Steven Gerrard on Rangers tie with 'Champions League' Lyon, Filip Helander Injury and Connor Goldson return - Points from the Presser

The Rangers manager admitted the French side at full strength are a "Champions League" team, but added his men must be confident of their own strengths ahead of the clash.

Gerrard also provided updates on the injury to Fil Helander, availability of Ianis Hagi and return of Connor Goldson.

Joshua Barrie analyses the manager's comments from his pre-Lyon press conference.

On Lyon's slow start to the season

“First and foremost when a new manager comes into a team it takes time to build a system and a way of playing. It takes time for the players and the manager to get used to each other.

“I think Lyon have high-level players, it’s a big club. I think a club that should be in the Champions League in my opinion. They’ve also got a very experienced manager. So, we’re under no illusion how tough this game is and we’ve got big respect for the team that we’re going to be playing tomorrow."

As the Rangers Review covered in our match preview, Lyon haven't set the heather on fire so far this season.

Under the new management of Peter Bosz, they've lost two of their five opening Ligue 1 fixtures.

Despite this, a more promising match against Strasbourg on Sunday indicates that Bosz' ideas are beginning to be put into practice.

On Fil Helander’s injury

“Fil’s had surgery in the last 24/48 hours to fix an issue that they spotted when they went inside to have a look so, he will be missing for the foreseeable future.

“I’ve not yet spoken to Fil post-surgery, because it happened in the last 24 hours and I'm told he is still probably trying to get himself together after the surgery if you like.

READ MORE: 'The most talented squad' Rangers have faced with a 'pretty dreadful' start - what to expect from Lyon

"But I will be speaking to him in the near future to see on his mental state and also get an update on what the surgeon said to Fil from a one-to-one point of view.

"He’s a big player for us, he’s always been consistent and helped us since he's come in the door so he will be a miss and a loss, but again it’s the reason why its important to always have four centre-backs so you can cope when ones missing.

"So in terms of how long he's going to be out for, it’s difficult to put a timeframe on it, but he'll certainly be missing for at least a few months."

Not the news fans wanted to hear. Helander suffered a bad injury in his first season at Ibrox and was sorely missed after the winter break.

Some encouragement can be taken from the news that this isn't a season-ending injury, but regardless the Swede's absence could prove problematic domestically. Gerrard spoke well of Jack Simpson at the weekend, he will hope the ex-Bournemouth man can repay him in performances.

Is there an avenue to bring Katic back?

“Even if I had the opportunity to bring Niko back I wouldn’t make that decision because that would be very selfish of me. Niko is at a stage where he needs to play and play regularly now to get back to his level, so I think Niko is in the best place for that.

“I’m confident we’ve got the right amount of cover, assuming we don’t have any more issues. Obviously, Connor Goldson comes back and is available for tomorrow, we've also got certain players that can fill in this position as well if needs be. So, at the moment it’s obviously disappointing not to have Fil available, but we’ll manage."

Niko Katic recently went out on loan to get game time after a serious injury himself, and it seems there are no plans to cut that time away short.

Interestingly, Gerrard referenced that other players can provide cover at centre-back if needed. Perhaps Calvin Bassey and young Leon King are the deputies in mind?

Ianis Hagi update 

“We’re having conversations at the moment to try and get him back as soon as possible. I think after the news that the Scottish Government have made in the last 24 hours to allow players in who have been in red countries, we’re trying to get Ianis back as soon as possible."

Hagi tested positive for Covid-19 while on international duty, and his return date still seems up in the air.

After an early-season injury, Hagi will be desperate to get the ball rolling on his season again as soon as possible. With a busy few weeks, the sooner he is back, the better.

Where do Lyon rank compared to previous opposition?

“I think arguably the best, I think a full strength Lyon are in my opinion very much a Champions League team with Champions League calibre players.

READ MORE: The Rangers tweaks that can expose Lyon's 'exploitable weaknesses' as Steven Gerrard plans further Ibrox glory

"They’ve got a manager who got this job on the back of doing ever so well as the Bayer Leverkusen manager, he’s been here before, he knows what we’re about.

“So this is a real big test tomorrow and there is no doubt about it, we have to be at our best and that goes for both sides of the game, we have to have a high level of focus and concentration tomorrow because if you don’t against these teams you can be punished and punished very quickly.

"It’s a real good test for us, a good challenge but we’ve also got to have our own confidence and belief that we can play at this level and compete and at the right times during the game, we have to show bravery that we can go and hurt the opposition as well.

"We’re excited, we’re looking forward to it but we know the size of the challenge and it’s arguably the biggest we’ve had as a group."

Only Villareal and Porto rank higher than Lyon in the UEFA club coefficient, in regards to past opponents Gerrard has faced as Rangers manager.

This is a team that got to the Champions League semi-final just two seasons ago and signed a Premiership winner in Xherdan Shaqiri this summer.

Add into that Brazillian playmaker Lucas Paqueta, Houssem Aouar and Jerome Boateng and the size of the task is visibly huge.

But neither Porto nor Villareal left Ibrox with a win, supporters will be confident that if Rangers hit their level, they can pull off another European shock.