Gerrard tells his men what is expected
Steven Gerrard has demanded his players don’t give themselves another title setback at Pittodrie on Wednesday night.
The Ibrox men have failed to beat the Dons in three meetings this season.
The Light Blues boss admits his team can’t afford another failure against Derek Mcinnes’ side.
Gerrard said: “Our performances against Aberdeen have been quite good, and we deserved better in terms of results. “But we have to put that right on Wednesday.
“I think a poor refereeing decision contributed to drawing the first game. In the second game we lacked firepower, then got done by a sucker-punch set-piece.
“In the game at Ibrox, we weren’t good enough.
“We will get to where we want to be when we find a better level of consistency. “We’ve certainly moved forward and improved.
“The squad is looking an awful lot stronger. But now we have to deliver the goods on a consistent basis.
“That’s when we’ll get the respect of everyone because we keep shooting ourselves in the foot by taking huge steps forward, and then finding a setback, like an Aberdeen result or a Kilmarnock result.”
Gerrard knows he’s running out of time to keep reviving the championship challenge.
He said: “At the start of the season, you can get away with a setback or sometimes the result you don’t deserve and recover from it.
“Slowly, we’re getting to the stage where mistakes or setbacks can be more costly.
“I’m really happy with the personnel and the characters in the dressing room, but it’s frustrating as well.
“It’s really good that the players can respond and recover from a setback, but from me the message is to not put yourself in that position in the first place.
“We need to try to have a better, stronger, winning mentality, where you don’t put yourselves under pressure by setting up a must-win game.
“Let’s treat every game the same.
“It doesn’t matter who we’re playing, the message to the players is whoever’s around us competing, you’re playing against them every week.
“That’s who you’re fighting to try to finish above.”