Ryan Giggs has hailed “brilliant” Steven Gerrard and delivered a ringing endorsement of how he has transformed the fortunes of Rangers.
The Wales manager has been impressed at how his former playing foe has settled in at Ibrox after being handed his first managerial post over the summer.
“It’s good to see him going in to management – and it’s great to see him doing well,” Giggs told the Daily Record. “He spent some time at the Liverpool academy but it’s brilliant to see him make that jump. It’s a huge job at Rangers but he has made a great start.
“He is a young coach making his way in the game and you want to see the likes of Steven and Frank Lampard at Derby being successful because we are all in similar situations.
“People are looking at you. You played at the highest level as a player, can you now do it as a manager?
“Steven has got off to a solid start. He has had some great results, particularly in Europe. I watched the semi-final against Aberdeen and they were very unlucky. On any other day they would have won that game.”
OPINION
As a fellow Premier League legend taking his first steps in management, few men are better placed to pass judgement on Gerrard than Giggs, the man who opposed him on the pitch for nearly two decades as Liverpool and Manchester United went toe to toe amid ferocious atmospheres and intense pressure. Being a great player certainly doesn’t mean you can cut it as a top manager, but one thing Gerrard and Giggs have in common is that they know what’s it like to experience huge expectation on match day and how to cope with it in order to deliver an elite performance. If they can translate this to their teams and coax the maximum from the players at their disposal, they will go a long way to delivering the goods in the dugout. Giggs’ appraisal of Gerrard is a warm and fair one, demonstrating a clear understanding of the gap between Celtic and Rangers when the Anfield icon took over in May with the brief to stop the Hoops’ seemingly relentless march to 10-in-a-row.