Steven Gerrard believes the Scottish Cup is now Rangers’ best chance of beating Celtic to silverware this season, as reported by The Scottish Sun.
If there was any doubt that the weekend’s Scottish Premiership action was bruising and destructive to Rangers’ season, the Ibrox manager confirmed it in his pre-match press conference yesterday.
Celtic moved eight points clear at the top of the table after beating Kilmarnock with a last minute winner at Rugby Park, 24 hours after Gerrard’s side failed to beat St Johnstone at home.
It was one of those defining weekends in the league title race and it appears to have knocked all the confidence out of the former Liverpool man.
Asked if Rangers’ season is now all about the cup, Gerrard told The Scottish Sun: “I think where we sit right here, you are probably right in saying that. This has been a competition, even from the beginning of the season, that we’ve looked at. We’ve wanted to do well in the cup competitions and the last one we got to the semi-finals. We were very disappointed with the outcome in that. This is an opportunity for us to put in a performance that’s good enough to set up a tie to go to Pittodrie.”
With just 12 matches remaining, Brendan Rodgers and his side could barely be in a strong position right now and all the hype surrounding Rangers’ title credentials has been blown to smithereens.
The pressure is now all on them to beat Kilmarnock themselves this evening, having failed to do so in their last three meetings. If they go out of the cup in the same week that their title bid suffered a heavy blow, serious questions will be asked of Gerrard.
Here’s hoping.