KILMARNOCK partied long and hard after beating Rangers on the final day of last season to seal a Europa League spot. But were it not for the ten points the Ibrox side squandered against the Ayrshire side last season Rugby Park that day would have been the site for a different sort of celebration altogether: a Rangers title party.
The memory of those two Ibrox draws and identical 2-1 defeats at Rugby Park could hardly be more pertinent as the Englishman embarks on his second domestic season down in Ayrshire on Sunday.
On the face of it, no-one should be gladder than Gerrard that Steve Clarke has accepted the national team job. While he has never encountered his successor Angelo Alessio, he watched his side play in pre-season and saw a team determined to employ an open, expansive style of play.
Whether that is the same Kilmarnock Rangers encounter tomorrow is a different matter entirely, however. There was a glint in the Englishman’s eye when he hinted the Italian may be forced to give in to ‘player power’ in the wake of the club’s European humbling to Connah’s Quay Nomads on the eve of this match - ditching his open, expansive principles for a conservative tactical blueprint which is far more in keeping with Clarke’s pragmatic world view.
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Clarke’s old assistant Alex Dyer is still represented in the backroom team after all.
“I think it is important to win,” said Gerrard. “If we can win WELL that will be a bonus but the priority is to win the game.
“Kilmarnock will be difficult opposition, they were for us last year - for different reasons,” he added. “It is certainly an opposition that we have to respect.
“It will be interesting to see what their game plan and approach is, whether they carry on trying to do what they did in pre-season, which was to play quite wide open, expansive football, building through the thirds. Or having had the setback which they had in Europe, I might predict that they go back to more of a Steve Clarke way of playing. Which is a lot of men behind the ball, organised, no space, try to slow the game down and hit us on the counter-attack.
“I think he [Alessio] is represented by the same agency as myself but I have never come across him,” said Gerrard. “I know his way of playing - an open brand of exciting football - so it will be interesting to see whether he sticks to his principles and his way or whether he lets player power dictate how they move forward.
“They still have the same players. It will depend on the new manager’s way of playing and philosophy, whether the new manager can implement that. One thing is for sure, they know they can carry out Steve Clarke’s plan and be successful.”
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Having had the misfortune to attempt to fill the shoes of legend, Alessio’s position is already a source of intrigue without a single match played. “He [Alessio] has been around the game a lot more than me in terms of coaching and management so I am sure he was aware of that before he took the job. It is intense up here, you suffer a setback and at times it is tough. You have to be thick skinned as a manager, take it on the chin and try to bounce back. I am sure he will be looking for a big reaction from his players and there is no better way for them to bounce back than taking points off the Old Firm.
“Steve always got every little ounce of everything that group of players had inside them. He pushed them to the maximum and to deliver Europe was a good way for Steve to leave on. A good coach, good manager who did an incredible job. So big shoes to fill for the new manager but I I wish him well - after tomorrow.”
Judging by Thursday night’s goalless draw in Luxembourg, which ground out an aggregate win against their old nemeses Progres Niederkorn, Gerrard plans on sticking largely with the same team and shape which served him well towards the end of last season. While the likes of Joe Aribo and Sheyi Ojo have added quality to the team and appear likely to start, he feels he has deepened the level of quality in his squad.
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With Filip Helander and Steven Davis almost, but not quite, ready to resume after injury, and Jermain Defoe a presumed starter ahead of Alfredo Morelos up front, his main question mark would be deciding whether Edmondson or Nikola Katic partners Connor Goldson at the back, and whether Borna Barisic or Andy Halliday get the nod at left back.
“From a personal point of view I’m more happy and I feel more prepared, I feel I know more what’s coming my way,” he said. “I feel the squad has progressed and we’ve improved it. I have got a really good idea of what the starting XI will be. I know we have a lot of games which are about to smack us in the face. But the less changes the better - I want to try to get some kind of rhythm and way of playing.”
Another thing which is the same, only different about Kilmarnock this season is the pitch - the old one having been ripped up and a new field turf surface re-laid there this summer. “It can’t be any worse, that’s what I’d say on that,” said Gerrard. “They’ve certainly got the advantage when it comes to the surface but it’s a game we have to go and try to win.”
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