Gary McAllister backs Jurgen Klopp’s endorsement of Steven Gerrard as next Liverpool manager

Rangers assistant manager Gary McAllister says Steven Gerrard’s lifelong affinity with Liverpool means it is a “natural progression” for the former England captain to be considered as a potential successor to 
Jurgen Klopp as manager of the Anfield club.

Rangers manager Steven Gerrard. Picture: Alan Harvey/SNS

Klopp has endorsed Gerrard
to take over from him. In an interview with FourFour
Two magazine, the German said: “If you ask who should follow me, I’d say Stevie. I help him whenever I can.”

However, McAllister insists Gerrard’s chief concern is winning a major trophy with the Ibrox club, with tonight’s League Cup quarter-final at Livingston key to that aim.

The Rangers No 2 described Klopp’s backing as a “massive compliment” and revealed that the Anfield boss has been a sounding board for Gerrard.

“I think everybody sees it is as a natural progression, purely because of his attachment to the club,” McAllister said. “He’s a proper iconic Liverpool player. So everybody just sees it as the natural progression. But Rangers were brave in appointing him. But as soon as this job became available, and Steven mentioned he’d be interested, he jumped all over it. Steven is really focused and concentrated on his job here at Rangers. He really appreciates the fact Rangers took a chance on him as a young manager with little experience. The talk today is all hypothetical – he’s got a job to do here and that’s all I can say about it. I know how focused he is to try and win something here.”

Klopp is aiding Gerrard in his bid to bring a major honour to Ibrox for the first time since 2011.

“I think there have been points throughout his time here when he’s known there’s somebody there like a comfort blanket,” McAllister said of Gerrard’s relationship with Klopp. “That’s somebody with greater experience and somebody who is an actual winner. You know, a lot of people say they’re winners but he actually one having won at the highest level in the biggest competitions. I would imagine the two of them get on well.

“Steven is experienced obviously as a player so he knows the big demands of the schedule. But he had never seen it from the other side. We’re now doing very little training and basically playing and recovering and then playing and recovering. So that’s where you probably need a wee bit of experience to help because it’s hard to know what sort of intensity you should be looking for.”