STEVEN GERRARD is determined to maintain Rangers’ momentum and the Ibrox feelgood factor after an encouraging start to the campaign.
The Gers remain unbeaten on Gerrard’s watch after overcoming Kilmarnock on Sunday to book their place in the Betfred Cup quarter-finals.
Attentions will now turn to the Europa League play-off round clash with Ufa this week as Gerrard’s side attempt to clinch a group stage spot this term.
And the Light Blues boss is pleased with the progress that has been made in a short space of time following his appointment in May.
Gerrard said: “Momentum is key and we want to keep building on that. The lads are really enjoying winning and getting good results at the minute.
“You get a lot of benefits from that: confidence, belief, togetherness – so the dressing room is in a good place, but there are many more challenges that we need to face.
“We need to keep building on it and keep growing together, but, so far, so good and we are really pleased with the boys at the minute. Every challenge that they have had to face, they have been committed and their application has been superb.”
Rangers will be without the services of Jamie Murphy against Ufa after he was stretchered off with a knee injury at Rugby Park.
Jordan Rossiter, Graham Dorrans and Lee Wallace also remain sidelined but Lassana Coulibaly is close to returning to the squad.
Striker Alfredo Morelos will lead the line against the Russians after he inspired Gerrard’s side to victory over Killie and hit the first hat-trick of his Gers career.
Gerrard told RangersTV: “On the first day, when the boys reported back for pre-season, you could see straight away the player has ability and he is a fantastic player.
“It was our job to push Alfredo and push all the players physically in terms of fitness as we knew that was going to be the base for the rest of the season.
“In a short space of time, they have put in a hell of a volume of work, and it was tough for them, not just physically but mentally too.
“But they all committed to it and they all bought into it. Everything we tried to bring in – diet, new food, new regime and higher standards – and Alfredo bought into it as well from day one, and I think he is reaping the benefits right now, and the goals are coming now because of all the hard work he has put in from day one.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here