Rangers manager Steven Gerrard didn’t miss Allan McGregor in his post-match interview today after the goalkeeper was needlessly sent off at home to Hibernian.
With just a few minutes left on the clock and the Gers heading towards a 1-0 victory over Hibs, the veteran shot-stopper lashed out with a petulant kick at Hibs striker Marc McNulty.
It didn’t escape the attention of officials and he was shown a straight red, ruling him out of next week’s clash at home to Celtic.
Gerrard recognises the discipline the of the squad hasn’t been good enough this season and in his post-match interview he was clearly furious with his goalkeeper.
As quoted by The Daily Record, the Ibrox boss said:
Again, another crazy bit of discipline which, hasn’t damaged us today because we managed to get over the line and win the game, but it’ll probably hurt us in the next couple of games.
I’m running out of ideas on what to do. It’s not good enough. The players need to improve it. Again, I’ll try and address it.
I’m not sure of the exact number of red cards, but it’s not acceptable. It’s not good enough.
Allan McGregor has been one of our best players all season. He was in the running for player of the year and rightly so.
Again you see the reason why he’s highly rated as a goalkeeper because he pulls off a world class save to get you three points.
But then, it’s another crazy moment that it’s difficult to defend.
The discipline issue is something Gerrard badly needs to sort out ahead of the new season.
If we pick up stupid red cards again next season then we can likely kiss goodbye to major honours once again, especially considering it’s our key players that seem to get most involved in off the ball incidents.
What he can do to fix it is beyond me, but surely there must be an admission from the players that their conduct hasn’t been good enough throughout 2018/19?
Hopefully the manager can get to the bottom of it before we kick-off again next term.