Steven Gerrard insists his Rangers revolution is a
survival of the fittest world where the weak are left behind.
The Light Blues boss believes his training demands, being able to live with the intensity levels and competition for places has finally filtered out the passengers within the Ibrox squad.
After two trophyless seasons since arriving from Liverpool’s coaching staff, the Englishman has guided his side to the Premiership summit and the last 32 of the Europa League with Thursday night’s fightback win over Standard Liege.
That result stretched an unbeaten run to 24 games ahead of a Sunday lunchtime clash with Ross County in the Highlands which could take them 14 points clear at the top before Celtic host St Johnstone hours later.
An inconsistency of performance and form collapse after last Christmas had the critics queueing up to take a dig at Gerrard but he’s adamant the culture this season ensures any player who doesn’t get with the programme, won’t make the cut.
He said: “There are players who have been on the full journey that are really comfortable with what’s expected of them.
“Some people haven’t been able to cope with that and we’ve had to move them in different directions. We’ve tried to recruit people, as best we can, that we know can cope and can deal with it.
“I think adding better players to it as we’ve gone along has certainly helped us get to where we are today.
“We’ve still got more to do to get to where we want to. We’ve tried to set that culture since day one. We haven’t changed it since we went along.
“We have set standards in terms of what we expect training to look like, in terms of the intensity.
“I think players react at different times to what you want.”
Gerrard opted to sidestep a fixture scheduling controversy which saw the SPFL sanction Celtic’s request to move a festive clash with Hibs and also refused to get into the TV scheduling issue which sees his side play at lunchtime on the back of their European exertions.
He said: “It’s none of my business, to be honest. We just have to deal with whatever fixtures and times come our way and get on with it. I don’t think you gain anything from it by having an opinion in this situation.
"You only create unnecessary headlines. I said my piece at the beginning of the new season in terms of what my feelings were. I don’t think I have to go down that road again.
"We’ve got 12pm kick-offs, we’ve had them before and dealt with them reasonably well and we’ll try to do the same with the upcoming fixtures.
“I think the most important thing, in terms of the schedule, is to get them recovered. Try and keep them healthy.
“There’s different challenges at the moment. As well as injuries and fatigue, you have the Covid situation, so there’s a lot of things you have to guard against. It’s very much a case of trying to keep the ball rolling. We’re in a good place, confidence is high.”
