[Sport] The evolution of Gerrard's Rangers

[-Kenzo]

Ross County boss John Hughes was magnanimous in defeat after watching his side lose 5-0 at Ibrox in January. They had struck the woodwork a couple of times and tried to play football but Rangers were too much for them.

Hughes described the home side’s performance as “proper football” and told his counterpart Steven Gerrard that after the match.

"Thanks very much,” Hughes said Gerrard responded. “It was three years in the making.”

“Let’s go.”

Steven Gerrard’s words at his unveiling as Rangers manager in May 2018 served as a call to arms for a support which had been dealt one hammer blow after another in recent years.

Graeme Murty had done his best as a caretaker but there was no long term appointment in the offing, there was a severe lack of identity and quality under Pedro Caixinha and, while there was identity under Mark Warburton, it had proved ineffective in the face of the Scottish top-flight.

So what would Steven Gerrard bring? His name, for one. It was the exciting appointment Rangers fans needed – thousands lined up outside Ibrox to get into the stadium on the day he was presented. A serial-winning midfielder, forever linked with Liverpool but with little top-level coaching experience, brought to Glasgow to try and restore the club’s former glories.

It was a story Rangers fans knew well.

Gerrard had been working as a Liverpool academy coach for little more than a year when he decided to take on one of the most imposing and fraught challenges in British football. Deliver the now-fabled title number 55 and stop Celtic’s march towards 10-in-a-row.

Gary McAllister, Michael Beale, Tom Culshaw and Jordan Milsom joined Gerrard as his backroom team, re-enforcing that Liverpool connection but, more importantly, providing a stable, modern, forward-thinking coaching staff at the heart of the club.

Ahead of the match on Saturday, Rangers' players and staff were met by thousands of supporters outside of Ibrox as they sensed that a decade of despair was about to come to an end. A 3-0 win over St Mirren saw the players run to the corner of the stadium where some fans had waited outside with fireworks and flares in anticipation of a party.

The celebrations in the Rangers dressing room after the game, which saw Gerrard acknowledge fans outside from a window, were a sign that the job was done, even if Celtic could technically delay proceedings with a win at Dundee United on Sunday.

However, their draw at Tannadice confirmed Rangers as champions - their first Scottish top-flight title since 2011. They have done it without defeat in the league so far.

Few could have predicted how dominant Rangers would be at the start of the season given their results in March 2020. So how have they done it?

What was waiting for Gerrard?
It is important to remember where Rangers were on and off the pitch when Gerrard was appointed. Funds were made available to him but he was not walking into an institution performing to the best of its capabilities.

Legal battles surrounding retail had dogged the club and its money-making potential while the commercial and operational side was to later undergo a much-needed major reshuffle.

On the pitch Brendan Rodgers’ Celtic were dominant, while Rangers had just registered two third-placed finishes in the Premiership behind Aberdeen. Last season’s European campaign had ended in July with Pedro Caixinha standing in a Luxembourgian bush arguing with supporters.

The squad was imbalanced. Rangers had operated a revolving door policy when it came to summer transfer windows for a couple of years – 10 in, 10 out. Players like Carlos Pena, Eduardo Herrera and Fabio Cardoso, who had come to the club at a reasonable expense under Caixinha, were shipped out, either on loan or by way of free transfer, just to begin the process of rebuilding.

This would continue under Gerrard in the immediate term as he sought to find the settled squad he needed but the key players brought in that summer remain pivotal today.

Allan McGregor returned to the club, Scott Arfield arrived from the Premier League, Connor Goldson has barely missed a game in three years, Borna Barisic has become fundamental to the way Rangers play and Nikola Katic had shown great promise in defence until his season-ending injury last summer.

The club was still playing catch-up but Gerrard was tasked with improving results instantly. In the nearly three years since he has made mistakes, and had to counter setbacks in his quest to restore Rangers to the top.

He has had to help his players evolve mentally and emotionally, especially over the past 12 months, in order to get over the line – but his first task was to put his own tactical stamp on his squad.

Tightening the defence
Rangers had conceded 50 goals in the Premiership season before Gerrard’s arrival – double that of Celtic and the most of any side in the top seven. McGregor, Goldson, Katic, and Barisic were brought in to stop that unacceptable rot. James Tavernier was made club captain. Gerrard was starting from the back.

Early performances in Europe showed the value of McGregor and clean sheets. Indeed, Rangers would nearly half the number of goals conceded in the league in Gerrard’s first season to 27. That number dropped again the following year to 19 – albeit with Rangers only playing 29 games due to the campaign being curtailed.

This season has been even more remarkable. Rangers’ 3-0 win over St Mirren on Saturday was their 24th clean sheet from 32 games so far this term. They have only conceded nine league goals all season and have the top-flight record of 25 clean sheets firmly in their sights.

As explosive as Gerrard was as a player, it could be argued that the early stages of his managerial career with Rangers were characterised by pragmatism. Perhaps a trait picked up from Rafa Benitez. He had taken over a side which had lost 4-0 and 5-0 to Celtic in the space of two weeks in April of that year. They had finished the season with an entertaining but somewhat ridiculous 5-5 draw with Hibernian at Easter Road.

Rangers have only lost by two clear goals three times under Gerrard, including at the hands of Bayer Leverkusen in the Europa League.