STEVEN GERRARD HAS told his Rangers players to forget about their title aspirations after dropping points in a 0-0 draw against St Johnstone on Saturday.
The Gers moved to within five points of Celtic at the top of the Scottish Premiership table, but with their Glasgow rivals in action on Sunday against Motherwell, that tally could be stretched to eight by the end of the weekend.
A win against Tommy Wright’s men would have seen Rangers put pressure on Celtic, but Gerrard believes the goalless draw ends their feint hopes of winning the title.
“Respect to St Johnstone and Tommy [Wright], they worked their game plan very well,” Gerrard said after the game.
“They could have went away with more, Wes [Foderingham] has helped us get a point really. Across the board today, nowhere near good enough. I think I’ve been seduced in this week because the players have looked like they were looking forward to playing in front of Ibrox.
“We knew Tommy and how he was going to set up. That didn’t disappoint us. They were organised, mid to low block and they offer you a challenge of: ‘Come on then what you got? Come and beat us’ and we didn’t have enough today all over the pitch to find the answers to the challenge and that’s very concerning for me.
“We lacked leadership, I’m struggling to find any positives from it really. That’s where we are.
“I think right now, forget titles, forget closing gaps. The reality is if you perform like that across the board in front of 50k people, there’s your evidence. You don’t need me to say this that and the other.
“If you’ve got a group of lads out there and they give you that when they’ve got a chance to close to three points and you’ve got Aberdeen, Kilmarnock and the rest breathing down your neck, that is not what is required at Rangers when you’ve got the chance to close the gap. It’s miles away from it,” he added.
Next up for Rangers is a Scottish Cup fifth-round replay against Kilmarnock on Wednesday before they travel to Hamilton in the league next weekend.
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