After a shock result against St Mirren it would have been easy for Steven Gerrard to criticise his players for not matching the intensity of their opponents or for blowing their best chance to win a major trophy since 2016.
Speaking to Football Insider, former England teammate Kevin Phillips believes that there may be some good comes out of a miserable night for Gers fans:
“It is very clever from Steven Gerrard.
“That is great man management.
“He is not going to batter those players, they have been unbelievable this season. They are going to have an off-day.
“It is unfortunate that it is against St Mirren, in the cup when they should be turning them over but it is going to happen. You just need to look at what is happening to Celtic this year.
“It is great man management, coming out and taking the blame, but as a player you would be embarrassed. They should not be getting beat and that is no disrespect to St Mirren.
“As a player I would be desperate for the next game to come so I could try and put that right. The manager has taken it on the chin so it is now up to the players to go and get a result against Motherwell. A touch of class from Stevie G.”
Hopefully he is right and that the players look to immediately repay their manager’s faith by beating Motherwell on Saturday, yes, he made tactical and selection errors but the players he put out should have been good enough to be St Mirren.
Did Gerrard do the right thing taking the blame?
Yes
No
We always knew when Gerrard arrived that he would make mistakes because of his inexperience but the lack of silverware will only be forgiven at the end of this season if, and only if, he delivers the Scottish Premiership title.