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Glasgow Live
Glasgow Live
Sport
Mark McDougall

Steven Gerrard makes Rangers title talk admission as he hints at Cedric Itten opportunity

Rangers boss Steven Gerrard admits it's difficult to keep title talk to a minimum as his side head into the business end of the campaign.

Rangers dropped points at Fir Park but their lead over Celtic at the Premiership's summit remains at 21 points - although the Parkhead side still have three games in hand.

Connor Goldson and Cedric Itten have both spoken about keeping title talk away from the dressing room in recent weeks but Gerrard admits it's natural as the weeks go on.

The Ibrox gaffer and his players know how big winning 55 would be for Rangers but he insists they have to stay focused moving forward.

And while they drew against Motherwell, he insists there's no worries moving forward.

He said: "It's going to be a challenge because the reality is there are big prizes to play for.

"It's impossible not to realise where we are as a group and what's at stake. But it's important that we stay focused and don't get ahead of ourselves and stay focused on each challenge.

"That's where we are trying to keep the boys in terms of their thinking and the preparation.

"After a fantastic win no-one's getting too high and if we have a bump or don't get the result we want it's important to stay calm.

"We haven't managed to stretch our lead today but at the same time we haven't lost anything either. You've seen two sides of us today, a first half showing that wasn't us and wasn't good enough but the second half was an awful lot better."

Itten climbed off the bench to head in an equaliser after a disappointing first half for Rangers and Gerrard admits he's pushing for a starting spot.

He added: "If you look at possession, chances created and our second-half performance, we maybe should have shaded it.

"But we have ourselves to blame for the outcome because we never came to this game until half-time.

"Our normally reliable players, the front three and coming in from the sides, the quality wasn't good enough.

"I had to get into the players at half-time. I was going to make a change at half-time but I thought I'd give people a little bit more time.

"But then things weren't changing as quickly as I would have liked, so the game was crying out for a Cedric-type player. He came on and did really well.

"If he keeps providing like that I can't ignore him for too long. I'm really pleased with his cameo today. He looked strong, lively and was a threat.

"He's really honest and he's never passive. In the first half too many of our players were passive so that's what I was disappointed about."

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