Rangers need to do a Liverpool, says Gary McAllister

Expectations are same and it’s time to end drought

Gary McAllister with Rangers manager and his old Liverpool team-mate Steven Gerrard, left. Picture: Gary Hutchison/SNS

Gary McAllister had particular reason to pay attention to the Liverpool celebrations eight days ago after the Anfield side clinched their first English title in thirty years.

As with Ibrox manager Steven Gerrard, McAllister is a much-loved former midfielder at the club. The Scot held the Uefa Cup, League Cup and FA Cup aloft during a magnificent Indian summer on Merseyside. But he always knew the league remained the most cherished prize. The same currently applies at Rangers.

While the wait for a league title has not yet been as long as at Anfield, the desire to break Celtic’s dominance is as fierce. If they fail to wrest the crown from their Parkhead rivals in this coming season it will be ten years since their last league title.

Celtic have of course been successful in each of these seasons which means a record-breaking ten in a row is in sight.

Should Rangers manage to disrupt that sequence, those lockdown-breaking, firework-lit scenes in Liverpool, outside Anfield and elsewhere, will be made to seem tame.

McAllister hopes the Ibrox players can draw inspiration from Liverpool. Jurgen Klopp’s side have coped with similar pressure from their fans and have made it over the line with several games to spare and amid trying circumstances off the field.

“We are trying to instil that self-belief into the players,” said the Rangers assistant manager. “You look at some of our performances last season, especially in Europe when you’re up against high level opposition.

“The players were able to produce. We are emphasising that’s where we need to be going into every game. Rangers are very similar to what I experienced at Liverpool and Leeds United – you can’t switch off.

“It’s about keeping the levels high all the time,” he added. “That’s the demands of being at a club like Rangers, you basically need to win 
every game.”

Despite operating at very different levels, this is where the Liverpool comparison stands true.

“Obviously Liverpool are world champions, European champions, English champions,” said McAllister. “When I look in at Liverpool, it doesn’t matter what type of game it is. If it’s a tactical game, they are tactically very aware. If the game is a physical game, they can deal with that. If it’s an open game and you want to take them on at a game of football, they will probably win.

‘They are sort of masters at everything,” he added. “They are not one-dimensional. If within a game it becomes physical for a bit, they have players who can cope with that. And that is the demand here. It’s the exact same. The expectation levels are the exact same.”

Rangers came up short last season. They showed they are unable to deal with all sorts of challenges. A visit to St Johnstone presented problems, for example, as did one to Kilmarnock, where they lost further ground on Celtic.

McAllister believes the long break from football has helped shake last season’s poor domestic form from the system. While it was obvious Rangers lacked a cutting edge in several post-winter break games, he cautions against re-writing history. There was much that was positive as well.

“As much as the lockdown has been difficult – and it’s been difficult for everybody, it’s not just the football world that’s found it hard, every walk of life has – it has given us an opportunity to reflect and look at where did we go wrong,” he said.

“Where were the little points where we can do better? Over the piece there was a lot of good. We can’t drive ourselves into the doldrums here. But we all know what the games were. We’ve got to be more clinical.

“The games that we lost and the games that gave Celtic the lead were due to the fact we were not as clinical as we should have been. In other aspects we have looked inside those games and we can improve. If we can nullify that, it’s going to be competitive.”

Rangers, as with every other top-flight team, will have to cope initially with there being no fans in the ground when the season begins next month.

McAllister knows what the sound of a silent stadium is like. After all, he was playing for Leeds United in their memorable Champions League second round clash against Rangers in 1992.

Goals from Mark Hateley and Ally McCoist gave the Scottish side a famous victory at Elland Road. Both strikes were met by eerie silence due to the ban on away fans. Indeed, his own fine goal in the first leg at Ibrox got the same treatment.

But McAllister has never played a competitive game in front of a completely empty stadium before. He has been watching games in England with interest since the Premier League resumed, observing how Man City and former club Liverpool have seemed to handle the surreal atmosphere with greatest success by moving the ball across the grass quickly. They have been able to generate their own intensity.

“Football needs fans, I think we’d all agree on that,” said McAllister. “But we do need to be aware that there is not that 12th man. There is not that section of fans pushing you forward, driving your forward to make chances. That has to come from within.”

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