Steven Gerrard's 4-3-3 Rangers Recreation

Steven Gerrard's Style of Play:

Gerrard seems to have been influenced by 'gegenpressing’ and with the narrow 4-3-3, you could say influenced by Klopp too. Rangers like to apply a mid-block most of the time though, allowing the opponents defenders a little more time on the ball before the press starts. Benefit of this, opponents now struggle to play the more direct ball to try and beat the press. The press usually starts when the opponents start to play the ball out wide, Rangers attackers will press full backs and also cutting off passing lanes. This blocks the route centrally and it can either force a mistake or the opponent to play backwards. The midfield would be the 2nd line of pressing, Rangers look to win the ball back in the final 3rd areas to apply their counter attack.

The centre backs are usually the ones who start of with the build. They would collect the ball from either the goalkeeper or a backwards pass from the midfield, but when the central defenders receive the ball, they'll look for a forward pass but avoid kicking it long. The full-backs are the ones who will looking to stay wider and stretch the play because of the shape of this 4-3-3. Both advanced wingers would tuck in so narrow meaning that only the wing backs provide the width but the wing backs are also very creative in play. They will be looking to effect the attacking play by putting in lots of key passes or crosses. James Tavernier currently is on 6 assists which is joint top with Hagi. James Tavernier currently has been involved with 15 goals either assist or scoring. Usually Rangers could build up centrally before working the ball out for the wing backs to generate space for them.