HIS European opponents do their talking in the Press. Steven Gerrard knows Rangers will continue to do theirs on the park.
When headlines are written or bold exclamations made, Gerrard laps them up. Then he pins them up.
He knew Feyenoord fancied their chances of victory at Ibrox on Thursday night long before a ball was kicked and he found extra motivation and insight from the messages coming out of the Dutch camp. Those words only served to inspire Rangers as they were hammered into the Light Blues squad by a boss that searches for every advantage possible.
“When this group was named I think Feyenoord would have been happy getting Rangers,” Gerrard said as he reflected on the terrific 1-0 win over Jaap Stam’s side. “Porto will be, Young Boys will be. We have to use that to our advantage. It’s fine for us to be the underdogs.
“If possession is 50-50 then fine, if teams come on to us then fine. We just need to make sure we are set up and ready to exploit if teams get a little bit over confident against us.
“I like to really study the media for what the opposition players are saying and what kind of feeling I am getting from the opposition.
“And there were quite a few quotes where people thought they were going to come to Ibrox and really enjoy themselves at Ibrox on Thursday night.
“Which is fine. If teams want to have that confidence then it’s no problem. But we have to use all those small details and margins to our favour and that’s what we do.
“I think when teams came to Anfield, my responsibility was to protect my own home. They were coming to try and take points away from us and my job individually was to do everything I could for the team to make sure that didn’t happen. I used to like my manager giving me every tiny bit of help.
“It could be very small, a one per cent marginal gain. But the level of the game now, every little marginal gain you get you have to take it on and off the pitch. That is what you try and do as a manager.”
Having your players fired up is one thing, but Gerrard needed the twelfth man at Ibrox to be on his side as well.
It was an emotional evening as Rangers paid tribute to Fernando Ricksen and produced a performance and a result the former Ibrox captain would have been proud of.
Gerrard said: “There are probably half a dozen stadia around the world that can create that amount of nose and energy and passion. You can feel it, feel the hairs on the back of your neck standing up.
“I experienced it a lot as a player and to experience it as a coach is a special feeling when the crowd is bouncing and the team is playing well. As a result of the events of the 24 hours previously I always felt the crowd would come and get right behind the team from start to finish.
“There was a realisation we all wanted to come together and the fans were terrific. It’s very rare the staff come in after a warm up and say the crowd is bubbling and ready and that was certainly the feeling when I walked out.
“I thought the atmosphere was very fitting for Fernando and the performance played its part as well.
“We have to use it to our advantage while realising things like the officials on these occasions are different. While you want your players to be aggressive and on the front foot and let Feyenoord feel us you have to get that balance right because you don’t want to pick up yellow cards or allow that aggression to spill over.
“We have to use the advantage of a bouncing Ibrox to our favour and they certainly played their part in getting us that win.”
In 23 European outings under Gerrard, Rangers have lost just twice - away to Spartak Moscow and Rapid Vienna - over the last 18 months.
It is a remarkable record and Rangers are now off and running in their quest to progress from Group G.
Gerrard said: “The players deserve the credit. They are really showing a determination to do well in Europe.
“I think it actually suits us sometimes when the game is more evenly balanced or slightly in the opposition’s favour. We have got players we can set up in that situation and cause them problems. We’ve shown against top quality opposition that we can cope and compete..
“If you look at Midtjylland, Legia Warsaw, for sure a Europa League level team, Feyenoord won the league a couple of years ago. We’ve shown we can compete at this level. It will still be tough to get out of the group.
“All we’ve done is give ourselves a decent start. We need to build on that away at Young Boys. But we will have a plan and we will go over there and compete. We are going for points.”
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