Steven Gerrard says Rangers lacked quality in final third at Livingston

Sunday 30 September 2018 16:50, UK

Rangers manager Steven Gerrard admitted that his side got what they deserved as they lost 1-0 at newly-promoted Livingston on Sunday.

Dolly Menga's strike was enough for Livi, who are now level on points with second-placed Hibernian after a run of four wins in five matches.

Meanwhile, Rangers have slipped to sixth and Gerrard decried the quality of his team's final ball as they failed to create the chances to trouble Livingston.

"It's three points dropped," Gerrard told Sky Sports. "Livingston deserved it; we didn't create enough. I've got no complaints in terms of the scoreline.

"We never had enough quality in terms of crosses, in terms of trying to disrupt their back three. When we got into good areas, we either overhit the cross, underhit it or they defended well.

"In the final third we were nowhere near good enough. We could have been playing for another couple of days and still not have scored.

"We've had a lot of credit for scoring goals and being ruthless but now we have to take the criticism and I have to tell the players that it's not good enough. The squad's getting healthy now - there's a lot of competition - and one thing you don't want to do is play your way out of the team."

Next up for Rangers is a Europa League tie at home to Rapid Vienna before they host Premiership leaders Hearts at Ibrox next Sunday.

And Gerrard delivered a stark warning to his squad about their title hopes.

"Hearts was a must-win game whether we won, drew or lost today," he said later in his press conference. "They are the team to chase right now, they have come out of the blocks flying.

"It is still early on in the season so we can recover from a result like this like we recovered from the Old Firm loss. But this can't keep happening.

"When we come and play teams like Livingston we have to try and take maximum points, otherwise we won't be in the title race."