John Lundstram's 'outstanding' Rangers impact celebrated - every Steven Gerrard presser word

Here's everything that was said.

Steven, that was hard-fought but your emotion at the end told it all?

“I really enjoyed that today, I really enjoyed our performance, a top of the table clash against a really strong team. You said we were made to work hard for it but that was no surprise because Hibs have started the season strong, they’re in a good place, Jack’s got them well-drilled and they’re a good footballing team so we expected a tough challenge.

“It could get a bit complicated after eight/nine minutes when we conceded a goal but I thought that was against the run of play because I think for the majority of the game we controlled it, we’ve played some really nice football and we’ve found our invention and our variety in the final third, albeit against 10 men but sometimes you sit here as a manager and sometimes it’s harder against 10 men because there’s more men behind the ball.

“We’re a lot closer to where we want to be after today’s performance.#

“Listen, the support, the players, the staff, we’re going to need each other, to lift each other over the course of the season so that was the reason why I wanted to show a bit of emotion at the end of the game and I make no apology for that.”

Was it a sense of relief with the international break coming up, did you ask the players to leave it all on the pitch?

“That’s what I see my team do, I see Ianis Hagi bent over struggling to breathe, I see Nathan Patterson going down with cramp, I see Scott Wright with three/four kicks with ice all over his body, Joe Aribo and Glen Kamara I had to offload them because they looked jaded with the effort they put in last week.

“Today we flipped our formation to be a little bit more aggressive, little bit more on the front foot, we never waited today, we went after Hibs. The goal, I thought, was against the run of play but it was a fantastic goal from Hibs’ point of view, we need to defend that situation better.

“But the majority of the game and the big picture I was really happy with our performance.”

READ MORE: Rangers answer Ibrox questions as red card costs Hibs in top of the table clash

Steven, in terms of the way the team responded, particularly in that second half in what was a big pressure situation, is that maybe something that comes from the confidence of being the champions to be able to say even if we’re not playing at our best, we can gut this out, we can grit this out and work and get the win?

“Listen, we had to suck the blow-up first and foremost. When you’re in control and you concede a goal sometimes that’s a little bit more damaging so it was all about our reaction.

“I thought we reacted in a really mature way, we didn’t panic, we settled ourselves down after about five/ten minutes after conceding the goal. We did our best to get in the game before the half time whistle but half time gave us a chance to change a few things, lift the boys and get them to keep asking more questions and keep trying to work the goalkeeper.

“We had belief and confidence that we had enough time to turn the result around but the players deserve all the credit for that because they’re the ones that went out and provided the quality moments to get us back in the game. The two number 9s with two fantastic headers, two fantastic assists and their keeper has had to make another two/three really good saves to keep us out.

“It’s a lot more like us, how I want us to look, a lot more inventive, a lot more exciting and that’s probably the game I’ve enjoyed the most so far this season and it’s because we looked a little bit closer to how I wanted it to look.”

READ MORE: Rangers boss Steven Gerrard poses with Union Bears for photo at Ibrox

Steven, we spoke on Friday about this state of flux this season and it was another front three you started with today, despite all of that you’re still top of the league and only one point worse off than this stage last season going into the international break, what can you take from that?

“Listen, it’s still very early first and foremost, we can still improve and get better, we can still tweak. We’ll keep pushing and driving the team forward but we have to think it’s a positive place to be in considering that we haven’t maybe gone into our top gear or we haven’t found that spark or bit of life that obviously a lot of people keep mentioning.

“I appreciate that and understand it but we have had to deal with a lot of different things; injuries, suspensions, Covid. You know yesterday I was supposed to have Scott Arfield back in the team, he’s picked up an illness from his daughter from school, not Covid related but what we’ve found as a staff and what I’ve certainly found this season is curveballs are coming at you left right and centre and you’ve got to adapt and try and deal with that and as a team and a squad, we are because we’re in the place we want to be.

“But we can still get better and that’s the positive from my point of view.”

Steven, the change to bring on Kemar Roofe made a huge difference up front, obviously, before the game, you made six changes today, one of which was leaving the captain out, how difficult was that?

"It was difficult and I think it would have surprised a lot of people, which I appreciate, but Tav is capable of playing 55-60 games a season.

"I know he is because he is a machine and he is very robust but he had an injury at the back end of last season and as a manager and as a staff we feel in our first three years we have overused James.

"We've had back-ups to come in and offload him, but we haven't had back-ups the quality of Nathan Patterson who is a Scottish international. We have just as much trust in James as we have Nathan and vice-versa.

"We want maybe less games out of James, but more quality and foot to the floor. I believe that will help him career-wise and it will certainly help the group.

"The boys have to trust us and hopefully it will certainly pay dividends at the end of the season."

Another powerhouse display from John Lundstram?

“Yeah, I thought he was outstanding. John was rested in midweek. Steven Davis went to the well for us, he ran hard, he’s 36 years of age, he’s going to go and play in big important qualifiers so it made sense in terms of that decision. We knew at some point in the game we’d need Davo’s control and head and maturity but I’m not surprised John got Man of the Match, I thought he was outstanding in everything that he did.”

Hi Steven, you seem to have pride in the squad and the team today, you must be exceptionally pleased that what you’ve asked them to really deliver a performance against a team who are top of the table that they did that for you?

“Yeah, and we’re going to have to do it more than just today. I’d say 99% of what we asked in terms of the game plan, in terms of mentality, in terms of individually what we asked and demanded from the players today they went and did it.

“Not only did they do it, they did it after a big setback because to concede in the first 10 minutes, sometimes that can take your game plan away, people can start doing different things but the boys are showing they are maturing, they’re getting better and with experience from last year I think we’re benefiting from that now moving forward.”

Steven, can I just ask your thoughts on the red card?

“It’s a red card, 100%. As someone who knows a thing or two about bad tackles because I’ve made a few myself, it doesn’t come much worse than that.

“To go in at that speed, at that force with that height, if he had connected with Joe Aribo, Joe Aribo’s season would’ve been done for sure.

“This kid did one similar on Lassana Coulibaly a little while ago and he obviously hasn’t learned his lesson and hopefully he learns moving forward because he’s let Jack down today and his staff and his players.

“They’re 1-0 up, if he wants to play the ball he can play the ball but he decides to go a foot over the ball and he’s running at some speed.

“Thankfully it wasn’t full contact otherwise Joe Aribo would’ve been in trouble.