Steven Gerrard: Rangers going top is not important - there is still lots to work on

Ibrox boss pleased with win but wants to see his team maintain standards
Rangers moved to the top of the Premiership.Rangers moved to the top of the Premiership.
Rangers moved to the top of the Premiership.

Steven Gerrard has dismissed the relevance of Rangers going top of the Premiership and insists they need to focus on eliminating the “sloppy” aspects of their play which irritated him at Ibrox on Wednesday night.

Rangers made it three wins and three clean sheets from their first three league games as goals from Borna Barisic, Ryan Kent and Joe Aribo earned a 3-0 victory over St Johnstone.

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It saw Gerrard’s side leapfrog Hibs at the top of the table on goal difference and leaves them five points ahead of Celtic who have had two matches postponed after Boli Bolingoli’s breach of Covid-19 guidelines.

But while the Rangers manager is encouraged by much of his team’s early season work, he sees plenty of room for improvement as they try to win the club’s first league title in 10 years.

“I don’t think it is important being top of the league right now,” said Gerrard. “What’s important is that we are winning football matches and keeping clean sheets. In the main, from the first day of pre-season, we are playing at a decent level.

“But I thought we got really sloppy at 3-0 tonight. We let the game die instead of maintaining our standards. Over the course of the 90 minutes, we turned the ball over too much. So there is still a lot to work on.

“You probably think I’m a moaner but even though we won the game comfortably 3-0, we can still learn a lot collectively and as individuals.

“I’m not complaining, I’m happy. But we can’t pick and choose when we want our standards to be good.”

The only other negative note for Gerrard was a calf injury suffered by defender Leon Balogun which makes him doubtful for Sunday’s match at Livingston.

Gerrard, meanwhile, confirmed that Rangers are in talks with Hibs and Hull City respectively for the permanent transfers of Ross McCrorie and Greg Docherty.

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“They won’t be going on loan,” said Gerrard. “Greg has permission to speak to Hull and we’ve had interest from Hibs in Ross. But the bids need to be big enough for the board to accept before I have a decision to make.”