Steven Gerrard believes the signings he has made at Rangers have already improved his squad significantly but said that he isn't finished with signings yet.

The new manager has transformed his squad with nine new signings as he looks to improve the club's fortunes after their third-placed finish last season.

Though Gerrard said he had done the bulk of his recruitment but also said he planned more, with a central defender to replace Bruno Alves high on his agenda. However, he said there was no fixed number or targets and he would know when he's happy with the balance.

"We're nearly there," he said. "There's no number on it.

"We'll be there when we're there, when I see that the team and the squad is strong enough to compete against the best sides domestically and also against teams that we're going to come up against in the Europa League so that's when we'll be ready. It's very difficult to put a number on that."

The side that faces FK Shkupi in the Europa League first round qualifier on Thursday will be hugely different from the team that finished last season but Gerrard doesn't anticipate any problem in bedding in so many new faces.

"Good players are on the same wavelength and good players gel pretty quickly," he said.

"That's what we've gone into the transfer market for: for good players, for talent. We're trying to get the right balance and the right blend of what this team needs and where we felt this squad was short when we came in.

"We feel we've already improved things a lot but there's still some pieces missing. We'll try to get them in."

Umar Sadiq and Lassana Coulibaly were only added to the group on Tuesday and may not have international clearance in time for the match but Gerrard feels that Coulibaly is one type of player he didn't have and feels is an important addition.

"He's a destroyer-type midfielder," he said. "He's very different to what we've got here.

"He's played at the top level in France and I watched him in numerous games over 90 minutes but the game I was really impressed with him was against Paris St Germain, against world class players, when he broke play up and he kept the ball really simple. He did an excellent job.

"He's one I've had an eye on for a while. He's aggressive, he snaps into tackles, he's physically very strong and he'll add a bit of power in the engine room for us."