Steven Gerrard names Rangers rule breaker he'd 'turn blind eye' to and the duo who helped deal with him

The Liverpool legend joined Rangers in 2018 after coaching in the Anfield youth ranks and spent over three years in Glasgow, winning the title in 2021 and leaving later that year for Premier League side Aston Villa. He was sacked after less than 12 months, he has been out of work since a stint in Saudi Arabia with Al Ettifaq, and has appeared on The Overlap to reflect on time in Glasgow.

Morelos was his primary goal-getter while at Rangers but that didn’t come stress-free. Gerrard was asked what players he’s had in his managerial career that have been difficult to manage, and the first name that came to mind was the former Light Blues striker. The Colombian was a maverick whose conduct and behaviour came under the microscope in stages but 124 goals in 269 games make him one of the club’s best finishers of recent times. Experienced pros in Jermain Defoe and Kemar Roofe were brought in to help Gerrard manage the now 29-year-old at Atletico Nacional.

Why did Steven Gerrard leave Rangers?

“In a different way, Morelos at Rangers was tough to manage,” said Gerrard. “Maverick behaviours. So important to Rangers because he was the goals but he was challenging. He'd bend the rules and after he'd scored a brace, you always knew something was sorted in the post, either him being late or something, an incident. When you're going into a job, you want to try and set rules and have values of your team and stuff like that.

“Sometimes you'd have to bite your tongue and turn a blind eye to one or two, it's just trying to not get caught by the players when you're doing it. But yeah, he was important to Rangers and I knew he was so important. I knew the time would come where I could get into a place where he's maybe less as important.

“That's why I brought Jermain Defoe in. That's why I brought Kemar Roofe in because when he was having these periods, where he would be challenging or break your rules and your values, Defoe and Kemar Roofe were itching to play and they were as good as him. Jermaine was much better than him at the age but they were the reason why we won the league because their goals in the team and the squad is how we eventually won.”

Why did Steven Gerrard leave Rangers?

Linked with the vacant Rangers managerial post twice over the last 12 months amid the arrival of 49ers Enterprises and Andrew Cavenagh as owners, Gerrard has admitted he picked the wrong time to leave Rangers. He wasn’t convinced by the post-title plan at Ibrox but now thinks more managerial experience would have been of benefit to him before heading for England’s top flight.

“The level was a big jump,” Gerrard said on the Overlap of his move to Aston Villa. “Probably didn't realise at the time when I made that decision. In hindsight again, we talk about hindsight, we'd all be great with hindsight, wouldn't we? Would have stayed at Rangers longer, more experience, stay up there for longer.

“So I regret doing it now, sitting here, I didn't at the time. It was tough. Also the conversations with Rangers after we won it, the recruitment and the finance chats that we were having, didn't feel like Rangers were ready to go again. It was a bit more of a like, ‘oh, let's settle this and fix that and do that.’ The promises weren’t as strong as it what I thought they would be. Then the Premier League offer and opportunity comes in, it's tough. It's tough to say no to that Villa, a great club. I have nothing bad to say about them.”

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