STEVEN Gerrard was critical of how his Rangers team performed in their 4-0 victory over Dundee yesterday but still believes they can give a decent account of themselves against Villarreal in their opening Europa League group game in Spain on Thursday.
“That’s what we’ll be trying to do, for sure,” he said. “I’m quietly confident we can go there and get a result. We’re playing against a good team with very technically gifted players.
“But we’re the underdogs. I’ll try to pick a team that’s organised and difficult to beat, but carries a threat going the other way as well.
“I’m not sure we got a [performance] against Dundee to be honest. We got a win, an important win, we got four goals and a clean sheet. But it wasn’t a great performance. It was OK, it was good enough, but we will play better than that.
“But if you take into consideration the international break, people coming back late and only really getting the full squad together yesterday, then we would have taken the result, of course we would.
“But we will have to play better. We have to play with more control. I want as many goals as we can get. I want to create a team that is ruthless and relentless and we weren’t today.”
Gerrard is hoping he will have both Lassana Coulibaly and Ovie Ejaria available for Thursday’s game, but Ryan Jack looks set to miss it due to a calf injury. Coulibaly, who had been sidelined with a thigh injury, made his first appearance in over a month yesterday and scored, but was replaced after 56 minutes and will be assessed by Rangers medical staff.
Gerrard. “I was thinking about taking him off at half time, but I just wanted to give him another 10, then get him off and save his legs. Hopefully we can use him again on Thursday if the fitness coach allows.”
Ejaria, the on-loan Liverpool player who has been a regular starter for Rangers in the 2018/19 campaign, missed the game yesterday after suffering a minor injury in training.
"It's a small niggle he got yesterday in training, he felt a bit of hip flexing,” said Gerrard. “It's days, he should be available for Thursday, worst case for the weekend.”
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