Rangers: Steven Gerrard's revolution is entering a deeply pivotal time
- Published
How Rangers' first 17 games stack up against Celtic during their 'invincible' season
In the last game of the 2017-18 season that Rangers played before Steven Gerrard took over as manager at Ibrox, they conceded five goals against Hibs in a 5-5 draw at Easter Road. That's one more than they have conceded in 17 league games this season.
The last six games they played pre-Gerrard saw them shipping those five against Hibs, another five against Celtic, another four against Celtic and one against Hearts and Aberdeen. They gave up 16 goals in six domestic games. This season they've given up 12 in 27 in all competitions.
There are many ways you can analyse their improvement under Gerrard, but to capture the scale of it takes a while. Their signings, their coaching, their entire focus as a club has changed for the better. Not that long ago Rangers were an institution addicted to issuing angry press statements about any slight - real or otherwise. Things are much quieter now.
The Dave King show around the selling of his shares and his bombast in the media that accompanied it can't be hung on the current decision-makers at Ibrox. They'd no idea what King was up to. There's not much communication with their old chairman these days. Save for King's solo run, the hubris and hubbub has gone.
James Tavernier played in the 5-5 draw with Hibs, but he's the only survivor from the 14 players who appeared that day. Players with no value have been culled. New players with considerable value added and improved. We can see the strides that Rangers have made by looking at the league table but also by considering the transfer value of some of their players.
It's not £200m, as King stated, but it's a world away from zero, the collective worth of many Rangers squads in the pre Gerrard era. On the pitch and off, they have made vast improvements. Improvements, frankly, that many couldn't see coming. A mea culpa here.
When Gerrard was appointed the feeling was that he would be chewed up by the pressure of the job. Celtic were rampant. They had all the financial advantages, all the off-field stability and on-field confidence. They had an experienced manager, Brendan Rodgers, who was now going up against a managerial rookie. In need of a heavyweight to put it up to Celtic, it looked like a gamble, not just for Rangers but for Gerrard himself. Why would anybody want to start his career as a manager by hurling himself into a seemingly impossible job?
It's taken a couple of seasons of pain, but what we're seeing now is solid progress. It needs a league trophy to validate that progress, of course. Caution is still advised on that front. The league season is far from over. The possibility of a Celtic comeback can't be discounted. For Celtic fans, the great hope is that their team is now finding itself again and that they are about to embark on a winning run that will test Rangers' mettle.
What happens if Celtic regain their old strength, win all around them for the rest of the year and then go to Ibrox and defeat the home team? What would this Rangers set-up be like if that kind of heat was applied? That's a lot of ifs. Rangers haven't given much, if any, evidence that they're going to weaken.
Sunday against Dundee United turned into a test - and they passed it. They got extremely lucky when Alfredo Morelos was given yellow instead of the red he clearly deserved, but it was another victory and another goal for Tavernier. The full-back now has 11 goals in the league. That's more than Celtic pair Mohamed Elyounoussi and Ryan Christie combined. He has 17 goals in all competitions. That's the same return as Odsonne Edouard, Albian Ajeti and Patryk Klimala combined.
Alfredo Morelos 'undermining Rangers good work' - Sportscene analysis
It's difficult to recall when people first started speculating about Celtic going unbeaten in the league in Rodgers' first season as Celtic manager, but the probability is that there was chat around the turn of the year, if not earlier.
Rodgers' side had only dropped two points in the Premiership by mid-December of his first season. They'd put four on St Johnstone, Aberdeen, Ross County, Motherwell and Partick Thistle, they'd put five on Rangers and six on Kilmarnock. In Scottish terms, they were an outstanding side, lit up by Moussa Dembele, Scott Sinclair, Kieran Tierney and Stuart Armstrong.
Gerrard's team still have it all to do but they're powering on. Is it too early to talk about them going unbeaten for the entire league season? Probably. Surely somebody will catch them out on a given day, but we said that about Rodgers' boys, too.
Rangers' depth carrying them forward
Instead of comparing this Rangers side to their counterparts at Celtic, it's interesting to compare them to Rodgers' side at the same point in the season. After 17 league games, Rodgers' Celtic had two more points than Gerrard's Rangers. They'd scored 47 goals and Rangers have also scored 47 goals.
Here we see the depth of the Rangers squad, the division of danger that was once so heavily dependent on Morelos and Jermain Defoe. This time last season, those two had 22 league goals between them. Now they have just five. Others have stepped up. Joe Aribo and Scott Arfield have four, Ryan Kent has five, Kemar Roofe has six, Tavernier has a million, or maybe it just feels that way.
Rodgers' team conceded 13 in their first 17 league games of the invincible season whereas Rangers have only conceded four. With three league goals to his name Connor Goldson's personal goal difference is only -1.
In the first 17 games of the 2016-17 league season, Celtic trailed in only two matches for a total of 74 minutes. Rangers have been behind in just one and for only 23 minutes. This looks compelling. Gerrard's team is stacking up well against Rodgers' stellar side, but they need to finish it off. Unless they have a league trophy to show for it at the end then none of this matters.
The next month might decide the league. If Rangers beat Motherwell on Saturday they'll go 16 points clear at the top. They play St Johnstone, Hibs and St Mirren after that. Then, it's Celtic at Ibrox. If they win them all then the gap will be a minimum of 19 points. For all their games in hand, Celtic will have little realistic prospect of making up the ground at that point.
Just over a year ago, Rangers might have seen the finishing line and the legs went from under them like Devon Loch. They look a different animal this time. Gerrard's revolution is entering a deeply pivotal time.