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https://www.gersnet.co.uk/index.php/news-category/current-affairs/1157-heroes-scoring-zeroes

Wednesday night at Ibrox was a complete nightmare. To the goal we lost, to the chances we missed, to the final result, to Celtic dropping points, to the traffic afterwards; what could go wrong, did go wrong and I have to admit it took me until this morning to update our main with the match highlights. Then, for some reason, despite being unable to sleep after that result the other night, I decided to watch the bulk of the game, as sometimes it's worth doing so on TV as you can miss some stuff actually being there. At Ibrox, I thought we did OK up until Hamilton scored, then lost confidence as the crowd lost their patience. Yet, without playing well per se, we actually didn't do as bad as I thought later in the match and how we didn't score at least once in the 90mins was quite incredible. Of course the reaction to the result has been that of outrage, quickly followed by resentment. And, given recent events and performances, that's understandable. Petty it might be but it's also easy to appreciate supporter indignation when under-fire players feel sorry for themselves in press interviews, whilst driving away from stadiums in six figure super cars. Quite simply complaining about struggling with the pressure won't wash with fans expectant of success - or at the very least a goal or two across two matches against the Premiership's bottom two teams. Let's be honest; when players sign for Rangers, they should be made for life; most will earn thousands per week and the opportunity of millions over their career. The same can't be said for the lads Hamilton play. Often moving from club-to-club for the chance to impress for a small capped wage is more likely and when they do retire from the sport, they won't have pension investments and property portfolios to rely on. That's a pressure more in line with supporters, who often struggle to make ends meet following their club. Nevertheless, we can't have it both ways. When Rangers were winning title after title or, in this era, erm, doing well in European games, we didn't ask what kind of car our captain was driving or how well paid they were. Nor did we complain about how much it cost us. Football is football and, as much as the money floating about - even at SPFL level - can be eye-watering and impossible to relate to for most of us, players deserve to be paid, even when they play badly. C'est la vie. For Rangers fans, as much as we demand success, we also expect effort and application to be just as prevalent. Similarly, as much as we can forgive the occasional mistake, not learning from them must be one of our biggest frustrations. That's why James Tavernier and Connor Goldson have been the focus of so much scorn this week. Our captain and vice-captain respectively, both have sold the jerseys in our last two games and it really is impossible to explain their mindset. Was it over-confidence or a lack of ability? It can't be the latter as both have shown they are good players when focused so it has to be the former which is misplaced when the team is struggling so badly. It's with merit then that supporters expect both to be dropped for our next game. After all, other players have suffered from such: be it Niko Katic, Ryan Kent, Glen Kamara or various others for their poor form. If the manager wants to retain the respect of those players and other fringe lads, who still can't get into what is now a losing team, then surely he can't favour player A over player B when they cost us points? Unfortunately, football isn't quite as simple as that. First and foremost, whilst Ross County (a team who have never beaten us...yet) may not represent the kind of challenge that shouldn't allow us to 'rotate' our side and 'rest' a few struggling players - even key ones - we've all seen how much we've laboured against other clubs in the bottom half of the Premiership of late. More importantly though, it's the games following that one that are of more interest, being them against Bayer Leverkusen in the last 16 of the Europa League and those either side of the third Old Firm league match of the campaign. Any title aspirations may be all but gone and our chances of beating the Germans 50/50 at best but these are vital matches nonetheless and perhaps not the time for an erratic Jon Flanagan or the inexperience of Nathan Patterson at right back. And can we really rely on an untested partnership of Katic and Edmundson centrally? Sure, someone like Patterson or a Matt Polster (if properly fit) should arguably be playing in Dingwall and why not test out a new centre-back pairing while we're at it? And don't forget to chuck in Halliday at left-back since Borna Barisic has reverted to his fickle form of last season. Are you more or less confident of European progression and another win over Celtic? The fact is, as much as key players like Tav and Goldson have let us down badly (and I mean really badly) of late, I'm not quite ready to give up on them yet and I also don't feel offering up one or two scapegoats works either. It's like saying we can't play Morelos again for missing chances or that Kent will never pay back his inflated transfer fee. At 23, those two lads are still fairly young and still learning. They need our support, as difficult as that may seem when they spurn a chance or pass it out the park. With all the above in mind then, how do we approach Sunday and the subsequent run of three very tough fixtures? Do we drop Goldson, Tav, Davis and the rest of the players letting us down? Or do we show our supposed insanity by sticking with those failing us? Well, it's my preview, and as much as I completely understand and share the calls for changes to the team, I'm disinclined to do so right now. At the start of the year no-one could have seen this 2020 collapse coming (sic) but collapse it has. I won't pretend to know how so many key players have been so bad. And, for what it's worth, I don't think it was Dubai's training camp, a dressing room fall-out, a broken system or any other daft rumour. I believe it's just been the perfect storm of key player form, suspension and injury. Occam's razor, m'lud. If we consider Tav, Barisic, Jack, Davis, Kent and Morelos to be our key players (and they are) then none have shown any sort of good form this year. That's also more than half our team. I'd fancy if Foster, Julien, McGregor, Brown, Christie, Forrest and Edouard stopped doing the business for Celtic, they'd also struggle. Only twice have our six key players played in the same starting XI this year and it's no coincidence we won both matches (v Hibs and Braga). However, that's not an excuse and that's where criticism of the manager comes in for not being able to adapt: either in terms of ensuring we have the squad able to cope and/or changing the system to suit. Consequently, it's no surprise to see the manager's position being questioned as well. Criticism has been increasing - from his tactics to his (over)-reliance and protection of some players. How can younger lads like Katic be thrown under buses for costing goals whilst their supposed peers are excused for same? That puzzles fans and it's something the manager could do with explaining. As should his apparent inability to address his squad's keenness to prefer an underdog status at a club that has historically been the favourite. Ultimately, there are more questions than answers for this Rangers team. For every win over Celtic, there's a loss to Hearts. For every European tactical master plan there's a struggle to deal with even the most basic of Scottish football presses. It seems for every step forward, there's the inevitable step back. But, surely, even after the events of Wednesday night we can't throw the baby out with the bathwater? And we certainly cannot afford another change of management and other 15+ player rebuild in the summer. Yes, it seems a cheap and increasingly irrelevant claim right now but we have made progress. As a departure from the norm, I'm now going to post two possible teams for Sunday. OK, it's taking it to extremes a wee bit, but one will offer all the changes many fans seem desperate to see. The other will offer something that may seen even more silly and go against every emotion we felt leaving Glasgow the other night: in other words one or two enforced changes but effectively a defence for an XI that (all merited criticism aside) were actually a wee bit unlucky the other night and an XI we know are a good team capable of winning big games. When you see the two XIs together, you'll soon realise it's not really a choice and, as much as I'm still raging with several players, I still believe good players don't turn wholly bad overnight and our team's form will only return by playing our best players and supporting them through bad times. That may go against the current mood but I don't see many credible alternatives. Be gentle, please! Possible XI (a) Possible XI (b)

He did set up a couple of chances for others, was unlucky when the keeper pulled of a great chance and was even unluckier when his header came off the bar. His link up play, particularly in the first half was generally good as well. He didn't get a lot of room in the second half after we overloaded the box and resorted to crosses. I don't want Morelos tiring himself out running for lost causes or trying to do the job of others. I find the suggestion that he wasn't trying enough strange.

Goldson is consistently one of our best performers. One brain fart doesn't mean he should be dropped. Likewise with Edmundson; a couple of "mistakes" is not enough to suggest he should be dropped, especially when Katic was only dropped after he went through a prolonged period of poor form. Edmundson has not had a decent run of games yet. Tavernier has been consistently poor for a while, so a spell on the injury list could be a blessing in disguise for both him and the team.

Rangers are underdogs for this match so the team can relax and probably win.

Agree Frankie. When watching again we made enough chances to win comfortably. Their keeper made a couple of fine saves, add to that being unlucky on a few occasions and throw in a couple of bad finishes It's strange how we didn't manage to score. The fact that they scored with only making a couple of chances for themselves and the one that mattered was gift wrapped helped make the whole night so hard to stomach.

I thought Morelos worked hard and was unlucky. Actually, I rewatched much of the game last night and it's incredible we didn't get at least one goal.

Good stuff from @Stevie - 4lads Blog here in a lengthy interview with Charles Paterson. King, Gerrard, club progress and more all covered... https://www.skysports.com/football/news/11788/11950598/rangers-reviewed-after-five-years-under-dave-king-progress-but-still-no-silverware There will be another part, including a video next week...

I think it says MacGregor blamed Barasic. For me the goal was 100% Goldson to blame. He had the best opportunity to clear & didn’t. However for me the bigger problem on the night was our failure to score at home against the team at the bottom of the league. Totally unacceptable.

This is great news for the club. One of the best in many a year. Elfideldo will have seen more of him than I but I have seen Leon off and on since he was about 8 when my own kid played against him just prior to him signing for the club (was previously at Barrhead BC). Very humble young man with great desire, great physique and has a very bright future in the game in my opinion. Kevin Thomson told me last year that Leon "has everything to make it to the top of the game". Had the pleasure to speak to him for a few minutes when he trained with Kevin in January along with my son. I also heard, from a very good source, that Man U said Leon was "the best of his age group in the whole of Europe". Here's hoping we see him continue to be involved around the senior team and, hopefully, make an appearance or two before the season is out. Signed till 2022

No doubt Goldson made a massive blunder against Accies, but in true team spirit ,that should've at least been the catalyst for his team mates to dig him out of a hole. Of course Goldson took all the flack ,but it says as much about the rest of the team as it does Goldson.

When your manager and players repeatedly make public statements that they’re “hurting” you can be sure of only two things. They’re bullshitting you and they’ve no idea what to do next. This is absolutely the last thing I wanted to hear from Gerrard today. As much as I want him to succeed, this is as depressing as it’s insulting.

Absolutely agree. I'm very disappointed no announcement has been made today regarding a new captain.

Firstly, what a great article by @fateck. I get what you're saying about Morelos working hard, but unlucky? I play golf with my best mate and another guy. My mate hits his shots into the trees and every time this other guy says "ah unlucky pal". He's been saying this for months. The simple fact is that my mate is not unlucky, he is just hits too many bad shots too often. Morelos is the same. Morelos can be unplayable at times. Before Christmas he played with a smile on his face and it's no wonder that this translated into terrific play and goals from him. He looked moody from the start of 2020 again and its little wonder his head isn't right. I can see it. You can see it. Everyone can see it, and yet Gerrard keeps playing him. Our manager is to blame for this shambles at the moment. It's not his fault that players are out of form, but its 100% his fault when he keeps playing them regardless. When I saw the team the other night I almost posted something before the game started. I was going to post that Gerrard has to go or get a good assistant in to help him with the man management side of his role. He just does not understand the damage he is doing to this team by persevering with some of these players. The reason I didnt post it however is because I wanted to be wrong so watched the game anyway. It really doesn't matter if we go on an unbeaten run in the league until the end of the season. It will make no difference to me. My fear in fact is that we do something like this and then lull ourselves into a sense of false optimism. In my opinion, there isn't too much wrong with this team. We do need a leader or two on the pitch. We clearly have none so there is no point giving the captaincy to anyone else currently at the club. What we do need though is for our manager to take the steps required to demonstrate to the players, fans, and everyone at the club that this will not be tolerated. He has failed to do that and yet had he done so by dropping certain players, we would have recovered quickly and could have sustained our title challenge. In this next game at the weekend, he must drop Goldson, Tav, Davis and others. Regardless of the result, this will help stabilise us in the medium term. If he persists with them in this upcoming game, regardless of the result we will continue to create a poor culture. I hope he makes the right decisions. If I see them all in the starting eleven again I am not ashamed to say that I will not be watching and I'll be unlikely to go to any other games this season. In all my years of supporting my team I've never felt like this before. I think I'm so sore about it because we are so close, it's easy to fix, but needs the strength and skills in management to fix it. Please Steven Gerrard, make the right decision for all our sakes.

I'm always left starting at the screen for several seconds after reading @FatEck's words. I feel guilty reading it for free.

It’s a fairly balanced piece by 4lads but there’s no escaping the management team have made mistakes in recent weeks & have shown favouritism to certain players which has cost us. And I’m not sure how Barasic was to blame for Hamilton’s goal the other night !! Goldson 100% as far as I was concerned

Not really Compo? That's where I and many others sit in a weekly basis. Why should we be forced to move or lose out on a seat because the club allow filth like that in? Never again should they be afforded 7000 tickets. I think 800 is too many, but am happy for them to have it and sit in the corner if they must. They just can't fill their midden for OF games and want the blue pound.

Ok I'll go for it 5 - 0 Morelos

Absolutely no way. They aren't having the Broomloan again. Ever!