Is it ‘Steven Gerrard’s Rangers’, or is it ‘Giovanni van Bronckhorst’s Rangers’?
Well, being honest, it is a little bit of Everyone’s Rangers.
Form Mark Warburton (yep, some of his tactics can still be seen in the way Tavernier plays), all the way to Giovanni, with more than just a wee bit of honest criticism from Rangers fans thrown in.
In fact, those who have played for Rangers over the last four years have been trained by some of the best midfielders, tacticians, and strikers in the world, and by a group of managers who have given them all the freedom to go out and play how they want.
Just look at the quality that has come through the doors; Jermain Defoe, Roy Makaay, Gerrard, even the experience of Aaron Ramsey. They have all passed down their knowledge to our players, and they have mixed all this knowledge with hard work, and the freedom to let our defenders score more goals than the strikers.
However, if you listen to English talking heads it seems Rangers are now only in the finals because of all the hard work done by Gerrard and no-one else….well, they need their heads examined.
Being honest, it was a truly herculean task by these players to get all the way through to the last 16 last year, and the year before, but being equally honest, Gerrard (for all he managed to do) had taken Rangers as far as he could, and we all know it.
Gerrard was not able to take this team to any final in Europe.
He had run out of ideas. So, he ran out the door.
Some of our readers will never agree with our criticism of Gerrard’s tactics which started over a year ago, but we at Ibrox Noise had finally reached the point we were 100% fed up with his poor tactical choices, which were just destroying our team’s chances of progressing any further than the last 16.
But we were never trying to get him to quit Rangers. We had seen what he could do, and only wanted him to get us to reach the next level, the level where we could compete with the very best.
Sadly, that was something he was incapable of doing.
Gerrard was perhaps the world’s best midfielder, but sometimes being the best does not mean being a good coach and knowing how to teach others.
That is not a criticism….
It’s just a fact. There are just some managers (who had to work hard to learn their trade), who know how to teach the game, and know how to get the best out of players. Giovanni is this type of manager.
And now we have the midfielders, defenders and the front line who all know how to work together in a simple/complex interplay that is absolutely destroying our opponents. The type of interplay we were screaming out for last year.
So, Steven Gerrard does deserve the credit for making Rangers a force again in Europe, but this week’s success was not Steven Gerrard’s.
Nope it was all down to Giovanni giving a very talented team the chance to show the world what they really could do, when our manager allowed our players to play as a single team, a team, even with no strikers.
Every single player worked their socks off last week, and in the match against Dundee United you could see that the confidence in this team has just exploded.
So, in just over one week we will get to play our first semi-final for the UEFA Super Cup, which will take place at the Olympic Stadium, in Helsinki, Finland. All we now have to do is ‘just’ defeat Frankfurt, and we will play either Liverpool or Real Madrid.
The UEFA Super Cup is scheduled to be played on the 10th of August, 2022.
The Journey continues (!)
Who ever thought that we would be in with a chance to play Liverpool in a major European Cup at the beginning of this season?
You have nailed it IN Derek , Warburton did influence in a big way which is still visible , he also made a few mistakes though. Gerrard was probably one of the greatest midfielders however there are loads of examples of great players not being able to coach a hen out of a box ! Gerrard took Rangers back to the top both as league winners and World/Europe reputation again when we needed it . He had as I mentioned earlier had pinnacled Yes we had no money but his and Beales coaching had become slightly biased and predictable . GVB and his top coaches Maakay ,Voss have in a very short and successful time made us more compact and disciplined obviously in Europe. We play like a top Euro Team . All this with no money , no strikers and against Europe’s elite . Gerrard and Beale couldn’t have done that at all.
Can’t disagree with any of that, Gerrard was no tactician, I got so so tired of watching us unable to break down opposition that parked the bus then had to suffer listening to his post match interviews where he used his same buzz words over and over, proud, passion, belief, too much respect blah blah. I do hold my hands up that I was unsure about the appointment of Gio, partly my own ignorance as I hadn’t followed his career or payed any attention to where he’d been, but what he has done is truly remarkable. He’s reignited the passion, not just on the field but off it, Celtic fans know who the best team in Scotland is, so do the other teams, we had a stutter a few times and that cost us, but look at the game yesterday, I don’t want to sound arrogant and dismiss lesser teams but it was an absolute stroll, we’ve got into our stride and it’s just unfortunate we’re at the tail end of the season because I truly believe the machine that our mechanic (manager) has created, could run for months untouched by anyone. 9 sleeps until our team become immortals. WATP.
Best midfielder in the world,, yet never won a league title in all his years playing
You going to argue Ryan Giggs wasn’t one of the greatest ever because he never played for Wales at a major championships?
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