STEVEN Gerrard has admitted Rangers’ disciplinary record must improve after his side failed to finish their second successive league game with eleven men.
Ross McCrorie was correctly shown a red card, according to the Rangers manager, late in the first-half of what was a simple 2-0 win over St Mirren at Ibrox.
Unlike last week when Alfredo Morelos was sent off at Aberdeen, the Liverpudlian had no complaints about any of the officials and indeed praised their handling of the game.
But he will remind his players of their responsibilities in terms of keeping out of trouble.
Gerrard said: “I’m very happy with the result and performance in the circumstances. Again, we’ve got down to 10 men. I thought that was the correct decision. The referee got that one right.
“The response from my team, every single one of them rolled their sleeves
up and did what they had to do
“I was pleased with the clean sheet in the circumstances. It’s a positive result for us. I would have liked to keep 11 on the pitch and maybe win the game more emphatically but at the end of the day it’s all about three points.
“It was completely different to last week when we felt hard done by, said our piece and got
justice in terms of the decision being overturned. I thought the officials were really, really good today. They got the decision spot on and we’ve got no complaints.
“I’ve spoken to the team and praised them for the result and clean sheet. But I’ve also spoken about discipline and composure out there. It’s difficult enough with 11 men. We are picking up too many red and yellow cards for my liking. But we’ll learn, grow and keep going.
“They had a chance when they cut in and hit the crossbar. That aside, we were quite comfortable. We did extremely well with 10 men because I didn’t see us under the cosh for any big periods.
“The good thing for me was realising that if we’re on the back of a European night when we’ve put a hell of a shift in, then I can make some changes subtly to the 11. I can trust the players who come in.
“If we carry on this run in Europe, I’m going to need that. I’ll need the whole 23 or 24 players to be ready if they are called upon.
Borna Barisic made his debut following his £1.5m move Osijke and showed in his hour-long run out that he can be a fine player for Rangers as an attacking left-back.
Gerrard said: “It was a positive debut from Borna. You can see his quality on the left hand side. The idea was to play him for the full game, I’m sure he would have grown and got even better and been very dangerous down the left side.
“But he picked up a yellow card so I had to think about the team. My idea was to give James Tavernier a full rest today but because of Barisic’s yellow card I had to flip Flanno over and bring Tav on. We couldn’t afford to go to nine men.”
Gerrard was also full of praise for Andy Halliday who did look to be on his way out of Rangers but came on as a substitute yesterday and has won
The Rangers manager said: “Andy has been superb since the first day I met him. When you come into a club, you hear different things about players and sometimes it’s not always positive.
“But I have to take people at face value. He’s been absolutely brilliant as a squad member from day one. He’s done every single training session, everything asked of him and more.
“He’s always ready for that chance and I can trust him now to go in. I’m really pleased with Andy and I think he has got a big part to play.
“Not only is he trusted on the pitch, he is a very important member in that dressing room. He’s a Rangers nut and really, really cares about this football club.
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