Steven Gerrard has opened up on the moment he felt most nervous as Rangers boss - giving his very first talk in front of his new squad.
The Gers manager has been in the door at Ibrox for two years now but still remembers the sweaty palm moment he was talking to his new players for the first time as their leader. The former Liverpool midfielder had a trophy-laden career as a player but wanted to make it unequivocally clear that he was speaking as their manager.
That's why he was nervous. The idea of being the go-to man for any issues or advice from a group of pros for the first time. Not that it fazed him, but he believes it may have been 'intimidating' to some of the Rangers players who took a bit of time to get comfortable working under one of the best midfielders in the world.
"I remember addressing the squad for the first time," Gerrard told The High Performance Podcast. "I had a few days and weeks to prepare what I was going to say but for me the key thing was to let them know that I'm not standing here addressing you as Steven Gerrard the player. I'm not going to think I'm this person because I've had a decent football career.
"This is me here to try and help and support you, to try and improve you as a group, to try and use my experiences and knowledge, my team of people who I've worked ever so hard to get around me, and we as a group are going to try and help you, we're there for you. And we'll do and sacrifice everything we can to get you in a better place, because at the time Rangers were struggling."
He added: "Different players probably handled it initially differently. Some people were in a shell, maybe a little intimidated in the early days, early weeks. I think they were hanging on to every word and really open to seeing what I was going to be like. They were fascinated with what I was going to be like, ‘He’s new, he’s not been anywhere before’.
"I think the first two or three weeks of me going into Rangers were probably the most important two or three weeks."
"Addressing the Rangers squad for the first time is one of the most nervous talks I’ve ever done. You might be able to get away with it once, or a certain individual you might be able to bend the truth, but as a group of footballers - certainly when you’ve got experienced players in the dressing room - they’ll work it out pretty fast.
"Your tactics for your first game, they’re wanting to know what your style is going to be, are you going to be a defensive coach? Are you going to be an attacking coach? How's he going to set us up, what formation are you going to use? The players are waiting for you get something wrong and the first few months everything is a test.
"It’s like all their eyes are burning you waiting for you to get something wrong, so it’s a very important stage the first few months to get their trust."
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 hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel