STEVEN GERRARD has praised captain James Tavernier for the way he has taken youngster Nathan Patterson under his wing this term.
The Englishman has been one of Gerrard's most impressive and consistent performers this season as Rangers have moved to within touching distance of the Premiership title.
Patterson is now attempting to follow in Tavernier's footsteps and ultimately earn the right-back jersey at Ibrox after committing his future to Rangers by signing a new deal until 2024.
And Gerrard is pleased to see his skipper doing everything he can to ensure that Patterson progresses and is able to make the most of his chances to impress for his boyhood heroes.
Gerrard said: "In terms of Nathan, he deserves to be rewarded with a new deal. He has been fantastic. His temperament, his level of training – he is ready now if we need to use him.
"Obviously he is fighting with James, the captain of the team, in terms of game-time. James has been very consistent as everyone knows.
READ: Chris Jack: Time has come for Rangers kids to realise their own Blue Heaven dreams
"But James has gone out of his way to really look after Nathan and help him and support him, which is great for me to see. I think that’s James’ leadership evolving."
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 here