PRESS CONFERENCE | Gerrard & McAuley | 17 Jan

[ian1964 10,724]

 

[JFK-1 1,693]

Glad to hear him say that Davis and Defoe will "be involved at some point"

 

Makes me all the more eager to see it and encouraged that they may quickly be involved the league matches. Kilmarnock away next week would be a key 3 points towards a title challenge.

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https://rangers.co.uk/news/headlines/ross-could-skipper-gers/

by Nick Thomson 

 

STEVEN GERRARD believes Ross McCrorie could be a future Rangers captain having been so impressed with way the midfielder has gone about his business.

The 20-year old starred in Gers’ last match, the 1-0 win over Celtic, but will miss tomorrow’s Scottish Cup clash with Cowdenbeath having been red carded in the semi-final of that competition last season.

It’s a blow for Gerrard, but the manager was quick to pour scorn on press suggestions the midfielder could be heading elsewhere on loan in the January transfer window.

Speaking at this afternoon’s press conference at the Hummel Training Centre, the manager explained: “When we came in, we inherited a player that was hurt mentally. He had a tough time in certain games before we came in and I think his confidence was affected.

“So we have had to be really careful with Ross in how we have played him and how we have introduced him in certain games.

“What I will say, is he has worked extremely hard on the training pitch and he is growing and he is getting better.

“His confidence is coming back, his belief is coming back, and I think in the last four or five performances he has been immense.

“It is a shame he is suspended for Cowdenbeath because he had the shirt and unfortunately his suspension gives someone else the opportunity.

“I am delighted for Ross and I think he has an incredible future here. I think he is a potential future captain of the club and he won’t be going anywhere else but Rangers.”

Ahead of the trip to Fife tomorrow, Gerrard gave an injury update and revealed as well as McCrorie being unavailable, Gers will be without both Eros Grezda and Connor Goldson.

The manager continued: “Eros Grezda won’t be available for a few weeks as he has an ankle ligament injury. Connor Goldson is still in rehab and will be missing tomorrow, but hopefully we won’t be too long.

“Borna Barisic is back fit and is back in full training. You will see Borna get some minutes over the next couple of fixtures, and the idea for him is to try and get him available for 90 minutes in the coming week.

“But he is back available with the squad.”

Gerrard was also quizzed on longer-term absentees Graham Dorrans and Jamie Murphy, adding: “They are progressing well. Jamie is long-term obviously so you are looking at the back end of the season if we are going to see him.

“Hopefully he keeps progressing and we could see him around the end of April or in the final fixtures before the end of the season – we will see.

“Graham will be back quicker than that. He is progressing well and he is out running now with the physio, but we won’t be available in January and maybe February, we will see.”

 

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If we can keep in touch before the split it may be a significant factor to have both Dorrans and Murphy available for the final post split push. I'm expectant, excited, reservedly confident. The reservedly being in there because as we all know it can fall apart over just a game or two inside a single week.

I'm hoping to put some space between us and the chasing pack at a minimum which makes Kilmarnock so key.