GERRARD SET FOR RAID ON ENGLISH MARKET
STEVEN Gerrard will look at the loan market in January to bolster the Rangers squad and has his eye on some of the best young players in England.
The Rangers manager was more than just an interested spectator at Tynecastle last Tuesday when England Under-21s comfortably beat their Scottish counterparts 2-0. He was scouting for potential signings.
Joe Worrall (Nottingham Forest), Ovie Ejaria and Ryan Kent (both Liverpool), Lassana Coulibaly (Angers) and Sadiq Umar (Roma) joined Rangers in the summer on temporary deals and while the results have been mixed, it has not put Gerrard off utilising the loan system.
Asked if he was considering an England Under-21 player, many of whom have been loaned out by their parent clubs, Gerrard said: “Possibly, I’m not going to lie to you.
“I went to the game because it’s a juicy fixture. England-Scotland always is. Two of my players were playing for Scotland as well obviously, Ross McCrorie and Glenn Middleton, who I wanted to watch closely. But I went to have a look at what was about.
“A lot of players on show are at clubs but are maybe not satisfied with the amount of games they’re playing, so I’m not going to say I wasn’t there to see the talent. I thought it was an interesting game and the best team won on the night.”
Rangers have a tricky fixture this afternoon. Nobody likes going to play on Hamilton’s pitch, especially a team who have failed to win away from Ibrox in their four league games.
It is Spartak Moscow on Thursday in Glasgow, a game which Gerrard refused to discuss with the Hamilton game still to be played, and the following Sunday Aberdeen are the opponents in the Betfred League Cup semi-final.
Gerrard the player hated being rested for any match, being as keen to play against Barnsley as Barcelona, but he now in the position where he has to tweak his team to keep players fresh and save them from themselves. He is not overly keen on wholesale changes for the sake of it but the squad will be rotated, whether they like it or not.
“I’ve tried to rotate at certain times from the opening game of the season,” he said. “That’s just to keep a freshness about the team and protect or offload certain individuals who’ve had runs of games or are maybe feeling little niggles. But there won’t be major squad rotation, because every game is just as important as any other. People will probably think Moscow and the semi-final are the two most important of the next three, but they’re not.
“For me, Hamilton is very important. Our away form hasn’t been as good as I’ve wanted it, in terms of numbers returned on the board. I was disappointed with us at Livingston, so I’m expecting a good performance from the lads on Sunday and that’s the only thing on my mind.”
Would Gerrard the player understand Gerrard the manager’s thinking? “That’s the problem I’ve got now,” he said.
“Managing 12 to 24 players is the difficult thing as a manager. If I say to someone, ‘just sit out this Moscow game [to prepare for] the semi’ can you imagine the looks? That’s a good thing. I want players who want to play every game. I want players that are robust, available and want to play. That’s healthy for the squad, but for a manager, that’s the biggest challenge: keeping everyone happy, keeping people focused.
“If you’re a player in this squad, you’ve got to be looking at the schedule and thinking that between now and Christmas there are a lot of games. It’s impossible for 11, 12, 13 players to always play, so everyone needs to be ready.
“You want stability and at the same time, players can be performing very well. For example, the last two performances have probably been the best two we’ve produced in the short space of time I’ve been here. But that’s the game, that’s why I’m here. I’ve got to make big decisions, and I’ve got to hope the players respect that and understand I have to do the best for Rangers, because it’s a result business. If it means one or two having a cob on for a day or two, that’s not a problem.”
Gerrard will most certainly have a “cob on” if his team fail to win at Hamilton. He was most displeased after the Livingston defeat, a performance which he hasn’t quite shaken off, and his Rangers need to start picking up more points on their travels.
But when asked what the problem was, the manager replied: “I don’t know. Away form wasn’t a problem against Aberdeen in the first game. It wasn’t a problem at Motherwell, it hasn’t been a problem throughout Europe and it wasn’t a problem at Kilmarnock on an artificial surface. That’s why I don’t know. They’ve shown they’re capable. I expect it to be put right on Sunday.
“We’ll have a game plan like we always do. It’s a similar fixture to Livingston and we had a game plan there, but we never carried it out. We never turned up. So the players have two options. Go and empty it, do the basics and fight for the shirt and the fans who’ll turn up, same as they did at Livingston. Or put in a Livingston performance, and let everyone talk about your away form for a bit longer.
“I’ll just put a sign up saying ‘Livingston 1 Rangers 0 – What are you gonna do about it?’ Because if you turn up and play the same way, the same will happen.”
We had a game plan but we never carried it out. We never turned up