Rangers’ early exits in both cup competitions last season left a sour taste in their mouth despite them winning the Scottish Premiership title at a canter.
Gerrard has vowed to make Rangers do better in the cups and his side will be in action tonight at Ibrox in the Scottish League Cup quarter-finals against Livingston.
Craigan stressed that Gerrard would be wise to play his full-strength side in the game and not take risks by experimenting with his team selections as not winning a cup is still an issue for him and his Rangers side.
He does not expect the Rangers manager to take risks and jeopardise a chance to be in the semi-finals of the Scottish League Cup at Hampden Park.
The former Scottish Premiership star said on the Go Radio Football Show: “No risks whatsoever because you are talking there about not winning the cup.
“That will be bugging the life out of Steven Gerrard because every time a cup competition comes up and he goes to do a pre-match press conference or an after-match press conference, they ask him, ‘you haven’t won a cup yet’.
“He will know tomorrow night, no risks.
“Even if they won at the weekend I still don’t think he would have taken any risks.
“The cup is so important, if they lose a couple of league games there is still plenty of time to recover and get those points back.
“But in cup football, it’s a knockout and he can’t afford to take any risks to put the game in danger.”
Rangers exited both cup competitions last season without even reaching the semi-finals.
