der Berliner

... maybe Ferguson tried to beef him up a little? We de facto threw the game away yesterday with a line-up that included two attacking players. Whatever Rice's role was supposed to be, he had hardly any option to be creative, as most balls went over his head or there were no players running into spaces.

The game never took place. The chuntering hordes at the BBC say that ... (as of 18.33)

... BTW, Whyte was chased by HMRC before he set a foot back into Scotland's world of football. He should not have been able to do anything business-wise, yet, HMRC did nothing, even when he bought us. Ex-Rangers owner Craig Whyte was being chased by the taxman for £3.74m BEFORE he started his catastrophic reign at Ibrox HMRC had instructed debt enforcers to chase Whyte with a bill for almost £4million and threaten him with bankruptcy in May 2011 - the same month that he bought Rangers. Keith Jackson 07:30, 05 Aug 2014 Updated 07:39, 05 Aug 2014 THE taxman was chasing Craig Whyte for £3.7million before he took over Rangers. HMRC focused on Whyte’s personal finances and made several failed attempts to get him to pay his dues before, during and after his catastrophic reign at Ibrox. The taxman regarded Whyte as a “flight risk”, fearing he might flee the country without settling his huge tax bill. Documents seen by the Record show: * The authorities instructed debt enforcers to chase Whyte with a bill for almost £4million and threaten him with bankruptcy in May 2011, the same month that he bought Rangers. * It was the culmination of a probe begun the previous year when the taxman learned Whyte had returned to the UK in 2005. * Whyte was continually warned he was failing to submit satisfactory tax returns and risked being fined. * He actually claimed at one stage to have a UK taxable worth of just £24 in accrued bank interest. * Yet when he struck the notorious deal with Ticketus for funds to finance his Rangers takeover, he gave the firm a personal guarantee he was worth nearly £33million. This “guarantee”, which was obtained by HMRC, helped them calculate Whyte’s £3,741,835.29 tax bill but he continued stalling tactics to avoid coughing up. At the same time he was able to run up a further £15million in unpaid taxes and penalties during his nine months in charge of Rangers. Whyte had bought Rangers for £1 from Sir David Murray in May 2011, while agreeing to wipe out the club’s £18million debts. ... From the DR back then. (just for reference)

Gogic, IMHO, still is a solid defender for Scottish league games, who is strong as an ox, and knows how to defend and sets up his fellow defenders. A current day version of Petric.

Maybe memory deceives me, but I think I haven't seen many league games by a Rangers side even in the days of our Championship trials with as worse a team-play. Today convinced me too that Barry can't be the answer. That line-up was probably set up with good intentions, but did not work out. BUT if you see that it doesn't work, you DON'T wait till the 77th minute and start things. And even that was poor. I'd truly like to have a look-in into Danilo's, Cortes' and Hagi's thought right now. I take my usual "stay-clear" stance on Old Firm games, going by today's performance, we'll get horsed ...

So Pröpper gets injured because the linesman didn't raise the flag in time. Abysmal ...

The defence slept as tight as the VAR there, shocking.

72 mins of this dross and not a hint of a substitution ... i.e. will to change things. St. Mirren do it instead.

3 centrehalfs and they manage to pass themselves into trouble ... shocking, truly shocking.

Can Danilo and Cortes have worse first touches than our current attackers? Dunno why there are no changes ...

Route 1 stuff ... alas.

If you play with these wingbacks, you would hope that they take up the winger slots too. Yet, Tav plays rather deep and Jefte hardly gets the ball. There's only Raskin playing DM and trying to be creative, but the rest is hardly contributing. We sure need more options to play at, yet, we hardly find those we have out there either. So it is all bit part and kick and rush style ... rather than decent football. No idea why Cortes and Danilo don't get a chance ...

... and with all those defenders on, we manage to leave O'Hara (again) free in the area.

Pröpper runs out of defence, find Rice, who sets up Raskin who finds Dessers ... 1-0 Raskin one of the rare pass marks so far.

Some 70 % possession, but almost all around between the halfway line and our penalty area. The Circle of Toil ...