Liverpool legend Steven Gerrard was appointed as the new boss at Scottish Premiership side Rangers on Friday. It represents Gerrard’s first taste of life as a manager for a club. Before he made the jump to the big boy leagues, Stevie G was an academy coach at Liverpool, where he guided their under-19 side to a quarterfinal place in the UEFA Youth League this season.
While he may not have any experience as a full-time manager previously, the Scottish Premiership represents a good opportunity for Gerrard to get his feet wet in the managerial world. But there is one final boss standing in his way of winning the league — Celtic and Brendan Rodgers.
Brendan Rodgers reacts to Steven Gerrard Rangers appointment https://t.co/xuFRCqNv20 pic.twitter.com/TtHSYYv5N4
— Darren Farley (@DFImpressionist) May 4, 2018
Celtic is like that kid in the class who is clearly smarter than everyone else but they stick around in the class because they like feeling smart. Brendan Rodgers had been out of management after being sacked by Liverpool after a poor start to the 2015-16 Premier League season. After literally steamrolling his way through the Scottish Premiership and the Scottish Cup for the past few seasons, Rodgers has been incredibly successful.
So, you are probably now asking — why on earth is Steven Gerrard the man to dethrone Brendan Rodgers’ stranglehold on the Scottish soccer scene? Well, may we remind you, Gerrard managed to stop Rodgers from winning a title before.
3 years ago today, Steven Gerrard made THAT slip... #NeverForget pic.twitter.com/A74lgyFqg7
— JOE.co.uk (@JOE_co_uk) April 27, 2017
OK, so that was a little mean. But, Gerrard knows Rodgers better than any other manager in the Scottish Premiership. He did play under Rodgers for three years, don’t forget. Also, Gerrard really doesn’t have anything to lose. He can go for broke this season and learn about what works and what doesn’t work. For Rodgers, he CANNOT lose the title. Ever. We hate to think what would happen if that scenario ever happened.
Gerrard is an unknown in terms of his playing style. Will he play the ball along the ground and look to keep possession? Will he sign Peter Crouch and just lump the ball forward to him at every opportunity? Who knows.
But what we do know is that Gerrard will put his heart and soul into this job, just like the way he played for Liverpool (maybe not so much for LA Galaxy).