Strength In-Depth Delights Boss

STEVEN GERRARD has been discussing the strength of his Rangers side ahead of tomorrow’s Europa League opener at Standard Liege.

The Light Blues gaffer was thrilled to welcome midfielder Joe Aribo back into his pool of players for Saturday’s win at Parkhead, while attacker Kemar Roofe is also nearing a return.

Their availability poses a nice dilemma for the manager, who told tonight’s press conference in Belgium: "The squad is in a real, good place at the moment. We still need to get Kemar and Joe Aribo up to speed - Joe has missed 10 weeks and Kemar missed maybe five.

"So they will take a little bit of time to get back up to 100 per-cent, but I want to try and get them up to speed as quick as I can.

"The squad is in real, good shape in-terms of health - everyone is fit and available and it is only [Niko] Katic who is not with us at the moment.

The manager was also quizzed on Liege’s squad, with the Belgians having a number of players unavailable due to Covid.

He insists that will have no impact on Rangers, and continued: "We have our own game plan and we will focus on what we are trying to do. We will try to hit a level close to our best as that is how are going to have to go about it.

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"We are coming up against a very good team and a big squad full of talented players, so I am sure they will cope.

"It's obviously not ideal for them from their point of view but we are here to do a job and we are here to try and take maximum points.

"What is does do, obviously, is maybe the team we thought might have started might change in a couple of areas, so we have to be ready to adapt to certain situations.

"But we are very focused on what we have to do."