‘The best’ – Steven Gerrard hails ‘Outrageous’ Rangers mainstay v Galatasaray
Rangers boss Steven Gerrard has labelled the consistency of Bears defender James Tavernier as “outrageous.”
The Gers reached the Europa League group stage for the third successive season on Thursday night, beating Galatasaray 2-1 at Ibrox.
Tavernier scored once again in the victory, and Gerrard claimed his stats for a defender are sensational, no matter what division you look at.
Gerrard labelled his captain as the best right-back in Scotland and showered him in praise after another brilliant performance.
“When we turned up, we knew that we had probably the best right-back in the league,” he told Rangers TV.
“That’s stayed the same. His consistency has been outrageous really, he’s got stronger and stronger as the games gone on and he’s led his team to three European runs in succession so he deserves a lot of credit.
“I know on the outside, people make noise about James, but the important thing is he’s loved on the inside and we appreciate what he does.”
Tavernier has had little competition over the years, but Nathan Patterson has arrived on the scene from the academy recently with big plaudits behind him.
Patterson himself has admitted that he looks up to his captain, and is looking to learn from him every day in training – something that highlights his influence on the squad, not just Gerrard.
The Gers skipper is clearly still the best in Scotland, and it was no surprise to see West Ham in the Premier League interested in a move.
It was even less of a surprise to see Rangers immediately shut down any interest in their captain, who will easily go down in history at Ibrox.
In other Rangers news, Ally McCoist blown away by this ‘top-class’ moment in 2-1 win v Galatasaray