Steven Gerrard: Rangers manager has a taste for success at Ibrox says former team-mate Jamie Carragher

With the Old Firm game lurching into view, it remains to be seen whether Rangers manager Steven Gerrard will take up his usual spot in the Ibrox home dugout.

The Scottish Premiership-winning boss did not travel with his side as they squeaked by Alashkert in the Europa League play-offs on Thursday following a Covid-19 outbreak at the club. Instead, with two sleeps to go, his whereabouts on Sunday morning remain shrouded in ambiguity.

Yet, according to former Liverpool and England team-mate Jamie Carragher, Gerrard will be occupying a position at the heart of the Glasgow derby battle for many more seasons to come.

"He's had it with the European nights, but Stevie has got the taste for Rangers now and Glasgow," Carragher told BBC Scotland.

"I'm not putting words in his mouth, I'd imagine he'd be looking at maybe another two or three years where he wants to really dominate Scotland and put Rangers back up there.

"Rather than stopping the 10 in a row, actually put Rangers on a run of winning cups and trophies - and hopefully get them into the Champions League next year."

The rivalry between Celtic and Rangers is like no other. The intensity is ferocious. Some thrive in the heat of battle, others wilt amid the fever that gets whipped up every few months.

Gerrard has his own derby story though. For Liverpool, he played 33 games against Everton. On his watch, the red half of Liverpool tasted defeated just five times - and not once in any game their heroic captain scored in, such was his influence while on song.

"It was very difficult for Stevie Gerrard to go up a level at anything because he was almost top notch," said Carragher, who spent 15 years in the Anfield first team with Gerrard.

"He'd admit himself he sometimes crossed the line at different stages in those games. I think a lot of his red cards were in those derbies. Maybe it was hard for him to control his emotions because they meant so much to him.

"One for Stevie was when he was actually taken off in a derby game at Goodison. Even though we won the game and at the end he was celebrating on the pitch with us, I think he went to see Rafa [Benitez] right after the game at Melwood as he wasn't too pleased.

"It's what makes him special. He's a competitor and he's a winner. You can see that in some of the celebrations he's had. You think back to the one at Celtic Park a few years ago when he was [shouting] in the camera. But that's Steven Gerrard. That feeling in Glasgow is the same as in our city. Maybe even more."

Carragher remains convinced that the Old Firm fixture played a key role in luring his pal and former team-mate to Glasgow over three years ago, insisting the hunger to beat Celtic will remain a driver.

"It's the rivalry, it's when everyone down in England really takes notice," he said. "Everyone watches the Old Firm game.

"That would have been a top draw, as was the fact Celtic were top dogs and it was about trying to knock them off their perch. That's what he did last season. He'll want to keep that going being the competitor he is."

The Liverpudlian has orchestrated an Old Firm derby miracle in Govan. Prior to his arrival to much pomp and ceremony, Celtic held a watertight grip in this fixture. Unbeaten in 11, Brendan Rodgers' team had also won nine of them.

Spring forward to the present and Gerrard not just goes into this Sunday's joust unbeaten in their past six in this fixture - with five wins - but with a Scottish Premiership trophy nestled upstairs in the cabinet.

"If you're a Rangers manager and you come in when Celtic are winning things, you can't expect other teams in the division to beat them, you've to do your job," added the former Liverpool and England defender. "Stevie would have been well aware of that. Take them on head on - and that's what he's done.

"If you don't do well in the Old Firm games, then you're not going to win the league - and that goes for Celtic as well. Stevie knew he had to change that."

Rangers go into Sunday's game on the crest of a turbulent wave. Europa League football until Christmas has been swept in, but the Champions League tide has since gone out after being sunk by Malmo.

Those two defeats, as well as one in the league to Dundee United, have been accentuated by underwhelming showings both home and away to Armenian minnows Alashkert. It's job done, but it's been far from swashbuckling stuff.

"It'll not be worrying him. Looking at his interviews, it's probably angering him," said Carragher of Gerrard's interview after last week's 1-0 first-leg win.

"I saw his interview after the European game and it seemed that he's not happy with the level Rangers are at at this moment, how they they are performing or the results they're getting.

"It looks like he is letting the players know and the Rangers supporters responded to that. That's what they want from Stevie. The start of the season isn't quite what they wanted, but Stevie is clever enough to know the Rangers we saw last season will come to fruition sooner or later.

"He'll be wanting that in the Old Firm game."

And what would Carragher the player make of Gerrard the manager?

"Aw, I think we'd have got on all right. I'd have loved to have played for Steven Gerrard, no doubt," said the 43-year-old.

"I saw his standards every day on the training pitch at Melwood. I wasn't a bad player, either, so I think he'd have probably liked me as well."