‘Fantastic time to be at Rangers’: Gerrard highlights change that’s put Ibrox side on brink of glory

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Rangers need just seven more points to be crowned champions

Steven Gerrard has hailed the improved mentality of his players as they move closer to winning the club’s first top-tier title since 2011.

15 points ahead of Celtic with a game in hand, Gerrard stands on the brink of denying the club’s rivals a historic tenth successive title.

While there were significant signs of improvement in his first two seasons at Ibrox, both campaigns saw Rangers fall away after the winter break.

That hasn’t been the case this time around, with the league leaders still unbeaten in 30 Premiership games, having conceded just nine goals.

They’ve also reached the Europa League’s last 16 for the second consecutive season, and the air of optimism around Ibrox is in stark contrast to the doom and gloom engendered by a 1-0 home defeat against Hamilton Accies this time last year.

As quoted by Record Sport, Gerrard paid tribute to the improvement shown by his troops during his press conference on Tuesday.

He said: “Really impressed with the mentality. We’ve spoken about it on numerous times about where we’ve been trying to get to and what we’ve been striving for and it is that level of consistency and hunger.

“I can’t pay the players any more credit really because from day one from pre-season they’ve all been focused and sacrificed a lot, and their application has been spot on on the training pitch and the level of intensity in training has come out in the games.

“That’s certainly helped us get to this point. I don’t see any nerves.

“I think if you look at our last performances they’ve been a really high level and I want to see that from now until the end of the season.”

Asked if he had seen a difference between now and last year, Gerrard replied: “I’ve definitely seen improvement. I’ve seen a squad that has evolved really well, individuals getting better and maturing and with experience we’ve grown as a group, 100%.

“This is a fantastic time to be at Rangers.

“The excitement levels are high, there’s so much on the horizon to be excited about but I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, nothing is achieved as of yet as we sit here so we’ve got to go grab it and achieve it, and the only way to do that is put in a performance that’s good enough.”