The Athletic’s Rangers correspondent Jordan Campbell has leapt to the defence of Steven Gerrard in the aftermath of Wednesday evening’s 1-0 defeat to Hamilton.

The ex-Liverpool captain has been the centre of attention recently after questioning his players’ commitment to the cause following their Scottish Cup quarter-final defeat to Hearts, and things only got worse when he watched his side suffer a second successive defeat.

A defensive blunder from Connor Goldson, after James Tavernier had also left the ball, embarrassed Rangers at Ibrox, although Campbell has now jumped to the defence of Gerrard in his post-match Q&A session.

What did he say?

When a fan highlighted that neither the system or the manager should be at fault, Campbell wrote: “It’s hard to blame the manager when the players take 31 shots, 7 or 8 of which were big chances, and miss every one. Then you have the now usual defensive howler and it’s a recipe for disaster.”

Spot on

Rangers didn’t actually play too badly against Hamilton, and the things that went wrong were almost impossible to hold Gerrard accountable for.

No matter how much work the former England international does on the training ground, there is no way that he can plan for Goldson allowing players to rob him of possession inside his own area.

Nor can he account for his team missing a barrage of gilt-edged chances at the other end – there are some things that are simply down to the players.

Of course, Gerrard can be held accountable for the amount of confidence his players have at the back and in attack.

However, on this occasion, Campbell is right – it would be harsh to blame the manager given the encouraging manner of the performance and the sheer volume of chances created.

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