Gerrard Praises Jermain Defoe & Cedric Itten

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IT wouldn’t be a Jermain Defoe milestone match if he didn’t mark it with a goal – and he did exactly that in this afternoon’s 4-0 win for Rangers at Ross County.

Defoe netted the fourth on what was another excellent afternoon for the Light Blues, as he made his 800th appearance in senior football.

It’s just the latest high in a sparkling career, and of course, he recently netted his 300th career goal in the club’s recent Ibrox win over Livingston.

Manager Steven Gerrard tonight admitted he wouldn’t be surprised to see Defoe, now 38, going for even more milestones – while the boss also paid tribute to the hard work of Cedric Itten to set Defoe up for his 302nd strike of an incredible individual period in the game.

Speaking to the press following the victory in Dingwall, Gerrard smiled: "It wouldn't surprise me if he went on to 900! He is in incredible shape and he loves coming into work and he is still trying to learn and improve and get better.

"He is ready at any given moment and you can see that he is hungry to get on the pitch and you can tell by his performances he is still hungry to score goals.

"I thought Cedric was magnificent for his goal and he is a big help knowing that he can help kill teams off.

"He will get enough starting games and he will get enough cameos coming on and he will be a big, important player for us moving forward."

Defoe delivered again for Gerrard, and James Tavernier most certainly delivered once again for his manager with a goal and two assists in the win as well as helping secure a seventh-consecutive league clean sheet.

That takes the captain onto 16 goals for the season – just one off his own all-time record for a Rangers defender – and we’re only just into December.

Gerrard continued: "He was sensational and he deserves all of the plaudits. People will talk about the assists and the goals, and I think he deserves that.

"But I judge James differently - I judge him as soon as he walks through the door - what is he doing? Is he helping me set the standards? Is he professional in everything he does? Is he leading by example? Is he pushing the young lads? Is he making sure everyone is at it and the culture remains strong?

"This season, he has been absolutely fantastic. I can't really be more proud of him. He has got to continue doing what he is doing as he is a massive help to me.

"It is top-level stuff. I have played with some fantastic attacking right-backs - Kyle Walker, Glen Johnson, Steve Finnan to name a few, and Tav is right up there.

"I think the way we play really suits James and the pleasing thing for me is he is still contributing with the other side of the game as well.

"He is pressing really aggressively, he is winning his duels and he is stopping crosses.

"Our clean sheet record, for me, is just as important as James' number, but where he is at right now, he needs to bottle it and try to stay there for as long as he can as he is in fantastic form."

Today’s success was played, for the first time domestically this season for Rangers, in front of a small number of supporters.

Gerrard was thrilled to see them, and hopes the pilot scheme currently taking place at Highland clubs can be extended for supporters of his own club in the near future.

"We welcome fans back in the stadiums,” he added, “home or away. We want to play in front of these magnificent atmospheres - Scottish football gets big backing up and down the country and we have really enjoyed that over the couple of years the different atmospheres and the different challenges.

"Hopefully we can build on these numbers and keep trying to get people in so they can watch their teams when it is safe to do so.

"Hopefully Ibrox is not too far away as well."

Gers now find themselves in a not too familiar but extremely welcome position of going to Poland for their final Europa League group stage match on Thursday having already qualified for the knockout stages.

Victory against Lech Poznan will secure top spot in the section and a seeding for the round of 32 – but Gerrard will look to balance that off with another huge league clash at Tannadice next Sunday.

"I think I need to do the right thing for the group,” said the manager. “The idea will be to see how we recover from here.

"But, it is a tough situation for me as yes, of course we want to top the group and it will be important to top the group, but at the same time, Dundee United is such a big fixture as well.

"It won't be wholsesale changes and it won't be a case of 'let's change eight or nine people' - there will be subtle changes within it, and I will try to pick a team that can go and get the job done while protecting the big picture as well."