STEVEN Gerrard has been in senior management for just 18 months, but throughout he has insisted he is not predestined to someday manage Liverpool, the club he played 710 times for, captained more than any other player and whose fans still utterly adore him.
“Just because you have been a successful player does not mean you have the divine right to be next in the queue,” Gerrard told former team-mate Jamie Carragher in an interview for The Telegraph last year.
“Just because you are popular with the fans it does not make you the right man to replace [Jurgen] Klopp, if and when he goes. It is very presumptuous.”
Gerrard is determined to prove himself as a manager, and that is admirable. He knows a stellar playing career is no guarantee of success in the dugout and he refuses to allow the heroics of his past life as Liverpool and England skipper cloud assessments of his tactical acumen.
Steven Gerrard on becoming the Liverpool manager after Jurgen Klopp. Well said. pic.twitter.com/0dA7pyjtdb
— 9 (@EnRouteAnfield) September 27, 2019
But the truth is, the bar to becoming Liverpool manager is lower for Gerrard than anyone else who might hold ambitions of claiming the position. There is, understandably, a wave of emotive support roaring north from Anfield, willing him to master management to the point a glorious homecoming can materialise.
A special affection for local, home-grown players is not unique to Liverpool by any means. But few clubs enjoy such a rich and deep-rooted connection to its people; few are so completely woven into the social fabric of its city. Gerrard isn’t just one of their own. He’s one of them.
Where other future contenders for the Liverpool job will be required to produce a CV stocked with elite-level achievement, Gerrard will likely only need to have avoided embarrassment to earn a shot. Irrespective of how his history may help him jump the queue, however, the progress Gerrard is showing at Rangers suggests he could well get there on merit.
Last season, his first in top-flight management, Gerrard guided Rangers to second place in the Scottish Premiership, the Glasgow club’s highest finish since returning to the division in 2016. He also led his side to two wins in four league Old Firm derbies, beginning to restore a degree of parity to one of world football’s greatest rivalries.
This season, Rangers are neck and neck with Celtic, level at the top of the Premiership on 25 points after 10 games as the Gers aim to thwart their bitter foes’ attempt to claim a ninth successive title.
There has been progress in Europe, too. Last season, Rangers made it through to the group stage of the Europa League, where they earned credible draws with Villarreal and Spartak Moscow. For context, the year before, they were dumped out in the qualifying rounds by Progres of Luxembourg.
And this season has already brought a win over Feyenoord at Ibrox and a draw away to Porto in which the Scots were unlucky not to take three points.
Perhaps owing to the fact he began his coaching career within Liverpool’s academy, there are similarities between Gerrard’s Rangers playing style and the tactics Klopp has used to revolutionise the Reds.
Feel free to watch this on loop all morning.
Nothing comes close to the feeling when the Famous Glasgow Rangers score pic.twitter.com/EtT3V5ktp0
— Rangers Football Club (@RangersFC) October 27, 2019
Gerrard’s preferred formation is 4-3-3, and, like Liverpool, his side retract into a narrow shape without the ball, compacting the field to deny space to the opposition. They are also proving to be the finest exponents of counter-pressing north of the border, harrying opponents in a relentless and co-ordinated fashion that would make even Klopp, the master of gegenpressing, proud.
The Rangers boss uses his full-backs as key attacking weapons, too. James Tavernier and Borna Barisic push high to augment the frontline, providing ammunition for striker Alfredo Morelos and allowing the sporting forwards to move inside.
Even Gerrard’s perceived tactical flaws appear to mirror Klopp’s. Like the Liverpool manager, the former England captain is often conservative with his midfield selection, opting for players who offer an abundance of defensive security and workrate but little invention.
If Gerrard is to emerge as a genuine contender to become Liverpool boss from his time as Rangers manager, he will surely at least have to win a trophy with the Gers, which he hasn’t done yet. For now, he is earning his stripes, although silverware won’t elude him for long at the current rate.
Gerrard is right to want to prove himself more as a manager before he even begins to discuss the possibility of someday taking charge of his beloved club – even if he already has the highest possible endorsement: “If you ask who should follow me, I’d say Stevie,” Klopp told FourFourTwo recently.
At this early stage, though, his trajectory is curving steeply upward, pointing somewhere in the distance to Anfield.
