der Berliner

Methinks there was a brawl in the stands at the end of the game.

Pretty strange a reply.

Had a look at the official highlights from the SPFL and the penalty incident was obviously cut out. The shots we had in the second half might have seen them buried, but as it is stands, one defensive error decided it. BTW, if you see what they showed Robertson on the screen, i.e. Dessers' hand touching the defender on the back and that creep went down like pole-axed, there is no wonder why he called that goal back. The actual winning of the ball was seemingly not shown. I truly hate this gamesmanship when it is nothing more than blatant cheating of opposition and referee.

Anyone actually asked why there was no VAR check when Cantwell was kicked to the ground by Maeda in the penalty area?

Jack had a bad game by his standards, had to be replaced by Lundstram or Cifuentes, IMHO. His passing and decision making was terrible at times. Tav likewise ... as if the ball was a pound too heavy. Not sure why there is so much blame thrown at Cantwell. He's probably the only source of creativity we have/had all season, and his effort is second to none. Played far too deep first half - probably by order of MB. Anyone could see that they didn't like the pressure, but we somehow couldn't keep it up - despite various people (Roofe, Tav, Cantwell) telling others to do more of it. There was virtually no wing play, which allowed them to keep our attackers under close control and get out of defence easy enough. I do hope that Ridvan is back to full fitness once the next game is up, he looks to be the wing-back we need, despite Tav's goals et al. Anyone knows how many attempts at goal from free kicks Tav has converted in recent years (sic!)? Probably as little as Goldson scored a goal from a corner/free-kick. IMHO, we are top-heavy in terms of players we have at our disposal (as opposed to many of the last few seasons) and simply haven't worked out how to use them best. I said it a week or two ago, IMHO our best centre-half partnership is Souttar and Balogun - and I stand by that. It's match day 4 of 38, onwards we soldier!

Time to get out into the open and away from football ... nothing discussed right now will happen or change the way of team-selection. Beale has his work cut out, at the moment, it just looks he has too many toys to play with and can't decide what to do. Laters Bears!

No! Matondo hat the ball in the net from Dessers, and Roofe too from Dessers. 😜

No, put perspective is needed. Was there even a VAR check for the penalty claim? Anyway, Robertson will have a great Old Firm career ahead of him.

Only at the end of the season. As per usual, the team "defending" gets a head-start, and they sure counter better than the rest of the SPFL dross. This game could have ended 4-4 or the like.

One goal wrongly chopped off, a penalty not given, and a freak Sunday afternoon volley ... that's all that separated us. But truth be told, that was abysmal viewing. Not an atypical Old firm game, but what a stramash. No real game plan, no cohesion, poor poor quality in passes and decision making, alas, only match day 4. Last time around, we got hammered 4-0 on the opening day. Week ruined, mostly by tactics and players not up for it. Anyone knows where the ref lives?

What a freak Robertson is .... fall down, get a foul.

We've got 11 players on the park, but no team. That makes some terrible viewing.

Who needs Craig Thompson ...

And we always change someone on 60 mins. Our left side was virtually non-existing.

Really folks, me, being a foreigner, having seen and listened to probably a hundred+ Old Firm games and many have been similar mayhem-affairs. This is no different.

Right, only saw it once.

That's just kick and rush from both sides, and they've got lucky with that volley that could have gone anywhere. No real game plan, Cantwell is playing rather deep. Nothing wrong with Roofe's goal, that was an utter shambles from the ref. Their player kicked Dessers ... and we got a penalty for that in another game. Would like to see whether Kyago was actually on-side.

Cantwell got a penalty for us when a defender did the very same a wee while back. That's 180° evaluation of the same incident.

Fast, furious, and utter mayhem (mostly in our box) ...

Can we please start a petition to have linesmen gelded for leaving their flags down at off-side decisions for this late?

Rangers homepage's transfer round-up

I hardly know their team, but it doesn't matter. Just kick them from pillar to post and horse them thoroughly.

Butland Goldson - Souttar - Balogun Jack Sima - Raskin - Cantwell - Lawrence Roofe - Danilo Press them into their half, shoot from every angle, both wingers track back. Switch to a more common style later on and hit them on the counter. ... and we will get is Plan A. Butland Tavernier - Goldson - Souttar - Barisic Jack/Lundstram - Raskin/Cifuentes Sima - Cantwell - Matondo/Lammers Desser

I have no doubts that Danilo and Lammers will come good eventually, Dessers more like what you expect of a decent striker, but not exactly special. Balogun will be his solid self, if called upon. Cifuentes has been okay, a sort of Stuart McCall midfield dynamo whom you do not exactly expect great things of, but 100 % effort. Dowell and Sterling have quite some work to do, but they need to get up to speed and probably some game time to adjust. Butland has been the brightest so far, good stops, only the odd unnecessary adventure into a packed area during a corner.

Recruitment was carried out to remove our attacking problems, IF we use more true strikers up front. Last season we de facto continued to try to get past Scottish defences with one central striker and sided-attacker, who usually did not come up with enough goals and/or assists to make this a viable system. We did this a few times over the years and only changed the quality of the players. The results, as you can see in the trophy room, remained the same. Now, so far this season, Matondo (22) stepped into a more prominent role and has become about as efficient as Kent. Lots of effort and running, little end product. Same with Lammers, who is more of a centre forward though. Sima (22) has come to the right wing (though he has almost played as often as a centre-forward). Dessers is a straight hardy centre-forward as well, so we replaced Morelos and Colak (whom we could easily have kept, IMHO) with two strikers who should be given time as anyone else. Some hit the ground running, others don't. (That said, the way our front line is changed every other game does not help.) Added to them in the attacking roles we have Danilo and Roofe as strikers, the latter can play on either wing (and, especially when fit, is heavily under-used), plus Lawrence and Wright as wingers. Cantwell has been this season's stand-out so far, the bright spark of our creative play. With Lowry gone, letting Hagi go as well might come back to haunt us. Raskin (22) will play further up field with Jack and/or Lundstram behind him, Cifuentes probably too. These two chaps are relatively new to the Scottish game and our demands, we can but hope that they strike a quick understanding with the other new boys. As you can read above, Bears can become fickle rather quickly. The jury is very much out on Dowell, who has so far not really convinced me ... but I'll give them all some time. The main spot of bother remains the defence. Ridvan suffered an injury at the most inopportune moment, so we remain with our old warhorses Tavernier and Barisic at fullback, with but Devine as a true back-up. Davies might play left-back, Balogun on the right. They would be rather traditional fullbacks though, which is, pending on the opposition, not a bad thing. I'm not exactly sure what has happened to Davies, who did not perform that badly last season - at least not any worse than the others. For some reason, with some players (e.g. Davies) the support seems to remember their errors more vividly than with others, Goldson attempted an OG last weekend (neat header past the post) and succeeded in midweek, while watching de Jong outjump him and his colleagues to score. IMHO, the only centre-half who clad himself in any glory this season is Souttar, Goldson has one good game in five, the rest hardly plays. The gaffer has/had his favourites for certain positions (Kent, Tavernier, Goldson) and we'll hardly ever know whether the "second row" players will be better, if given a chance. Unless injured, I doubt that we will see much change with regard to Goldson being a first pick. That said, every now and then, we should try three at the back to avoid another PSV disaster. Here's a list of freebie defenders still out there. Jerome Boateng, anyone? Butland is an able replacement for McGregor, wonder what will happen to McLaughlin now. Biggest hope is that we change tactics according to the task at hand with players best suited for the role required. Here's our team by position.