STEVEN Gerrard has admitted he hasn’t watched replays of Rangers’ embarrassing defeat to Progres Niederkorn ahead of their opening Europa League match with FK Shkupi next week.
The Ibrox club crashed to one of the worst results in their history at the hands of the Luxembourgian minnows in the first qualifying round of the competition last year.
The 2-1 aggregate loss led to calls from supporters for Pedro Caixinha to be replaced as manager and the Portuguese coach was sacked in October.
But Gerrard, whose new-look side defeated English League Two club Bury 6-0 in a pre-season friendly at Ibrox on Friday night in front of 41,105 fans, is unconcerned by the humiliation.
The Liverpool and England great knows his side will come unstuck if they underestimate their Macedonian rivals on Thursday evening and then on Tuesday week.
“I haven’t watched the two games,” he said. “With all due respect, I’m not really interested in the two games. They’re nothing to do with me. They were played under the previous manager.
“Obviously, it was one of those games. If you don’t approach games in European competition with the right attitude and mentality you can face major problems. It doesn’t matter if it’s the first qualifying round or it’s the semi-final, if you don’t approach it right you’re in trouble.”
Gerrard added: “I don’t think we can worry about the second leg. We worry about Thursday night. We have to make sure we bring a performance that is capable of coming away with a win.
“I don’t want to put a scoreline on it or an expectation because there is enough expectation on the players. It is my job to take that away from them.
“I just need to make sure that the players are ready, focused, don’t disrespect any opposition and come in with the right mentality. I am confident if we come in with the right mentality, focus and concentration we will be okay.”
Meanwhile, Gerrard has reiterated that qualifying for the Europa League group stages has to be Rangers’ objective this season even though he only took over at the beginning of June.
“It’s going to be tough, of course it is,” he said. “I am not going to deny that. It will be a very tough task and a very tough challenge, but that’s what we’re here for.
“I knew that coming in. I knew all our targets, everything we’re trying to achieve will be tough and tricky and difficult. But there is no point in me talking about that to the players because you have to deal with the first one first.
“It is about Thursday. We will deal with Thursday and then we move on to Tuesday. That is all we can focus on.”
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