OFF the park, the relationship between Steven Gerrard and his former Liverpool manager Rafa Benitez is like that of an estranged couple. On the park, it was a marriage made in heaven.

In the now Rangers manager’s autobiography, Gerrard details how he never felt close to Benitez, with the Spaniard always referring to him by his surname. Remarkably, despite the incredible success they shared on Merseyside, winning the European Cup together as coach and captain following the famous comeback against AC Milan in Istanbul in 2005, they were never on first-name terms.

But while there might not be too much love lost between the pair on a personal level, there is no doubting the respect for one another that each man had in a football sense, a respect that endures to this day.

In fact, the prodigious steps that Rangers have taken in European competition during the early days of Gerrard’s reign owe much to the blueprint Benitez set out to such success with Liverpool during his time there. It is all about harnessing the power of a formidable home stadium to blow visiting teams away, and being redoubtable on the road.

“You certainly try to dig into experiences as a player and coaches you worked under,” Gerrard said. “Rafa was the master of defending away in Europe and being hard to play against. Then, using the power of Anfield in the home leg.

“He helped me become a better player tactically. When Rafa got me, maybe I couldn’t be trusted fully positionally. I maybe had too much energy and would lose my slot at an important time. I had too much enthusiasm to go forward and get goals. It was maybe a bit of ego. But, individual performances don’t always get you the right result in Europe. It is about the team, the structure, the organisation.

“Rafa was a master at it and he improved that side of my game massively."

Perhaps no surprise then to see the improvement in certain players, most notably Ryan Jack, under Gerrard's watch.

The Rangers manager has set about improving his own side impressively since taking the wheel of what had been a severely listing, if not sinking, ship back at the start of the summer. And with just three goals conceded, it is clear that plugging leaks was his priority.

"It was certainly an area I knew when I came in that I had to address and strengthen, to try and build a strong spine through the team, and so far, defensively we've performed very well," he said. "It's the only way to progress, not just in Europe. Moving forward, if we have any ideas of being successful it's important that you defend your goal and we've got people now in the door who are capable of doing that.

“Hopefully, we can maybe add one more in that area as well because I do feel we are a little bit light, certainly at the heart of our back four.”

One thing that looks certain, is that Gerrard will not accept his team being a soft touch, no matter who they come up against.

“The important thing for me was that teams used to fancy playing against Rangers,” he said. “Teams would fancy themselves to create and score. For us, it was important to make teams fear us. When you came up against Rangers we were hard to beat and organised and had players who are prepared to put their body on the line. I think we have got that at the moment, but it is important we continue it.

“For me, the challenge was to connect everyone and create an environment that players enjoyed working in. Build on our fitness levels and try and raise the standard so we could face all the challenges that were going to come our way.

“But in terms of where we are so far I am absolutely delighted with the players and my staff. Everything is going in the right direction and I still think there's more to come.”

With the wind blowing strongly at their backs, the last thing Gerrard wants is to be blown off course at Rugby Park this afternoon as they face Steve Clarke’s Kilmarnock side in the Betfred Cup.

It will be one of the first real tests of the depth of Gerrard’s squad at present, the Ibrox boss admitting that he will be switching things around with one eye on the first leg of their Europa League play-off round against FC Ufa at Ibrox on Thursday.

“I will have to make a couple of alterations in the team to try and keep some energy and some freshness in the team, because the schedule is tough at the moment,” he said. “We won’t use it as an excuse but the reality is that, as any manager, any player will tell you, if you are playing Thursday/Sunday on the back of away games it’s a big ask.

“But what my players have done is every challenge they have been presented with, they’ve done themselves proud. Especially on the back of European games, going away to Aberdeen with 10 men, going and playing St Mirren with 10 men. We’ve answered all the questions so far.

“Now look, we will have a setback, we will have a turbulent spell, but the important thing is that we come through together with the lows as well as the highs. I just hope it’s not Sunday.”