Steven Gerrard will be hoping to bring through a number of Rangers youngsters in these coming seasons.
Academy coach David McCallum has shared that they have created a ‘culture’ for the Rangers youngsters to play the ‘best v best’ and learn ‘different styles’ and ‘different formations’ in order to prepare them for the big time.
However, McCallum did admit that at some stage the players they have at their disposal will have to ‘figure it out’ for themselves if they get the opportunity to play in front of 50,000 Ibrox fans.
First-team manager Steven Gerrard is in his debut campaign and he will want to make his mark on the team this term by winning some silverware, not just for this season, but for seasons to come, which make the club’s academy players paramount to his plans.
Nonetheless, McCallum has honestly shared how the Glasgow club builds up and fine-tunes their younger players at Ibrox in order for them to be best prepared for the future.
“In the last three or four years, the Academy has a culture of playing best v best,” said McCallum, as quoted by the Evening Times. “Whether that be at home in Scotland, in England or going abroad or further afield. The players are getting used to that now and it becomes normal for them to do that.
“The belief starts to grow when they get the chance to play against different styles, in different formations, and then they see performances reaching higher levels.
“While we want to support them as best we can, there comes a point when you are playing in front of 50,000 at Ibrox that you have got to figure it out for yourself because your coaches can’t always get the message on to you in time.”
In terms of on the pitch, the Gers are sitting eight points behind Celtic in the table and they are in the quarter-finals of the Scottish Cup with a replay to play against Aberdeen.
There is no doubt that since Gerrard’s arrival, the club has shown vasts amounts of improvements, with the January transfer window seeing a number of experienced faces come through the doors.
Premier League duo, Jermain Defoe and Steven Davis were signed on loan deals from Bournemouth and Southampton, respectively.
But despite the arrival of Defoe, it is the form of highly-rated youngster Alfredo Morelos that is keeping the club ticking throughout this campaign. He has scored 28 goals for the club in 41 matches their term [transfermarkt].
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