Tannochsidebear

Son of the former SFA president David Taylor, so the rabid will be claiming more ammunition that the SFA are all pure Rainjurs an that. It doesnt actually say anywhere in the lengthy introduction piece that he or his family have ever supported Rangers, which leads me to think he doesnt/didnt. I dont mind that at all as it doesnt prevent him from doing a good job, as long as he is not a bheast because that most certainly would.

Smacks of trying hard to keep the tie alive. 4-3-2-1 formation? The big money striker on the bench?

Rangers 2 PSV 1 fgs Dessers

And yet he still somehow manages to look like an utter carthorse. If he keeps those numbers up throughout then it will speak for itself, but there just doesnt look like a player in there to me at this early stage. Looks like a downgrade on Colak.

Poor Connie was absolutely devastated, and then when Michael Stewart picks us out at home oh how I laughed at the coupon on it. Worth the subscription fee alone.

While Matondo was much improved and looked our main (only?) threat for an hour, his finishing is abysmal and so I’ve gone for Hagi. What a super player he is, and by all accounts a great post match interview as well. If Beale continues to ignore him it will cost us, and maybe him too.

Rangers 3 Morton 0 fgs Dessers

Goldson & Jack will definitely be rested as they cant play 2 a week. Cantwell should be protected, Tav should be rested and Sterling should be given a chance at RB, and not sure which of the options up front will be selected, as all of them (Dessers, Lammers, Danilo, Sima, Roofe, Matondo) need game time and to find form ahead of a massive two weeks with the double header with PSV, a tough trip to Dingwall and then the must-win OF game before the first break.

You’re starting to come round I see! Seriously though I appreciate you taking the time to explain how the xG system works. I don’t buy into it because of the very way it is calculated as the debate in this thread has shown. To calculate a xG for a certain chance on an average of thousands of similar opportunities across hugely varying standards of football doesn’t tell you accurately if a Rangers player should have scored or not. For that to be accurate it would have to be calculated only against similar standards of player, not all-comers. Even then there are too many variables, with key ingredients missing like the importance of the chance in the match context, the importance of the match. If a player smashes the xG based on the above that would be hugely impressive, but if he only gets above xG when his team are winning 4-0 or in friendlies then it’s less impressive . I accept for those who can overlook all these important aspects and just buy into it for what it is, it is a great debating point.

Servette 1 Rangers 2 fgs Danilo

Thanks for that R. The bit I have put in bold, it is based on one game, last Wednesday at Ibrox, and it should have been scored every single time because its a sitter! I dont need Opta to tell me how good a chance it is, I could see it live from the stadium with my own eyes! I dont accept it was tricky (just my opinion), not at this level, he sees it coming and fluffs it past the post. It shouldnt happen but it did. I only used it as an example to ask the question on the stat. If Opta or whoever are saying that chance should only be scored 41 times out of 100, then they are clearly counting girls football, juniors, and the Albanian 9th division in amongst their 1000's of games that make up the data, not professional football at this standard. I know you love your stats and I'm not going to (or trying to ) convince you otherwise, but it makes a mockery of the whole xG business when they say that .99 (i'll concede it's not a 1.0) sitter is a .41 Saying they have taken data from 1000's and 1000's of games is one thing, but there are levels in football, and as I have outlined above, what is a sitter at this level is perhaps not so many levels down, but if Opta are picking all of football to generate their stats then thats not accurately reflecting chances at the level which concerns the viewer.

I agree Goldson will come back in (as always) and it seems Lammers is another MB fav so I would be shocked if he didnt start but I just dont see where he fits into our team, and for what i've seen to date he doesnt really have a precise role, but isnt good enough to be a floater either. Early days I accept. I was really just picking what I think is our best 11 from those available from what i've seen of them so far. I dont think Sima is in our best 11 but for this game we need that pace for an outball so he is the "Kent" replacement role as Lammers doesnt appear to have much pace and I dont see Wright being a starter. Will be really interesting to see the line-up, not long now.

Gone for big soapy for that goal-saving interception alone which had it been Goldson would have been a goal and probably more dropped points. Cantwell again played well, and the cross from Borna for the 2nd was an absolute beauty.

I have absolutely no idea what our best team is, nor what our best formation is, so not going to take a guess at the line up the manager will come up with. For what it’s worth I don’t think MB has a clue what his best team is either, so it will be very interesting to see who he goes for. I know I certainly don’t want to see certain players in the lineup as I believe them to be of insufficient quality but MB likes them (Lundstrum for one!). Our joy in previous Euro away games has come by being quick on the counter, so maybe Sima gets another chance to shine. Thankfully I’m not picking the team, but just for this thread I’ll go for; Butland Tav Balogun Souttar Barasic Jack Cifuentes Sima Raskin Cantwell Danilo

Was all this xG data you have described so well above compiled by one company? If so, why? It must have been an absolutely massive data dump. It clearly isn’t monetised if it’s readily available for all games, and I’m assuming there must be some sort of AI bot keeping track of all games going on at all times in order to produce real time xG updates? Still can’t get my head round it. Take the Lammers absolute sitter v Servette in first half. That should have an xG of 1 because it should be scored every single goddam time, but clearly he didn’t score, so next time a player has the exact same chance the xG will be below 1 because Lammers missed his, so a striker scoring that sitter looks to have outdone his xG but in reality he has just scored an absolute sitter so shouldn’t have his stats enhanced as a result of another player having a howler? Agreed?

Rangers 3 Livingston 0 fgs Danilo

Cantwell for me but I thought he faded badly in the second half and that had a significant effect on our team performance against the loaded defence. Borna & Souttar had good games too. I thought our subs weakened us (Cifuentes apart) and this has always been a big failing of Beale, even back to the SG days when they would discuss what needed changed for ages and then get it wrong. I wish he would get some help from the 87 members of the back room team, surely one of them is tactically savvy?

Rangers 2 Servette 1 FGS - Tav

A player of limited ability that I thought was not quite the standard we need, but I loved his desire, attitude and workrate. I wish him all the very best, and hope he goes on to have a career that makes me eat my words.

Sakala Morelos Colak Tillman. Add up the goals they scored between them last season, and excluding Tav it’s our top 4 scorers I believe. It’s a lot of goals to leave and of those brought in are any of them likely to score more than what has left? Im fairly sure the best striker at the club is now Roofe.

Predicted line-up (not what I would go for) Butland Tav Goldson Souttar Barasic (anyone saying anything different hasnt been watching Bealeball!) Raskin Jack Lammers Cantwell Danilo Dessers I absolutely hate the 4-2-2-2 formation, well at least the way we play it anyway under Bealeball, and would much prefer something that allows us to have more of an attacking style. The slow side to side play 50 yards from goal which was so chastised under Gio, is alive and well under Bealeball, and accounts for several hundred passes a game which does absolutely nothing creative whatsoever. The football is so boring to watch, and was the case for all but maybe 2 or 3 games last season even though we at least were managing to win most games. Given the massive change in players over the summer, it was enlightening to see the exact same boring slow tactics in operation on Saturday. So it tells me its nothing to do with the players, and everything to do with the megamouth snakeoil salesman manager. He has had a full uninterrupted pre-season to get his style and tactics across to the existing and new players, and nobody (players or fans) seems to have a clue what that style or tactics is. The clock is ticking, he is running out of time and needs to win well on Wednesday (in the short term) and then also win the OF game or the fans will completely lose faith in him. Lose both and he is dead man walking.

Easily Raskin for me. Surprised at the nods for Sima, who to me looked like a poor man’s Matondo! I’m not judging just yet given it’s only one game but I certainly wasn’t impressed by any of the newbies, perhaps Butland aside.

Kilmarnock 1 Rangers 2 fgs Morelos Sorry force of habit, let’s try one of the newbies, Lammers instead!

More good work by the commercial department, more money for nothing. “Official Destination Partner” that made me laugh😂 .

Very interesting squad, more for the ones missing than those included. It’s only for 4 games (hopefully!) and takes us through to the end of the window but must indicate to some to get themselves a move out. There is nobody omitted I’d miss.