title race
WATChING Jermain Defoe’s exquisite goal on Sunday made me think of the old phrase about class being permanent.
That’s unquestionably true in his case. At the age of 38, he proved he’s still got i t with some lovely movement followed by an extremely difficult piece of skill for the finish. What a f antastic way to score your 300th career goal.
But Defoe’s class doesn’t begin and end inside the penalty area. Away from the pitch, I think he could be a hugely important influence as this Rangers squad enters what is uncharted territory for so many of their players.
A six-point lead over Celtic at the top of Premiership obviously increases expectation. Bookmakers now have them as favourites to go on and win the title.
Right now, there is huge value in having older heads preaching humility within the dressing room. The reminder always has to be there that players cannot get ahead of themselves. Nothing has been achieved yet.
Defoe made those kind of points
Humility is such a vital asset. His attitude really is exceptional
when he spoke after the 2-0 win over Livingston.
he sends the right messages. And younger players will listen because they know he has this incredible wealth of experience to back up his words.
Defoe comes across as a very humble and grounded guy who is so determined to make the most of his last couple of seasons in football.
he must be immense to be a r ound. J ust l ook at hi s standards. he had been out for a while with a hamstring injury and hadn’t started a game for a long time.
But he goes into the line-up at the weekend and looks the part right away. It just shows you his professionalism is exceptional.
For a young player such as Calvin Bassey, just starting out in his first-team career, he is the perfect role model to look at. The same even goes for players who are a little bit older but who have come from clubs without the same intensity.
Watch Defoe, look at the career he’s had in the english Premier League, playing for england and now still putting in everything he can to help Rangers. Take all the advice he generously offers.
I know from my own career just how important it can be to have these figures around at big clubs. I was privileged to join
Bayern Munich in 1990, when I was just 21. One person I always recall f rom then was Klaus Augenthaler.
he was in his mid-30s and had just won the World Cup with West Germany in Italy that summer. he had every medal in the game. But he was extremely humble and you could approach him and talk about anything.
Augenthaler was a l ways supportive and willing to offer advice to the younger guys who looked up to him.
When I later went to AC Milan, Franco Baresi was the same. he was actually a very quiet man, but had no airs and graces about him and when he spoke you listened.
Just being around people that like makes you realise that humility stays with many of the very best players. No matter how popular they are, no matter what they achieve, their feet don’t leave the ground. To me, it’s one of the most valuable assets for a sportsperson.
Stay humble. Stay focused. Don’t believe the hype around you. Keep doing your job. I’ve never met Defoe but that attitude shines from him and it’s a real help in reinforcing the mindset Steven Gerrard wants to see from his players.
he is clearly still an asset on the pitch, too. With Alfredo Morelos, Kemar Roofe and Cedric Itten also available, there is now a strong stable of strikers f or Gerrard to use depending on the tactical requirements of each situation.
But the team’s strength just now is about more than just strikers. In 12 Premiership games so far, Rangers have had 13 different scorers. That makes them a really unpredictable opponent.
This season, with so much hype and so much at stake, I think it’s important they are not just depending on one or two players. There was a l ot talk about Morelos earlier this season — with all the speculation about his future and whether his head was right — but he doesn’t have to be the centre of attention right now.
It’s solved one of the problems from last term. There were more things wrong with Rangers after the winter break than just Morelos, but the gap wasn’t really filled when he went totally off form and stopped scoring.
It was a major concern for me coming into this season, but people have stepped up all over the park. Including James Tavernier, perhaps the only right-back in the world who is top scorer with a table-topping team.
That spread of threats is always a positive. If I think back even to the nine-in-a-row season at Rangers, we had it within our squad.
Gazza, Jorg Albertz and I could contribute decent numbers. There were defenders chipping in. Then you had Ally McCoist, Gordon Durie, erik Bo Andersen and Peter van Vossen up front at different times, with Mark hateley returning just at the end of the campaign.
We had a lot of different ways to win matches and Gerrard must feel pleased about the way his own group is developing in that aspect.
But they have to keep going. Game by game. Thursday night’s europa League tie against Lech Poznan is followed by a visit to Rugby Park, a venue which has caused Rangers so many problems i n Gerrard’s time. Another big test awaits.
It’s strange, as a player there are always places — because of the pitch, the stadium or the opponent — that you hate going to. If you go a goal down, you can think: ‘here we go again.’
Rugby Park is undoubtedly a tricky place bearing in mind what’s happened in recent years. But Rangers have t o keep growing this momentum and take the chance to make the gap nine points, albeit having played two games more.
Celtic are going through a difficult spell right now. They have some players not producing and they’re changing tactics. But that’s what this is — a spell. At some point, Celtic will find their way again.
Rangers have to keep their own f ocus and t heir own standards if they are to stay in front. having people like Defoe around can only help.