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I also saw one in a supermarket queue last week unwashed celtic top on ,just after the CL draw was made, he was on his phone obviously checking the draw. I said to him ‘You got a few winnable matches there’ he replied ‘Aye looks like it ’, I said ,”You definitely be looking to pump Young Boys” …he never laughed,..they are a humourless bunch.

That would be mad, and exactly the sort of behaviour that got us into this mess.

Like Saša Papac?

It must be widely known we are skint. That is part of the optics I am talking about. Totally weakens our bargaining position and badly affected the money we got in sales.

Half the problem is our niceness. You can see it on the pitch, in the boardroom and nowadays, in the stands and streets. We should treat them with the contempt they deserve.

His assigned role involves being in more than one area of the pitch, including right wing and more central areas (introverted full-back).

Big Marv would've came back and done that for a lot cheaper.

It's not just a Rangers thing mate. There's a reason the premier league are swapping and selling players to each other, it's because the rest of Europe can't/won't match their players demands nevermind Scotland. It's Saudi Arabia or a neighbour. One of the daftest things we can do is recruit from the premier league/championship. The talent rarely ever matches the outlay - even on bosmans or short term loans. On that point, I heard Davy Edgar talk about the club needing to give the fans a boost and sign a Bosman, even if on a one year deal. That terrifies me. The players on a hiding to nothing and there's no resale value - the day the board bows down and appeases the fans with signings like that is when we really are beyond the point.

This is the essence of the old firm. You just wait for the other team to go away so that you can be better than Aberdeen.

Sickening. He looked really good. I am concerned about our optics recently and currenty and how much that has contributed to our ability to get some of these pretty good prospects we were chasing. We need to turn a corner and soon before that becomes our new reality.

Alec Smith, manager at Aberdeen, noted that when Rangers lost possession McCoist and Hateley would immediately run back to occupy space in front of the defence. Can’t say I noticed it but Smith is a more accurate observer than I.

Did I say it was acceptable? 1 in 2 is exceptional, Dessers has played 1 full season. McCoist was ridiculed for years at Rangers, fans chanting for him to get to "fcuk". Fans have short memories.

Dundee game will be at Ibrox! https://www.rangers.co.uk/article/rangers-confirm-dundee-fixture-to-be-played-at-ibrox/7sJmkKE4z5HPhPvIStcSaE

Why are people still waffling on about xG ratios? Watch Dessers stumble over the ball in a great position 2 or 3 times and you know enough. He's terrible. No further 'analysis' required.

Hmm. Dessers has a history of wastefulness though so there’s every reason to believe that his current Goals to xG ratio will correct back to being below average. I said it last summer, not a good signing. His stats at Feyenoord are exactly what we see now. Essentially a poacher who isn’t that clinical. Beale should have known that he doesn’t really get involved in the play at all. He’s just there to score. And he does achieve high xG so one way or another he has the knack for getting more chances than most. Probably partly because he doesn’t feel the need to work back as others do. Someone said earlier that Danilo is just the same. He’s a completely different striker who is better than Dessers are getting involved in the play and he’s streets ahead for winning the ball back. Unfortunately the stats seem pretty clear that he isn’t a clinical striker either. Hopefully we get to see him get a run this season.

He’s scored two against them. Not his fault that one was disallowed. He also made the goal for Roofe against them that was wrongly disallowed too. Not saying it’s enough or acceptable but it’s a bit unfair to say he’s only scored one without mentioning that.

His role is right back a defender in my day but the thing is he’s done over the hill finished he bottles it in games against Celtic so get rid of him before he does any more damage

Made me laugh tbf. I mean, you say introverted - I'd say scared stiff of the ball.

This new fangled terminology confuses me. I meant inverted, not introverted. I wonder what an inverse or invertebrate full-back would look like. 🤪

Would be interested to see if we try and develop Kasan into our own Geertruida.

Does moving the St Johnstone game to a 8:PM Sunday Night kickoff count as a "fresh approach"?

He is playing his assigned role: it's called an inverted fullback, like Zinchenko, Timber, Gvardiol, Walker... Greg f*cking Taylor! Do you even watch football? (The benefits of the role and whether Tavernier can do it - I think not - is up for debate.) My original point, again: formations - especially those derived from a team sheet - are mostly irrelevant.

Tavernier is a right-back, that he roves about the centre circle or elsewhere is just testimony that he does not play his assigned role, even less so than before. He is not exactly helping in the middle, nor his fellow defenders, for everytime he is found elsewhere, you can expect the opposition to lob a ball into the area vacated by him. I need no fluidity charts or US-style stats to see that our system has been failing for years. I quick look at the players we play and where says it all.

Should've signed Sergio Ramos for Sunday and had him boot the diver Furuhashi over the stand. Red card, no doubt but we got humped anyway.

From what I've read, it sounds like we pulled out of this deal due to the costs/fees involved.

Furuhashi is 8 in 15 in old firm games is he as good as McCoist i think not, Dessers is a squad player I would keep but we need more, unless he turns a corner and contributes in old firm games they are the most meaningful games every season.

People forget just how good McCoist and Hateley were as footballers and not just goalscorers. As I said above, fans have short memories. Both were fantastic football players as well as fantastic goal scorers

I rather like them, cuddly wee rascles that they are......

For me Dessers misses easy chances, doesn't hold play up, falls over far too easily, is constantly trying to make friends with officials and opposition players and has the first touch of a blind baby elephant. He has short decent spells (like his mini recent scoring spree) but then reverts to type and we get a handful of matches where he plays like he did against the scum. His whole career has been like that, so it's unlikely it'll change. Comparing him to McCoist is pointless. McCoist's job was to score goals. Forwards have to do a lot more these days.

My criticism of him is nothing to do with chance conversion. Its everything else that he doesn't offer that is a problem.

I fully agree with your point, but Dessers scored 16 league goals last season. I think the criticism comes from his wastefulness: 16 goals from an xG of 19. He was wasteful. But, he has been clinical this season: 3 goals from an xG of 3.1. Superb. If he keeps close to that even the haters will fall in line. Dessers is not one of our main issues.

A goal a game v Celtic? You do know McCoist "only" scored 28 in 54 games against them? You're asking the impossible there. Dessers goals have mostly been opening goals, equalisers and winners, he's scored in OF, EL and CL qualifiers. Scored 2 in a Scottish Cup Semi Final. He has only been here 1 full season. In that season he was 1st Rangers striker to score 20 league goals since Boyd and Miller. Maybe, just maybe if other players showed the same attitude and / or chipped in with their share of goals, then we'd be better off (remember McCoist had Hateley, Boyd had Miller etc)

We're more fluid than what you're describing. Tavernier has been inverting for a while: Auxiliary wingers? In phases, sure. In phases they're not. 'That our DMs are primarily defence-minded players is' incorrect. I posted a pass network a few weeks ago showing Diomande - despite playing as part of a '2' on paper - was pushed forward, playing as an #8. He even plays as a #10 at times. Lawrence -who hasn't got a defensive bone in his body - has played as part of a double pivot. So, it's not 'how we line up in terms of playing personnel'. Tavernier is a RB playing as a DM; Barron is a DM dropping in to play as a CB in build-up; Diomande is a DM that pushes forward. Our #10 presses forward without the ball. (Not all at the same time, of course.) The 4-2-3-1 is only used on paper. The game is more fluid than that. Hence my original point: formations are mostly irrelevant.

Copland still closed, hopefully ready for the Hibs game.

There's a scape-goat or bashing-boy every season. The main problem with Dessers lies not in the fact that he misses chances like all strikers do - and no-one should remind us of Morelos' last season - but that we lack other players to score a similar amount of goals. So any of his misses become more costly. IMHO, he's sure not a or the problem.

I think Frankie has some links but I think it's ones from the past. I'll post a link for the new spreadsheets whenever I have this current one sorted. Like I said before lots of changes at Rangers this season along with a more complicated European set-up so it's taking longer than expected. Also, spotted a few mistakes that are proving problematic to get the answer to.. Time..