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The jury is always out, that's the nature of football management, particularly if you're the Rangers manager. You're only a run of bad results away from criticism and questions, they know this when they take the job. GvB inherited a squad that had hit some wonderful heights last season but was stuttering this season. Our recruitment in the summer hasn't really strengthened us. Sakala reminds me of Lovenkrands, great when he's got space to run into, but he won't contribute a lot against 10 men defences sitting deep. Lundstrom has looked better recently but has taken 6 months to find his form and position. Scott Wright is a bit part player at best and Jack Simpson doesn't seem to have won the confidence of Gerrard or GvB, I expect he'll be back in The Championship in the summer. The least said about the signing of Ofoborh the better. Added to Goldson, Arfield, Balogun, Davis and McGregor all in the final months of their contracts, all senior pros at the club and I expect the guys who 'run' the dressing room and you could see a less that ideal atmosphere to inherit. In January our squad was weakened. Patterson, despite not making any impact at Everton, was an exceptional talent. Ramsay is clearly struggling with injury and is using us as an attempt to get fit, Dialo is a young player who has tricks but little heart or desire from what i've seen. The young Polish lad might prove an astute buy, time will tell. Add that to Aribo having to go to Africa and come back half the player who left. None of this is GvB's doing. GvB got our tactics so wrong against Celtic it's still painful to speak about it. But he got them so right against Prague and Dortmund. The lack of rotation and subs in recent games has puzzled. I feel that's connected to fitness or illness, I mean it's not like the Dutch don't understand how subs work. I can't help but feel there's more to this than we know. Likewise not starting Balogun, I assume he's not fit enough for two games a week and the management team thought we'd be able to beat St Johnstone without him but not Red Star. I'm guessing, but nothing else makes sense to me. Some players have improved under GvB, some have done the opposite. Barasic looks like a shadow of himself, Kamara has lost his spark, Roofe isn't trusted, McGregor is suddenly a weakness. Yet Morelos looks reborn, Sakala started to show something and Bassey is now a first choice starter and Tav looks like he's risen to the challenge. Gerrard was always going to be a hard man to replace. Gerrard brought exciting, entertaining football back after a period of ineptitude and ridicule. His presence and charisma, his media savvy and his instinctive understanding of the club and the support were enormous assets for him and the club. Whoever we replaced him with was going to struggle to match that. GvB isn't charismatic, he's not got the profile of Gerrard despite a stellar playing career, he's a different type of manager as well. This league isn't won or lost yet. I've been bewildered by some of our performances and angered by some of our decisions recently. But, I still don't buy that our city rivals are the world beaters their support think they are, everything is still to play for, fine margins will tell in the end. I'm backing GvB. For now.

Both Diallo and Ramsay might still come good, certainly a fit Ramsay would bring something to the side, even if he was only available for our final 6 matches that might be enough. I doubt we'd have signed both without GvB giving his approval albeit they might not have been his first choices. I've seen us lose 3-0 at Fir Park to a mid-table Motherwell and nearly blow the title completely. Souness hadn't long left and it looked like his assistant, Walter Smith, might not be up to the job. It went to the final day, we had to win against Aberdeen, they just needed a draw to be Champions. The rest is history. It's going to be a nervy season finale, but sometimes they're the most memorable.

But our rival doesn't have to be a world beater and it's unhelpful to hide our failings behind the stupidity of their supporters. At the moment the only reason we have to even think about them as a rival is their ability to beat mid table teams that we're drawing against - Aberdeen, Ross County, Dundee Utd, Motherwell. We're certainly not dropping these points due to the excellence of these opponents and , as far as I can see, the simple truth is that if we keep on fielding the same players and employing the same tactics then the last two months of grindingly poor football are more likely to continue than to improve. As always, supporters have no say in team selection, so we only have two choices - hope for the best with optimism or hope for the best with pessimism. Neither is right or wrong, all you can do is describe what you're seeing and take your lead from that.

In my opinion, how we view Gio's success will be firstly be based on whether he retains the title. Interestingly, that will also be how we judge the departure of Gerrard. That said, he has only had one transfer window. It took Gerrard until his third season to mould the team the way he wanted it, and to extract the consistency of performance we all crave. If we don't retain the title, he should get the chance to re-shape the squad and go again. But as has been said by several other posters, there's a lot to play for. Sharkhead aside, Gio's european strategies have shown that he is good at delivering one-off games. I think this is going to come down to the two OF games - and thats where I think we will truly see whether Gio has the makings of a successul manager with us.

This. I'm staggered we've not tried this again. We'd have Bassey and Tav where we want them. ie. Pushing forward. We would also have 2 strikers. I genuinely don't see the point of a 4-3-3 if the 2 players out of the front 3 are simply hugging a touchline waiting for the ball. And when they do get it there are 2 players on them. It's bewildering that we rarely hit the by line in.our play. The balls we hit in are generally very speculative and usually get mopped by the CBs.

Great post John.

Agree with this fully. As time goes by it looks more and more like we either don't have the finances for transfers or we don't have the ability to identify targets within our budget. Looks like we have also gambled that bids would come in for Kent, Aribo and Morelos hoping for big money when we will likely lose them for a fraction of that big money in the summer. Kent in particular I'm now thinking we will be lucky to make our money back on. Doesnt matter who manages the 1st team this area needs to be better.

The indecisions are the worst (sticking with McGregor and not substituting players who are clearly out of gas).

Yes, if Kent plays like he did against Dortmund every week, he's playing for Dortmund.

Mostly fair assessment of the situation. I can't agree about the two high profile signings in January though. The risks associated with Ramsey and Diallo are fairly obvious. The manager must have signed off on them. Do managers get carried away, in the same way as fans, when you give them a chance to sign such players? I'm much more pessimistic about our chances for the league. We can't finish the job with a two goal start at home. Even though we are only 3 behind a complete transformation will be required to win the league.

Anything but that purple/lilac/violet monstrosity

Well said John. Like others said, I was hoping he could build on Gerrard's work, but it looks like Gerrard had the club (all areas) over-performing. We are seeing things settle back down now, which feels a little short. GVB comes from a certain era at Rangers. I'm not sure that transfers to the understanding Gerrard had of the club or our situation. Similarly, that goes for the board. There's a been loss of that important, learned knowledge over this season. A poor continuity strategy.

You have also got to take into account the previous management team took a few bargain bin rough diamonds and polished them up (Kamara, Aribo etc) We still go into many games with a midfield that cost at most 50k.

Good general advice regarding Twitter.

I'm not literally suggesting they're 'world beaters' I simply mean I don't think they're as good as some of their support think and we're not as bad as some of ours think. There's only 3 points in it, despite our poor form since the turn of the year. If we can fix that form, and it's a big if I accept, then the league title is ours. I've seen us win titles before despite having dropped points to sides we should have beaten, last season was exceptional, this one is closer to what most title wins have been like.

Why is black overlooked? Rangers IMO are blue, white, black and then red. Black and red are in for obvious reasons and come together as a pair. Red should not be anywhere near a Rangers jersey and wasn't introduced until the 1978-79 season. Prior to that we had been blue with white trim for long long time.

Or a back three, which he has tried before, to good effect. Not sure why he hasn't tried it again?

I think Wright is a good signing: a young player with a lot of talent. That's the signings we want. He's a squad player at best at the moment. He came in a few games ago and did 'well', I think. We're looking for more now, but also more in terms of development. We got it wrong with Simpson. He looks poor all round. However, the profile is there: young player, picked up for nothing that we can develop. He'll probably find a Championship club. Ofoborh is just unfortunate, finding that heart defect after signing. He may still be able to play again. Like I've said, I think the recruitment has been fine. It's the right profiles. However, not every signing works; that's always the case. We can all quibble about individuals (Sakala is inconsistent, but I think he's been good), but only Simpson, I think, is a bad one all-round? That's not to say we don't need more quality signings, because we do.

Recruitment for the past couple of years hasn't been good enough. I was recently advised that seven of the starting eleven in Dortmund started the match away at Ufa. You always want to bring in two or three first team starters each Summer.

This guy is a grade A sevco moonhowler and should be ignored at all costs.

I'm holding out hope that the team will raise their game as the pressure mounts. I recall that during one of Walters return seasons we won the title but leading up to split we were atrocious and scraping past teams (2008/09). The fans were calling for changes on a weekly basis but Wattie pereservered.

Bielsa is available... #JustSaying

I don't subscribe to this. Are you referring to Lundstram and Sakala, specifically? I think they are good players, that have just taken a while to find their role. Lundstram in particular, I think, was signed to play a certain position but couldn't fulfill it; but now that he's found his DM role, he's been superb. Sakala is similar in the sense we're not quite getting the best out of a decent player. This squad is good. GvB should be able to get a tune out of them. Basically, we should not need a rebuild every time a new manager comes in; that's unsustainable and goes against one of the main purposes of having a DoF.

He needs to find a system to include both Morelos & Roofe

Souttar was injured when we played at the Piggery and usually plays in front of an on-form Craig Gordon. I think some folk are fantasising a wee bit if they think he would've solved our defensive issues (I'm not denying he might've made a difference). It'd be interesting to know the specifics of what went on with the Ramsey loan deal.

No, there would be no gain from doing that. But I'd certainly be considering alternatives at the end of the season if things continue as they are. Would you advocate persevering with him if we fail to win the league?

I thought he may be an upgrade on SG but now reversing that judgement. However reserving judgement on whether he is up to the job. Lose the league this season and it'll be much harder for him as we obviously have no money to invest in the squad.

He seems to consistently pick the wrong team/formation domestically. Does he have the balls to drop McGregor, for example? The jury is definitely still out.

I was wondering earlier if there would be a way to cancel the contract given Celtic clearly leaked the announcement as it suited them.

All very well, but can he catch a ball😊