Assessment; does Steven Gerrard remain Rangers manager?

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Assessment; does Steven Gerrard remain Rangers manager?


So it’s the morning after the latest atrocity at Ibrox, and the rollercoaster that is Rangers these days continues to taunt us repeatedly.

Much soul-searching has taken place and our stance on Steven Gerrard has wavered a few times.

The truth? We just don’t know. Sometimes things go quite well, and we have it pegged as going in the right direction, but then it dramatically undoes itself like it did last night and makes us question our faith in him.

We’re not true believers on the site and never claimed to be – we are instead agnostic towards Gerrard, chance givers, and while he has taken some of those and made us feel reassured, at the same time he’s blown a lot too and put it all back to square one.

Last night has been coming – Rangers’ recent form has been rattling goals in against a dodgy 10-man Killie and two bottom feeders in Hamilton and Dundee.

Prior to that we lost to an 11-man Killie and St Johnstone held us.

Something had to give and last night’s collapse was the culmination of our recent symptoms.

Whose fault? No argument the players take a lot of it. Glen Kamara’s atrocious pass which gifted the opener set the tone for a truly appalling night, and Alfredo Morelos may or may not have dived but certainly didn’t shine otherwise.

And there are two schools of thought on how much Gerrard takes the blame – look at the difference in Man Utd since Solskjaer took over – one manager has made all the difference it seems. But the other school of thought is that the players are the endgame – that whatever the manager says and does and how he sets them up, the players have to deliver on the pitch, and Rangers’ aren’t.

Personally we just don’t know – we’ve been through all this multiple times the past seven years – bigging up mediocrity and claiming it’s ‘clearly better and there’s clearly progress’. We did it with Murty, Warburton and even, for a time, with Pedro.

Doing it with Gerrard is nothing new. We do it with all our managers and with all our players. Until we’re actually winning the title, or winning cups, we’ll keep doing it and making excuses about refs and possession and shots until we no longer need to.

The way forward is completely unclear to us – Gerrard, so far, is not a Souness. There is nothing remotely similar in their management style – just like back then, Gerrard has taken a weak Rangers, but unlike back then, Gerrard won’t win a thing on his debut season. And bear in mind the Souness revolution hadn’t truly kicked in in terms of signing a glut of amazing players – only Chris Woods and Terrry Butcher were in by that point yet Souness still dragged his men to the League and Cup double.

Gerrard is a mile away from this. True, it’s a different world, but if you’re going to make the comparisons beforehand, you have to expect that kind of judgement afterwards.

Where we go now is unclear. Once again a risky management appointment is causing supporter division – causing some to ditch the manager, and others to want to keep faith.

And we’re honestly at a loss as to how that can be reconciled any time soon.

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25 COMMENTS

  1. “Dead man walking” – shown time after time can’t cope with pressure in Scotland, with Rangers. Opponents “dictate” the game to Rangers he only tries to react ….

    Shown he clearly is “no winner”. Indeed our own youth coach was better – send SG back to Liverpool.

    Bring in John Brown to steady our ship and “leaders” on the park ….

  2. PS – Well done King!

    Another “fine mess” at the “business end of the season. Anyone might think you are a Celtic supporter.

    Time for you & your Board to step aside after your continued failure.

  3. I questioned his ability a few weeks back and was laughed at and accused of being a bheast from the east all because I asked for his head then. Now a few weeks later you have put it out there yourself but no need to apolgise mate he is a duff under18s coach at best and the quicker we realise that the better only my opinion.

  4. Once again, I have to ask. Was Gary McAllistair sleeping, or what? We know, Gerrard lacks experience and jumped in, at the deep end. But surely, that is what GM is for. To help out, assist in making decisions. As far as the players go, many are simply not good enough. So we must have a clear-out. We knew we would not top Celtic, this season. BUT, if the board think we are tolerating this kind of mediocrity, NEXT season, they're very much mistaken.

  5. I would give Gerrard another season, my pet hate, he keeps slagging the team in public, its a sure way to lose the dressing room, Also I think it was a big mistake to bring Davis and Defoe in , both past their sell by date. They should go at end of season, and use the money for some young talent.

  6. Worse record than Caixinha.

    Played 29 won 17 Caixinha and Murty had won 18.

    They got to semi-final of Scottish cup.

    Stevie G the messiah out in the quarters.

    Figures speak for themselves.

    Like the financial situation at ibrokes Mr Gerrard's figures don't look great.

    Kilmarnock turn ye over on Saturday I'm quite sure Stevie G will be a fenian bastard and you will want a new manager.

    Whollhave no money to spend

  7. You've got to give him another season changing manager and players every year is why we are not making major progress

  8. I say we see how we end the season before making any rash decisions. Yes, as many will say our season is effectively over, and there's been some very disappointing results, not least of all last night. Stevie's inexperience as a manager has cost us at times, but equally the players haven't always delivered the level of performance we know they're capable of. Watch that Old Firm victory back and, as bad as Celtic were, you'll see a team with real desire and hunger – something we seem to struggle to replicate.
    Earlier in the season I'd have said the constant tinkering with the team didn't help us at all, but for the past half a dozen or so matches there's been few unforced changes made and they seemed to be gelling. Perhaps a sign that Gerrard does learn from his mistakes, eventually?

    Bringing on Defoe and Lafferty last night at 2-0 seemed like a last throw of the dice from a manager who was in disbelief at his teams performance – nothing went to plan and it was really out of desperation and nothing else I believe.

    Anyway, back to the original question – if we were to put in good performances the rest of the season, finishing no worse than a comfortable second, overall I'd probably be just about satisfied. I understand that we should have much higher aspirations but given our managers rookie status I'd be just about happy to give him another crack at it next season. If, however, we have the same worries a month or two into next season I'd say he's got to go. If we finish poorly and barely scrape second place, or worse, then again I'd say he's had his chance and we need to look elsewhere, ideally a more experienced British manager.

    The merry-go-round of managers and players isn't sustainable, and we really can't afford to keep making errors in judgement, so I really hope that Gerrard comes good!

  9. Anyone voted no remeber that few we have had her head and shoulders above them good run in Europe i think 2nd at least in league and we beat the manly mob not a bad season think everyone would have took that at start off season getting typical with these sites and alot who read them one bad result and the manger should be sacked the players aren't trying think off what he has done so far in 1 season give him a chance

  10. Let’s get real here, with another new manager and a new set of players we realistically where looking to improve the gap at the top, this season, which right now for the first time in a long time we have. We also had a great unexpected run in Europe. Instant success was never going to happen so for goodness sake let’s get behind our manager and stop all this get him out nonsense. Gerrard is a winner through and through and given time and some proper money he will make this team one too

  11. I'm really dissapointed at some of the Scum trolls who infiltrated IN . Let's strip this back please . The club on and off the field is moving in the right direction . The numbers for the last quarter look much better. The team continues to move forward. To assume we would win everything was folly. There have been some very poor performances I agree but no one can say the complete domination and beating of the Rotten Mob was not progress. Last night we didn't compete with hammer throwers it's been our downfall against these teams who only want to kick and foul all season only against us though !!!! we had to play wind rain and 12 men Clancy was a disgrace it was a penalty McKenna should have been off 8 bookings for the SS FFS!!!! Our bookings for dissent so called diving and one soft foul . So let's please look at this sensibly it hurts like hell but it's going in the right direction . Anyone who doesn't think so had false hope Im sorry WATP Keep going Steven Gerrard

  12. Sorry it is not “one” bad result – this is the last straw of a string of bad results. It’s a regular feature in his record.

    Starting with the early draws in the league 1 win in 5 games against Aberdeen, unable to beat Hibs, the defeat against Kilmarnock in New Year after beating Celtic, the draws against Dundee & St Johnstone the defeat against Livingston ?

  13. I’m happy to give him another season, he needs to find his feet as a manager since he hasn’t even been one for 12 months yet. I’d like to think he will have a plan in place for the summer based on who and what has and hasn’t worked this season. Hopefully he will have backing again and if Morelos and Tav leave I hope he is given a good portion of that to reinvest. Then if we are still not seeing consistency and a major improvement then we will know if he isn’t a good fit. I hate chopping and changing managers and I just think Stevie might just get this right in the long run! Obviously I could be wrong but I’d hate for him to leave now and we would no doubt get crucified in the media for expecting too much too soon and then players and prospective managers may get turned away.

  14. At time of writing Gerard has 72% backing which I'm glad to see as it goes against the gist of the comments posted. Clearly most know it doesn't pay to constantly change managers and believe we are going in the right direction. Many of our performances have been very disappointing this season but we recognise we have a better quality of player than last season. And we will be better again next season. What I think is happening now is that some players are getting found out mentally as we hit the business end of the season. When you sign so many players that will always happen and some will work while others won't. The shirt just gets too heavy. Then there are the players who were already here like Tavernier and Candeias who Gerrard is seeing for the "first" time at said business end. He will already be identifying who he wants to stay for next season and a shadow will have been cast over a few after very recent results. He will also be identifying other players who he thinks can come in and do a job.
    We came from so far back this season that winning the title was never realistic but we "hoped" we might grab a cup. Unfortunately, however painful, it's not to be. The answer is not to throw everything away and start again. It's to move on and fix as we go. Identify those that are good enough and more importantly those that are strong enough.
    Let's start by getting what we can for Morelos and Tavernier and bring in more reliable replacements. Jones, Hastie and Shinnie may help boost options but we really need 2 or 3 of much better quality.

  15. Lets give him one more season ffs hes just in the door,i feel he can turn it around given a chance

    Lets go WATP 🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧

  16. Come on man. This isn't supporting Rangers it's a sign of weakness wanting to sack a manager at every chance we get! 2 Summer windows was what we all signed up for give the man a chance! Underachieved massively in the cups but overachieved in Europe and if you asked me what one I would have took it would have been the one that paid 14 million pounds in revenue. Leagues still not over. Get behind Gerrard and the team for these last 9 games.

  17. We had to play in the wind and rain? Were Aberdeen wearing raincoats or something? Also nobody assumed we'd win everything, most would be happy with a cup, even into a cup final or not to finish double figures behind Celtic!. But alas we got knocked out of both cups at home by Aberdeen, we're almost double figures behind, the team needs leaders,has no bottle and we're still dropping points to dross teams and that's AFTER spending more money than the whole league put together outwith Celtic and having the best coaching facilities in the country…

  18. All knee jerk, he inherited what was one the worst Rangers teamsin history. Fact. He did okay. Ended our inability to beat Celtic. That's progress. They are a better side but I don't think Wenger or even Walter could of done a Souness with the dross he inherited. Injuries and big signings failed. Grezda looks a player out most of the season, Murphy out, Barasic is obviously struggling to settle. Worral was a mistake. But all in he restored progression and for me a job well done. Enjoyed watching them at times over the season. Could not say that for the 4 years before. So give Stevie Ger time.

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