Steven Gerrard and Brendan Rodgers only spent three seasons together while the former played for the latter at Liverpool, but those 36 months were plenty memory — for reasons both good and bad.
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The duo — with a bit of help from Luis Suarez and Daniel Sturridge, if memory serves well — nearly won the Premier League title in 2014, but the two reportedly had a falling-out over Gerrard’s role as he approached his 35th birthday the following season. In the end, Rodgers won out as Gerrard left his boyhood club for one an adventure with the LA Galaxy. Rodgers’ victory was short-lived, though, as he was fired five months later.
On Sunday, Gerrard and Rodgers will meet again — only this time, it’ll be as adversaries, each of them pacing the technical area for a Glaswegian giant (7 a.m. ET).
While much will understandably be made of the reunion, Gerrard insists there is no friction between himself and his former manager. He won’t treat Sunday’s showdown at Celtic Park any differently than he would the usual Old Firm derby, which never needs any additional spice added to it in the first place — quotes from the Guardian:
“I think everybody wants there to be a problem. I think they want a UFC match on the side. There’s no problem, [our relationship] is fine.
“I know a lot about him and his tactics. I know how he wants to play but Brendan is a clever coach and always has something up his sleeve. The reason why I respect him as a coach is that he always had something different. I think it would be very naive of me to expect what we see a lot of from the Celtic team. It wouldn’t surprise me if he tried something different to try and catch us cold. That’s what he would do as Liverpool manager.”
Rangers haven’t beaten Celtic in a league game since 2011. Gerrard and Co., have their work cut out for them, to say the least.
