STEVEN Gerrard said last night that it was time for his Rangers players to carry the “ruthless and relentless” streak they showed in the second half against Villarreal into their domestic matches. The Englishman reckons that his side haven’t always shown self-belief this season – the defeat at Celtic Park would be one example – but the 2-2 Europa League draw against Villarreal in Spain should bolster confidence that they are capable of hurting even the continent’s better teams. Gerrard is desperate to foster the kind of consistency that was badly missing under the reigns of some of his recent predecessors, a message which he rammed home ahead of tomorrow’s meeting with St Johnstone.

“If we use ‘character’ and ‘mentality’ to praise the squad then if there’s a word that sums up where we need to improve it’s definitely ‘belief’,” said Gerrard. “Even going back to Shkupi, Osijek, Maribor at certain times, a lot of our play in the first two thirds of the pitch is very good and strong and we get into good areas but we lack that little bit of belief to go and hurt teams but last night in the second half against Villarreal we did that. The players took the shackles off and really went for it and showed they can really hurt good players and good teams.

“I think we are capable of a 90-minutes performance now, I think that will happen the more we are together, the more we grow and get used to each other,” he added. “When I took the job and sat down at Rangers, a couple of words kept cropping up in all of the talks. And that was to be ruthless and relentless. This club has been built on players who have that mentality - where they want to win every game, they don't pick and choose their games.

“That has always stuck with me from day one - you have to find consistency and be ruthless and relentless. So I want my players to be like that. I don't want them to start games really well then come off the gas. Or say we are playing this team this week, but that game is bigger on paper, that game is more important. No, every game is. That is the challenge for me. Keeping the players motivated and keeping their standards up in every single game. That is where I believe we can achieve some success that has been missing.

“To be fair to the players, there are not many times when I can criticise them. They have had pockets when they have maybe come off the gas and switched off. There were 45 minutes against Celtic where we stayed in a shell and didn’t believe. There was a little bit of that in the first half against Villarreal. But in the main, I think they players have been excellent.”