STEVEN GERRARD HAS told his Rangers players to forget about their title aspirations after dropping points in a 0-0 draw against St Johnstone on Saturday.
The Gers moved to within five points of Celtic at the top of the Scottish Premiership table, but with their Glasgow rivals in action on Sunday against Motherwell, that tally could be stretched to eight by the end of the weekend.
A win against Tommy Wright’s men would have seen Rangers put pressure on Celtic, but Gerrard believes the goalless draw ends their feint hopes of winning the title.
“Respect to St Johnstone and Tommy [Wright], they worked their game plan very well,” Gerrard said after the game.
“They could have went away with more, Wes [Foderingham] has helped us get a point really. Across the board today, nowhere near good enough. I think I’ve been seduced in this week because the players have looked like they were looking forward to playing in front of Ibrox.
“We knew Tommy and how he was going to set up. That didn’t disappoint us. They were organised, mid to low block and they offer you a challenge of: ‘Come on then what you got? Come and beat us’ and we didn’t have enough today all over the pitch to find the answers to the challenge and that’s very concerning for me.
“We lacked leadership, I’m struggling to find any positives from it really. That’s where we are.
“I think right now, forget titles, forget closing gaps. The reality is if you perform like that across the board in front of 50k people, there’s your evidence. You don’t need me to say this that and the other.
“If you’ve got a group of lads out there and they give you that when they’ve got a chance to close to three points and you’ve got Aberdeen, Kilmarnock and the rest breathing down your neck, that is not what is required at Rangers when you’ve got the chance to close the gap. It’s miles away from it,” he added.
Next up for Rangers is a Scottish Cup fifth-round replay against Kilmarnock on Wednesday before they travel to Hamilton in the league next weekend.
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Leinster seem to have improved on last season but I feel if Saracens go for it, they are the team to beat still. A lot to be learned this weekend
@Peter Brophy:
Leinster are such an impressive organisation at the moment. Serious conveyor belt of talent certainly helps but from the top down they are so well run.
Not long till we have to split them in 2
@Cortiss: so you’d like to pretend that they as a province and home to the majority of Ireland’s private schools not at an advantage over club sides in England? I’m not trying to pick an argument but let’s recognise the reality for what it is.
@Cortiss: I said that for a laugh the other day and the muppets went into attack mode and Alan Quinlan said it on OTB yesterday and made them crawl into the it little boxes.
@David: although it is still a daft idea, even if Quinners suggested it. In the same way you could never split the Dubs. Would you just tell the supporters that they have to follow a different team in a different stadium?
I prefer Ger Gilroys idea for the IRFU to buy London Irish with the CVC money!
@David: As a Leinster supporter I would support this idea of splitting Leinster in 2. Both new Leinster teams could share the RDS and Donnybrook on rotation. I think you would have to limit the two new teams to 1 Champions Cup place though or it might not be fair.
It would be great to see Leinster get a game from someone and it is becoming increasingly apparent that it will only happen if they can somehow play themselves.
@Rory Craig: revive the old province of Meath, …
Put a few IRFU bob into and already well developed club, Navan to bring it up to spec…..better than buying in London…..an hour from Dublin and not much more than 2 to Belfast , Galway and Limerick.
@Rory Craig: Why not just give them the Pro 14 and Champions cup trophies now. No point going through the games. Waste of time and money for the fans. Why not split Leinster into 4 different teams. Then ye can just start the competitions at the semi final stages. I’m thinking Dublin 4 will win it every year
@Paul Ennis: ah I know but I only said it after the great performance in Edinburgh and I’m sure Quinny was messing aswell. A certain group that patrol this site waiting to pounce on anything Leinster and argue about anything freaked out and it makes me laugh. They can’t stick to the items related to them and troll everything.
Sounds like Leinster training is more compeditive than the Pro14 to me.
Northampton played very well at the weekend, though Leicester were pretty crap, so it’ll be a tough game come the weekend.