Some days ago we proposed a slight ‘conspiracy’ tale, a theory that Steven Gerrard ‘deliberately’ set out an absurd, ill-fitting formation against Celtic to minimise Rangers’ chances of winning, while maximising his chances of securing Ryan Kent.
The reaction to this idea was mixed, but we were surprised at how few people poo-poohed the notion and agreed that something was definitely up with the system Gerrard put out.
However, one of the most popular ideas in response suggested a different approach:
That Steven Gerrard deliberately put out a team with no wingers to showcase how insufficient he considered the ones he had at his disposal.
Now, this is a curious theory – Gerrard sanctioned the signings of Jordan Jones and Sheyi Ojo, two players whose displays have by no means disgraced themselves even if they’ve had varying levels of success.
Indeed, we at Ibrox Noise rather like Jones in particular, and it is thanks to he that Rangers secured their place in the Europa League group stage. But it’s become evident Gerrard isn’t his biggest admirer, and we’re not sure exactly how loved-up he is on Ojo either.
Meanwhile the other options are Jamie Murphy, Brandon Barker and Eros Grezda. It’s hardly rich pickings.
Enter Ryan Kent – did Stevie specifically elect to start with no wingers and put midfielder Joe Aribo wildly out of position on the left in order to emphasise his critical need for a player of Kent’s quality?
Indeed, win lose or draw with the team he selected Gerrard may well have been making his biggest request yet for Kent’s services, such was the difference the former Liverpool man made in last season’s Old Firm clashes.
Of course, it could be a load of piffle – Gerrard’s inexplicable selection could just have been a brain burp, for reasons we may never know.
But maybe he was outright demonstrating he wasn’t happy with the wingers he had and wanted to show how badly he wanted Kent.
Of course, there is one slight weakness with this theory – surely the best demonstration of showing how poor your players are is to actually let them play and demonstrate it to the world?
The truth is we will probably never know unless he fesses up in the future.
And that would be an interesting quote to say the least.
I think you may well be spot on.m as it was totally weird to set up like that we have never done it before. Also if we had won. There is no way our board who are arrogant at times would have splashed the cash. So in doing What the gaffer did it was to slightly push the board in the right direction. Also if we never spent the 7 million on kent or anyone else for that matter would you really expect to challenge Celtic given we would have only spent 3.5 mil on Helander. 600k on Edmundson and 300k on Aribo the rest of the buys where freebies. So you cant really expect to win anything realistically with that amount spent. So all in it was disapointing to lose an old firm but we gained Kent. Id have taken that at this stage. If you are going to lose an old firm and we dont want to lose any then the first one of the season or the last one if leagues already won are the only ones u would want to lose. Its not the old firm games that will hamper us. Its the games against Aberdeen as they are like old firm games cos they are always up for it. Win them and we could well be on our way.
Hogwash.
How is it hogwash
It's ridiculous to suggest that we can't challenge because we have only spent £3.5m but now that we have forked out another £7m we suddenly can. Kent may be welcome addition but he alone will not make the difference.
Nothing better than a good conspiracy theory! Stevie chooses a team that will show how badly we need Kent. So the logical conclusion is that he obviously must also have told the players what he was doing, because almost all of them helped him by playing well below their normal standard, just to emphasise how desperately the team needed Ryan Kent.
Not surprisingly, Jordan Jones was well pissed off that Gerrard was so desperate to bring in Kent, so he showed his irritation with "that tackle" on the Celtic player.
It all sounds perfectly feasible…
Are you serious IN? Have you not followed Gerrards career. The guy as a born winner and the thought him tactically losing is absurd.
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