RANGERS manager Steven Gerrard has backed club captain James Tavernier to bounce back from his penalty miss at Kilmarnock, and says that he has the trust of the squad to continue with the responsibility of taking spot-kicks.
The Ibrox full-back has scored eight penalties so far in the Premiership this season and a further three in European competition, but missed from the spot against St Mirren recently in a game where he scored another two penalties, and then saw his effort from 12 yards saved by Daniel Bachmann at Rugby Park.
But Gerrard has no doubts around his skipper’s ability to put those misses out of his mind and make sure he converts his next penalty when it comes.
“I think if you look at Tav’s record, he’s been quite consistent,” Gerrard told Rangers TV.
“He’s disappointed with the penalty against Kilmarnock, because I don’t think it has went where he intended it to go, but in the main he has been very consistent, and he certainly has the trust of me and the players from the penalty spot and he has the character to bounce back.
“If we get a penalty again, James will take it.
“I don’t think you can ever criticise a penalty taker unless they do something ridiculous. If he makes his decision and goes with it and it and doesn’t get it right, we back him.
“He’s taken some really big penalties for us and delivered, so that’s where we get our trust and confidence from.
“We can’t just look at that incident and point at that. There were 11 men and subs that came on to do the job, and we never did it, but we get another chance and the main thing is we are still in the cup.”
Gerrard raised some eyebrows when he selected Tavernier as club captain in the summer, but he says that the qualities he saw in the 28-year-old are the very same ones that will see him recover quickly from his disappointment in Ayrshire.
“I could only judge James from the outside,” Gerrard said. “I really liked the ability and the talent, and I knew he was very well liked.
“I asked a lot of questions about the character in the squad, and I just felt he needed that responsibility to take his game to the next level.
“It was also an opportunity to show James how much we wanted him to stay here. He’s been at Rangers a long time and it has been up and down to say the least, and what he has given over the years, it would be very nice if he rewards himself and the supporters with some success.
“That was a big reason why we thought he was the man for the job, but we want as many leaders in that team and in that squad as we can get.”
Gerrard has given his squad a couple of days off this week, changing his schedule because of the Scottish Cup replay they now have against Kilmarnock next midweek, and he hopes that will mean his players are fresh when St Johnstone come to Ibrox on Saturday as they shake off the disappointment of the result at Rugby Park.
“With us missing a penalty and Kilmarnock not really causing us many problems, I think we look at the game and think we could have been a little bit better in the final third to win the game on the night,” he said.
“But I think defensively there were a lot of positives, and there were a few individuals who stood out, so we’ll take that and now we have home advantage to try and get the job done at Ibrox.
“We were a lot better than we were in the league game a few weeks ago. We never made any stupid mistakes or gifted them anything so that was quite pleasing, but to miss the penalty and we a few chances, that was frustrating.
“We have had the three days to prepare for St Johnstone, so hopefully they go into the game really fresh.”
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