‘Horrible team to play against’ – Gerrard makes Rangers claim after 8-0 win
Steven Gerrard wants to make his Rangers side a “horrible team to play against”, as they maintained their nine-point lead at the top of the Scottish Premiership.
The Gers thrashed Hamilton Academical 8-0 at Ibrox on Sunday, with Kemar Roofe, James Tavernier and Joe Aribo all scoring braces.
However, Rangers threw away a 3-1 lead on Thursday against Benfica in the Europa League and Gerrard urged his side to be more difficult to play against.
“We want to be a tough team to play against,” said the Rangers boss (via BT Sport).
“I think some opposition teams and individuals have had it too easy. They’ve come here and enjoyed themselves too much in the past. That can’t happen.
“This needs to be a fortress and we need to keep working towards that. We want to be a horrible team to play against out of possession, we want to be well organised. We want to protect our goal and our penalty box for our lives and that’s what we’ve been doing.”
Continuous improvement
Rangers have been excellent defensively so far this season, conceding just three goals in the league so far. However, it is clear that Thursday night has alerted Gerrard to some of the underlying issues within his squad and their mentality.
On Thursday against Benfica Rangers gave away three sloppy goals and the manager wants to increase their off the ball intensity as a result.
Games against teams like Hamilton are difficult to implement this style of play though, with the away side having just 23.4% possession and Rangers racking up 24 shots and Hamilton managing none (via WhoScored).
Gerrard recognises though that while his team will need to win these sorts of games going forward, it is earning wins against Benfica in the return fixture that holds the key to their development and that is why he is still talking about defensive improvement in the media.
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