Rangers travel to Celtic Park on Sunday lunchtime and while the first Old Firm derby of the season is always eagerly anticipated, this time around there is even greater intrigue.
Brendan Rodgers and Steven Gerrard came agonisingly close to ending Liverpool’s wait for a league title in 2013/14 but this weekend they will be on opposing sides.
Celtic vs Rangers
September 2, 2018, 11:00am
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Gerrard’s primary focus will be on finding a way to reverse Rangers’ fortunes against their old foes – they have conceded nine without reply in the last two meetings and their last win in 90 minutes against Celtic came in 2012 – but the reunion with his former boss only adds to the occasion and he can expect to field more than a few questions about Rodgers in the build-up.
The former Liverpool captain has never come up against a Rodgers side before. Injury ruled him out of both games against Rodgers’ Swansea in 2011/12 and by the start of the following season, the Northern Irishman had been appointed Liverpool manager.
“He is a great role model for this club, a wonderful inspirational player and a great captain on and off the field,” Rodgers said of Gerrard shortly after arriving at Anfield.
Liverpool finished seventh in Rodgers’ first season, with Gerrard making 36 league appearances and scoring nine goals. A strong end to the season led to optimism but few would have predicted what was to come.
Gerrard was an influential figure in a deep-lying midfield role as a Luis Suarez-inspired Liverpool, with Rodgers at the helm, won 11 games on the spin in the second half of the season to put themselves on the brink of a first league title since 1990.
Perhaps unsurprisingly given how well the team were playing, the pair seemed to be getting on well and Gerrard even called for Liverpool’s owners to offer Rodgers a new contract.
That was delivered in May but the title was not as Gerrard lost his footing to allow Demba Ba in to score the opener in Chelsea’s 2-0 win at Anfield, a result that all-but handed the title to Manchester City. It was a devastating result for Liverpool and Gerrard has since questioned his manager’s approach to the match.
“I’ve never been able to say this in public before but I was seriously concerned that we thought we could blow Chelsea away,” he wrote in his autobiography. “I sensed an overconfidence in Brendan’s team talks. We played into Chelsea’s hands. I feared it then and I know it now.”
It is a claim Rodgers has refuted: “I don’t think I was more or less confident. We’d won 11 on the bounce. You want to go in with confidence.”
Gerrard was 34 by the start of the next season but Rodgers’ decision to try and manage his skipper’s game time was not popular with the player, especially when it resulted in him starting on the bench in a Champions League game away to Real Madrid.
“If Brendan’s managing of my games meant that I would have to miss playing against Real, in Madrid, it seemed as if I had seen the end,” Gerrard explained in his autobiography.
“How could I go on playing for Liverpool another year if these were the kind of empty nights that awaited me?”
Liverpool offered Gerrard a new contract on reduced terms but with the prospect of becoming a squad player at Anfield and amid reports of a fallout with the manager, he opted to join LA Galaxy instead.
The decision was announced mid-season but there was no fairy-tale ending. Gerrard was left out of the starting line-up again, this time in a crunch game against Manchester United and then sent off within 38 seconds of coming on.
“He was someone I respected and liked: his training sessions were among the best I had ever experienced while his man-management was excellent, generous and imaginative,” he said of Rodgers’ decision to start him on the bench.
“But I wondered if this was his way of showing the press that he was strong enough to make a difficult decision. This seemed a chance for Brendan to show his authority and send out a clear message that this was his team.”
3:26 Rangers conceded a last-minute equaliser in their game at Motherwell on Sunday
Gerrard scored but it was little consolation as his last appearance for Liverpool ended in a 6-1 defeat at Stoke and although Rodgers survived that, he followed his former captain out of the door just a few months later.
Despite a few differences of opinion, everything the pair have said about one another indicates a mutual respect and, prior to his move into management, Gerrard even suggested he would try to mirror his old manager’s approach to dealing with his players.
“If I were to ever become a manager – I’d try to fuse the best of Rafa Benitez’s tactical thinking with Brendan’s skill as a man-manager.”
Of course, since Gerrard’s appointment as Rangers boss, the dynamic between the two has changed.
Respect may remain but for all of their shared experience, they are now on opposing sides of arguably Britain’s fiercest football rivalry and Rodgers wasted little time in reminding his new adversary that achievements as a player are no guarantee of success in management.
“When you make your first step into management, there always a little bit of trepidation,” he said.
“It doesn’t matter if you’ve played the game to his level, or haven’t played the game, there is always huge differences.
“Once the spotlight is on you and the curtains go back then it is a different sport altogether. I’m sure he will find that out.”
Gerrard has made a steady start to life at Ibrox and is unbeaten in his first 11 games in charge and, given Celtic’s domination of this fixture in recent times, making that 12 would be a sure sign of progress.
However, Rodgers will be keen to inflict a first defeat on Gerrard and ensure the superiority his side have shown in recent years is evidenced once more.
Gerrard’s arrival has given Rangers the belief they may be able to challenge their neighbours again and although the contest on the pitch will always be the priority, if Rangers can turn up the pressure on Celtic over the next few months and disturb Rodgers’ dominance then the relationship between the two men in the dugout could prove similarly fascinating.
Watch the Old Firm derby between Celtic and Rangers from 11am, Sunday on Sky Sports Football.
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