HAVE a leaf through Steven Gerrard’s autobiography or nonchalantly scroll down a Google search on the internet and you will find plenty of evidence to suggest that the Liverpool great and his former Anfield manager, Rafa Benitez, had the kind of relationship that was so frosty they both took de-icer spray to the Melwood training ground.
While Gerard Houllier’s personal touch sat nicely with Gerrard, the more direct, matter-of-fact style adopted by Benitez took a bit of getting used to. The regular Spanish inquisition Gerrard was subjected to, though, continues to stand him in good stead as he forges his own managerial career in Glasgow. A week ago, after a limp 0-0 draw with St Johnstone, Gerrard gave a withering, yet calmly delivered assessment of his players to the assembled media. There were no excuses but numerous home truths.
Plenty of dressing rooms will still echo to the sound of tea cups being tossed in wild abandon and the kind of roaring profanities you would get during a military offensive. Gerrard, as he said during the week, is not that type of bawling, in your face manager but honesty remains his best policy. Benitez, too, was not one for sugar coating and could go though the finer points of Gerrard’s game like the technical tuitions you would get in a Haynes Manual. It took Gerrard a while to appreciate Benitez's ways but he knows how influential that input was.
“Rafa Benitez was like that [honest] with me on a daily basis,” reflected Gerrard. “I probably played the best football of my career under Rafa. I was always searching for that praise and that ‘well done’ from him all the time, and that brought the best out of me.
”He was the one who broke my game down in every little small detail and he’d tell me things daily. I'd be a bit confused at times, and thinking ‘I’m not sure that’s right’ but it drove me on to produce my best football.”
With a wry smile, Gerrard added: “I forgive him now we are mates again. I can see it from his side now. You think at the time when you hear things you don’t want to hear that he is picking on you. But he was only after the best Steven Gerrard he could get. That helped him and Liverpool be more successful. With maturity and experience you understand it better. I haven’t gone in [at Rangers] and destroyed anyone in a one v one or made them feel too bad.
“I run the risk with my fans and my bosses if I come out in the press and say the players were great against St Johnstone. I’m running a risk of the fans asking ‘what’s he talking about?’.
“The most important thing is that you get the reaction. I criticise them to try and help them and make us more consistent and try and avoid these setbacks we have had on too many occasions. I knew they would come but I didn’t expect this many. They have been quite damaging in one cup and in the league.”
Gerrard certainly got a reaction the other night as Rangers eased into the last eight of the William Hill Scottish Cup with a 5-0 win over Kilmarnock. It is back to the bread and butter of the league at Hamilton today and, having effectively written off his side’s title aspirations in the wake of that stodgy stalemate with St Johnstone, Gerrard is sticking by that particular view. Well, kind of.
“My opinion’s the same in terms of the league, but we need to keep going and see whether we get another opportunity to bite back,” said Gerrard, whose side lags eight points behind old foes Celtic. “That starts at Hamilton.”
The metaphorical towel has not been tossed in just yet and Steven Davis, the on-loan Northern Ireland midfielder, is not ready to settle for second best.
“For me, personally, I am certainly not forgetting about the title,” he said. “I came here to try to win trophies. Listen, it’s going to be a tough task in the position we are in and the points we are behind and the consistency Celtic are showing as well. But until it’s over we will keep believing that we can get ourselves back in there. Hopefully we can go and get the results together that gets us back into the race and come the end of the season as the pressure builds then you don’t know what can happen.”
Davis, in his second stint at Ibrox, endured a fairly grisly afternoon against St Johnstone a week ago and was hooked on the hour. Some scathing observers would have you believe he was so far off the pace, it took him 26 minutes to respond to the substitution board. Davis is hopeful there are better things to come.
“I knew it would take a period of time to get up to speed because I haven’t played a lot of football in the previous 12 months,” he said. “You think it yourself that you’d just hit the ground running and hope it’s going to be like the last time around. But you have to be honest with yourself in terms of where you are at. I’m sure it will come.”
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