Leaderboard

I have a fair bit of sympathy for Borna. He has become our next whipping boy, the Ibrox crowd are a hard act. How many times down through the years have we witnessed the four stages? 1. New signing or young lad breaking through initially wows. 2. Future club and Scotland(other nations apply). 3. After one poor game, needs more time back in the stiffs(reserves). 4. Fcuking useless, get him tae fcuk. If an offer came in before the transfer window closes, I suspect the club would accept because it is the financially prudent to do so. However, I believe Borna has suffered a persistent recurring injury these last 15 months and this will be common currency among other clubs. He is a good player, Saturday's contribution was the cross for Danilo to put the game to bed and last evening, his cross guaranteed £5 million in the club coffers. To answer your question, I think we will allow him to leave at end of contract because Ridvan has to prove himself defensively and as yet does not contribute offensively the way Borns continues to do.

Straight out of @compo's rulebook: a firm handshake and get on with it.

It's also worth remembering that Cifu has played 1/2 a season in US so is match fit and up to speed. Looks a great signing all in all. Hopefully starting to see more from the team, played some good football last night in the 2nd half.

I don't know what he brings tbh? I have seen nothing from him so far! hopefully he will come good, but I think he is a poor footballer.

Currently, our club coefficient ranks us as last club for eligible for Europe, but it does include points from Europe this season, so we need to stay ahead of our closest challengers: Taken From The Scostman: Despite Celtic’s domestic dominance in recent years, Rangers would qualify as Scotland’s entrant as their European coefficient ranking of 38.000 is far superior to Celtic’s 15.000 across the last three seasons. Club Brugge of Belgium with 35.000, Dinamo Zagreb of Croatia with 33.00 and Shakhtar Donetsk of Ukraine with 31.000 pose the biggest threat of overtaking the Ibrox club. https://www.scotsman.com/sport/football/rangers/rangers-in-line-for-lucrative-club-world-cup-spot-why-celtic-will-miss-out-4175440

"Rangers have got themselves a little more time in the Champions League". Above are the last words uttered by the host, Jonathon Sutherland of last evening's Sportscene production of Rangers second leg away to Servette in their Champions League qualifier. We know PQ positivity about all things Rangers is as common as rocking horse manure but, the Shetland islander Dandy was trying too hard. Immediately after the final whistle as fellow Dandy, Rob MacLean blowing inane platitudes as Rangers players and Rangers supporters celebrated in the background; the production cut back to the PQ studio and, jonnersinho(honestly his Instagram username) spoke over a prepared graphic. He said and, it read : Sturm Graz 1 PSV 3(2-7 on aggregate). Both Alan Hutton and Neil McCann sat on the sofa across from wee Jonners and looked askance as the Rangers happy mood balloon was deliberately deflated. The Producer of Sportscene is Eamonn Donohoe and with ra Sellik not talking to PQ because of fellow Irishman, Tom English talking the truth about another Irishman, Brendan Rodgers, it is most important the streamers and party hats remain boxed reference Rangers success. PQ continually claim to support all Scottish clubs in European action but, are desperate to distance themselves from any attachment or association with the wrong type of Scots ie Rangers. There are Scots positives that were not mentioned last night. The national coefficient has been improved again and defeating Swiss opposition in the tie means we have stymied the country directly behind Scotland in their attempts to take our current ninth position. The Celtic state of mind is all that matters at PQ, assuaging Peter is uppermost. Even that graphic, a national broadcaster prepared to support all Scots clubs in Europe might have considered a history of the head to heads between Rangers and PSV in Euro' competition? Currently, it reads played eight, Rangers have won four, drawn three and, lost one. Just too positive. Martin Watt's report on the BBC Scotland website is akin to a most grudging flick through a thesaurus. Martin utilised, "squeezed, fraught, salvaged and, slender" in his opening two sentences. The fourth sentence rushed to lionise PSV who were "scintilating" whilst, "thumping" the Austrians. Martin has featured on this thread in the past, his high point coincided with ra Sellik's high point in last year's Champions League. He waxed lyrical(not alone at PQ) as ra green'n'grey hooped horrors dominated Real Madrid at ra Stade de Gadd in the first half. This culminated with Sellik hitting the post then slumping to a 0-3 home defeat. Perhaps Martin will inform us of ra Sellik's contribution to the national coefficient these last five years? I note his colleague, Liam McLeod told us in part last week during the Rangers - Servette game at the Stadium. He talked about both Rangers and Sellik's impressive contribution in the last five years, reeling off Porto, Galatasaray, Dortmund, .... etc for Rangers. His only contribution for ra Sellik was Napoli. I looked it up on Google, the games were in the Autumn of 2017. This is 2023, maybe i am struggling with arithmetic but that is in excess of five years past. We cannot argue that Sellik's two points in last season's CL was two points better than us but, we can offer confident arguments on relative national coefficient contributions. Anyways, to Jonners and his Producer; Rangers supporters will continue to hum the Chairman of the Board's 1970 hit single, 'Give me just a little more time'.

Raskin had a good second half but he didn’t win the match for Rangers whereas Butland definitely saved it.

Regarding our new forwards, it’s early days but still worrying that Lammers currently appears to be the best of them.

Agreed. Would have definitely kept Sima on for his pace. Danilo looked shell-shocked after his miss IMO. It was a terrible miss. Great ball by Cifu (I think)

Really liked the change in attitude/desire last night after half time. Saying that, we should be like that from the start. 4 games in and 4 bitty performances. Some really good, some not so good. PSV will be huge ask for this team at this stage of the season IMO.

This video (from 0.54 to about 5.10 - then it focuses on David Silva) covers some of the principles employed by Real Sociedad last season in their 4-4-2 diamond: Directness 3rd man Overloads I think we see hints of each in our play (except for overloads - we don't use them very well at all), but it's not fully developed as yet. I am a big fan of the formation: it can be very entertaining, fast and direct. Defensively it's quite good, too. You can easily block off the middle, directing teams wide and cleaning up the crosses, etc. Or press them and direct them wide and overload them, then counter. We saw the former used by Gerrard against Rogers and he had him sussed. I think the video clearly explains some of the principles we'll need to employ to get the best out of the diamond formation. If you're interested, give it a watch.

Very eloquently summarised by @26th of foot. Sutherland was in a high state of elation at HT. Just couldn't quite hide his expression of glee while he cross examined the ex-Rangers pairing of McCann & Hutton. Gloatingly enjoying both ex-players criticism of the first half performance. Cue full time. Sutherland's balloon had clearly burst, but the full time result from Austria soon inflated his ego once more. McCann, rather despairingly, claimed "Rangers just need more time to get it right on the training ground after Morton on Saturday". Sutherland pounced "There is no time! They play on Tuesday!" was his delighted squeal. PQ will continue to hum the Jagger/Richards penned Chris Farlowe No1 hit from 1966 (Rangers, Rangers, Rangers you're) Out Of Time!

Get a room, lads. Bring back a more contentious debate, like xG.

The Russia shout is a bit rogue like but I'd entertain Portugal and France being better (not 'much better'). No, I was going off league/Country coefficients within the UEFA rankings, I'll include the link at the bottom of this. Netherlands are 5th above France, Portugal and Belgium. Rightly or wrongly. The problem France have is that their top sides tend to bomb in Europe, I'd definitely say their league outside of the European places is stronger than the Eridivisie but the top Dutch sides perform well in Europe usually. Anyway, here's the link. You can go on club rankings and see we're a few places above PSV as well. https://www.uefa.com/nationalassociations/uefarankings/country/#/yr/2024

This is true. It was also true of Bassey after his first season. In all honesty he looked very bad. But he got a chance, took it and the rest is history. Im not suggesting it’s guaranteed Ridvan will do the same. Given the fact he can’t stay fit it’s highly unlikely. But we have had Barisics best years and it’s probably time for both parties to move on at the end of the season. I suppose it’s easier to write off a guy approaching the end of his career than it is a guy just starting it out.

Ridvan won't get a look in because he's not very good, or at least hasn't been in the matches he's featured for us. I don't think we are obsessed with 'the edges', of the 4 gilt edge chances last night, one was a move through the middle when Dessers hit the post, the other 3 were all crosses from wide. We have full backs who are good at getting forward and crossing, we were at our best last night when we created the environment where they could do that. As for last season our first goal was Colak from a Tav cross, our 2nd a fluff by their keeper and in the away leg again it was a mistake in their defence that led to our goal. Currently none of our forwards are playing particularly well, maybe that'll click before Tuesday, but I suspect it might take a little longer than that. Forwards not reading runs, misplacing passes and failing to hold up the ball forces us wide, as we keep giving up possesion in the middle.

3 assists in 3 games.

Oh for a player like David Silva. He was a wee magician.

Going back to the point about fitness and the temperature in the stadium last night, Raskins energy levels were amazing.

Not sure it has been mentioned in all the hullabaloo, but the temperature pitch side was approaching 35 degrees apparently. With that in mind, I feel we finished the game looking the fitter team. Hopefully a sign of the conditioning work done in pre season.

I've watched the Servette goal many times now and, while Souttar misjudges his clearing header and it's a terrific strike from Kutesa, it looks like yet another example of a left-sided opposition player on the right side of our penalty box being left completely unattended by our right fullback. Too harsh?

Cifuentes for me, thought he was our best player overall.

Barasic's crossing is the best in the league and he showed again last night, with our goal, just how important that can be. Along with his willingness to overlap and attack the final third those are his strengths. As long as we play to those strengths then he's an asset to the club. If he was great defensively then he wouldn't be playing for Rangers, he'd be in Spain or England, the harsh truth is none of our defenders are top class. All have failings, Souttar was at fault for the goal, Goldson had some shaky moments, and half of our support think Tav is past it, apparently. The only way we're going to get a top class defender is if he's at the very beginning of his career or the very end. Personally I'd be happy to keep Barasic. He's the best left back at the club, but if we can bring in a better one I wouldn't shed a tear if he moved on. Ridvan isn't better, no matter how many might wish he was. Robbie Fraser doesn't look like he's going to make it with us.

Dessers absolutely anonymous. 13 touches and Lammers managed 30.

Sima Dessers Lammers Danilo Minutes played 61 Minutes played29 Minutes played29 Minutes played61 Goals0 Goals0 Goals0 Goals0 Assists0 Assists0 Assists0 Assists0 Total shots1 Total shots2 Total shots1 Total shots1 Accurate passes13/19 (68%) Accurate passes5/7 (71%) Accurate passes10/15 (67%) Accurate passes12/15 (80%) Chances created0 Chances created0 Chances created0 Chances created1 Expected goals (xG)0.02 Expected goals (xG)0.63 Expected goals (xG)0.03 Expected goals (xG)0.25 Attack Attack Attack Attack Shot accuracy0/1 (0%) Shot accuracy0/2 (0%) Shot accuracy1/1 (100%) Shot accuracy0/1 (0%) Touches33 Touches13 Touches30 Touches21 Successful dribbles1/2 (50%) Successful dribbles0/2 (0%) Successful dribbles1/2 (50%) Successful dribbles0/2 (0%) Dispossessed1 Dispossessed2 Dispossessed1 Dispossessed0 Passes into final third1 Passes into final third1 Defence Defence Defence Defence Tackles won1/1 (100%) Tackles won0 Tackles won1/2 (50%) Tackles won0 Recoveries1 Recoveries1 Recoveries3 Blocks1 Duels Duels Duels Duels Ground duels won2/4 (50%) Ground duels won0/5 (0%) Ground duels won5/10 (50%) Ground duels won0/2 (0%) Aerial duels won4/6 (67%) Aerial duels won0/3 (0%) Aerial duels won1/1 (100%) Aerial duels won1/2 (50%) Was fouled0 Was fouled0 Was fouled2 Was fouled0 Fouls committed0 Fouls committed1 Fouls committed2 Fouls committed0 Colour coded stats: 6 Colour coded stats: 2 Colour coded stats: 7 Colour coded stats: 6

Matondo will play against Morton and will score. You heard it here first.

He’s been very weak on and off the ball so far tbh. Just checked the stats and they back that up. 5 ground duels and 3 aerial duels and won none. Dispossessed twice. He looks strong to look at but not in the game.

I think people are being a bit harsh on Dessers. He puts himself about a bit and I reckon it'll come good eventually. Sima looks like the new Matondo - offers nothing but an occasional bit of speed.

Well that was 5M worth of ugly right there. On to the next round.

I underlined what you said, and add to that players that are at the early stage in their careers who could become complete while playing for us - Ridvan was probably that gamble. Either we think he still can be or we need to cut our losses and look again.

Cheers for the link Yuddie, I stand corrected.

Honestly, take Ridvans Rangers career and super impose 4 or 5 assisted crosses and no one would be complaining.

Look out for the sea change in attitudes if the Edinburgh teams can muster up some kind of result tomorrow.I still can't believe there are people still paying a licence fee to that shower.

That's the crux isn't it, Borna is useful because crosses are our main form of attack unfortunately. If we pump in 30+ crosses a game he'll get Assists just because of the law of averages, same as corners but we desperately need to move away from that. We surprised PSV last season with our buildup through the middle of the park, that won't happen this time around because we're obsessed with the edges and swinging in crosses like the players wives are hostage and they've got to meet a quota to save them. It's infuriating, ridvan won't get a look in because Borna will deliver a peach once in 20 a game essentially.

I thought we kept the energy levels throughout the team for the whole match to be fair, Servette looked spent whilst we came on strong until we changed to a back 3 and held out. Even then we had chances, encouraging I think.

Had a look after the match at appearences in Europe of the squad and the bulk of the experience is exclusively coming from Goldson, Tav, Jack and Borna. Worth remembering that players like Cifuentes, Raskin, Souttar, Butland and Cantwell have barely or never played in Europe and other players like Danilo and Lammers have just over 20 appearences between them. I wouldn't be too harsh on this team, the more games they play at this level the better they'll get. We can slaughter them for getting mugged by Killie right enough.

Are you being sarcastic?

Overall Butland. Raskin was immense second half

Thought he was unlucky with the chance of the post. He didn't have much to aim at tbh

They were obviously told of the posts on here calling for them to be subbed. Gersnet can take credit for the motivation.

There are positives. Cifuentes looks an instant upgrade in midfield. Provides more balance than Dowell too. I thought there were signs that we can play good football too, we had some very good exchanges. More minutes minutes in the strikers legs too, who both seem to need it. We’ll be in a better place next week than we were tonight or last week.

Not a bad idea actually but I'd rather people just respected the spirit of the polls.

I would politely request people be sensible with their choice as I do enjoy the maths later in the season; even if our forum is only a small sample size.