“He’s the logical replacement for Klopp”

Less than three months after your 41st birthday, Steven Gerrard walks steadily into his first professional experience as a soccer coach. After a sporting life dedicated to his Liverpool -with permission for a few final pre-retirement years at the Los Angeles Galaxy- the Englishman packed his bags and left for Scotland. Barely 300 kilometers separate the city from Merseyside with Glasgow, where he traveled to take charge of a Rangers who aspired to return to the footballing elite. It was the year 2018, April, when the season was just a few months away. Three years later, the Glasgow team lead the Premiership with a 21-point lead over their eternal rival Celtic (although with two more games to play). Set are undefeated in both domestic competition and the Europa League, where they will face Belgian Royal Antwerp in the round of 32.

“Except for debacle, with that difference in points, something very strange it would have to happen for Rangers not to win this league”, That’s how forceful it is Carlos Cuéllar, a former Spanish player who played for the Scottish club in the 2007/8 season, “at a professional level it was surely the best year of my career.” “When you are active they do not let you say it, but from the outside it is a Premiership that has been won,” laughs the former central defender, who attends this newspaper to review the moment of form of Rangers.

Despite spending only one season defending the Glasgow team colors, Cuellar’s impact in the stands at Ibrox Stadium is still remembered. He was named best player in the Scottish Premiership, he also received this award from the press, which for the first time was awarded to a defender, and from the club’s fans: “What it means to be in Rangers for Scotland is tremendous , it’s like playing for Real Madrid for them. It was an almost perfect year ”.

The Madrilenian managed to win both the Cup and the League Cup, as well as reaching the final of the Europa League (known at the time as the UEFA Cup). The only negative point he remembers was losing the domestic championship in the last few days: “In general they didn’t give us legs.” Cuéllar set the record for games played by a player for Rangers in a single season with 63 games. “There in the past when you tied for the cup instead of going to extra time or penalties, you did a replay, that’s why I played so many games, it was crazy “, highlights.

Rangers’ bet on an inexperienced coach

Just a year after his retirement as a professional player was confirmed, in 2017 Steven Gerrard began training as a coach. He did it at the Liverpool academy, under the tutelage of Jurgen Klopp, who together with the director of the quarry network, Alex Inglethorpe, gave him the opportunity to coach the U19 team. When the season had not ended, the dismissal of Graeme Murty by Rangers opened the possibility of directing a historic team from Scotland.

“He was a bit surprised at the coach level”, reflects Cuéllar; “For a club so big that is looking to position itself again in the Scottish league, a manager with a little more cache was expected. But in what It is the figure of Gerrard himself, because of the character he had in the field, it did not seem a surprise to me, his work was proven. The coaches he has had, his background as a player… Rangers can have a coach for years ”. Gerrard’s team has only lost one game so far this season, the League Cup tie against St. Mirren. For the retired Spanish central defender, one of the keys is being the manager’s rotations and confidence in his squad: “As a player, Gerrard has lived through a full season. All the coaches say by mouth that they are going to rotate, but then two players change and out. He has managed to find a balance with the squad ”. Cuéllar recalls that this same model was used by Walter Smith in his time as a Rangers player, when the historic Scottish coach used a different eleven for each competition.

“That is giving the team a solidity. It shows that everyone who is there fighting day by day is going to have a chance. That communion is one of the secrets of what he is achieving, of course, with all the work behind it. They know what they are playing and have impressive defensive strength “, insists the Madrilenian. As it happened in that 2007/8 season, a defender is being the most outstanding player in the Gers squad. James TavernierA veteran English right-back, he has scored 17 goals so far this season, being the Scots’ top scorer. “Gerrard works a lot on the strategy, it is allowing them to get many points. Set pieces in the Scottish league decides many games and they are knowing how to exploit it”, Carlos Cuéllar explains about this surprising statistic.

Gerrard, Klopp’s natural heir at Liverpool

Steven Gerrard’s best season at the controls of Rangers is coinciding in time, by the whims of fate, with Jurgen Klopp’s worst moment since he became Liverpool manager. Devastated by injuries, especially on the defensive line, the reliability of the German team is in doubt. The harsh correction that Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City endorsed him in the last Premier League match, where the leaders won by a forceful 1-4, causes a certain buzz in the swollen net. Part of this hobby indicates bluntly to Gerrard as the one if the time comes to replace the Teuton.

For Carlos Cuéllar, who experienced first-hand the differences between Scottish and English football, Rangers is an excellent experience to prepare for a major Premier League team. “Gerrard is showing his level in Scotland. If you tell me a club that only plays the domestic championship, it might seem like a risky bet for Liverpool, but Rangers have been playing in Europe for several years, they are gaining experience ”.

“They will try to do what he did el Chelsea con Frank Lampard, But of course, he had much less experience, he only spent a year training in the second division ”, the former Spanish footballer values; “I imagine that the year Klopp leaves, which I don’t think will be this, the logical step will be Steven Gerrard. He is a player of the house, he will come from three or four years playing in Europe ”. Liverpool fans used to dedicate the song of “A scouser born and bred” to your captain. A scouser (a term used colloquially for both Liverpool’s accent and speech and its namesake) born and raised in the city.

“In England, the figure of a captain or a coach who left his mark on the club is a symbol,” reflects Cuéllar about what Gerrard’s transition to a dressing room like Liverpool would be like, who spent 17 years defending the first team. “It is a bit the simile with Zinédine Zidane, he was criticized at the beginning for lack of experience. But if he tells you Zidane that you head butt against that wallWell, it is not the same as another coach tells you: for him you break your head, for another you probably question it, “he says.

Rangers, a team refounded and relegated to the fourth division

Today the team’s name is The Rangers Football Club Ltd. The original Glasgow Rangers FC disappeared in 2012 after suffering a bankruptcy caused by exorbitant debt. The English millionaire Charles Green bought the club, but was forced to re-found it. The Scotish Premiership decided, through a vote of the rest of the teams, to reinstate them in the league, allowing them to inherit their record and history, but releasing them to the fourth division, “the clubs voted no, it’s a bit the British mentality: you have done it wrong, now find your life. For that they are quite squared ”.

Cuéllar admits that, four years before the financial disaster, the situation of the workforce was not bad. “When I was at an economic level, the truth is that we didn’t notice anything. We received our payroll without a problem, there was no feeling that there was a problem as serious as it was later uncovered ”, he explains,“ I experienced it with great pain, it is a historic club. It is as if Real Madrid are relegated to third, it becomes an almost national problem. That is what happened in Scotland, a great scandal ”.

The Madrid center-back, who went through clubs like Osasuna, Sunderland or Almería, remembers those difficult moments that Rangers went through: “I was at Aston Villa and I lived those years with a lot of pain. Most of the players left, they had to start from scratch… Luckily they were able to return to the first category soon ”. That forced descent prevented one of the most spectacular derbies on the football planet, the Old Firm, from living for four years. The meeting between Rangers and Celtic, Protestants and Catholics, is known for its intensity and toughness: “It’s amazing, I think it was the most rivalry game I have ever experienced. It is no longer something that encompasses the sports field, but goes beyond, historical, religious … There are not only three points at stake. The week of the match they recommend you not to go out on the street, it is not because nothing is going to happen to you, but because people are so involved that you will not be able to even have a quiet coffee ”. Now, the Gers savor a sweet moment, looking in the rearview mirror, and from a distance, at their eternal rival.

–