Daily Record journalist Keith Jackson believes Steven Gerrard is under serious pressure to impress Rangers chairman Dave King after dropping yet more points in the Scottish Premiership on Saturday.
The Gers are without a win in our last four matches and have not only been dumped out of the Scottish Cup by Aberdeen but are now a massive ten points behind Celtic in the league table, with just eight games remaining.
It means that for all the progress from last season’s disastrous Pedro Caixinha reign, the position of the team is not that much better off.
Jackson reckons Gerrard needs to find answers quickly, or risks problems with the decision makers at Ibrox.
Writing in his weekly column for The Daily Record, the journalist explains:
It began with three points dropped at Killie and is now culminating in a March from hell which has seen another four points frittered away along with the chance of some much-needed Scottish Cup redemption.
So, yes, these are dangerous times indeed for Gerrard who seems a little lost for answers as his debut season unravels before his eyes.
The truth is Rangers have improved under his management but given the shambolic state this team was in a year ago that’s not exactly a feather in his hat.
At this same stage of 2018 the Pedro Caixinha/Graeme Murty travelling circus had clocked up 58 points from 31 league games. Gerrard has delivered 60 from 30.
Those tallies taken in isolation do not tell the whole story as this season’s top flight is arguably a more meaty, competitive affair. But they don’t cut Gerrard any slack either.
When Dave King took such an expensive roll of the dice on him last summer he would have been expecting a whole lot more than a measly couple of points in return.
Gerrard needs to respond to this collapse by dragging Rangers through it with all the leadership qualities he once showed on the field.
If our bad form continues then serious questions will be asked of Gerrard heading into the summer and nobody needs that kind of pressure when there is plenty of work to do on and off the field to improve this Rangers team.
There’s clearly no suggestion that the Ibrox boss should leave his post anytime soon, but we must bring positive feeling and hope into next season’s campaign or could find ourselves fighting a losing battle early on.
The derby at the end of the month means things don’t get much easier for Gerrard or Rangers, but a good performance at Celtic Park would at least show supporters there’s still fight left in this squad.