RANGERRAB

Good first half but took the foot off the gas in the second half. One or two wee shaky moments at the back which a better side might have punished. Bassey & Lundstrum did well I thought & hopefully take confidence from tonight 

Clubs will find other ways to pay players. 

5 hours ago, the gunslinger said:

if they are found to have screwed up an administration I do hope their reputation is tarnished accordingly. I doubt it mind you. 

Their reputation is already tarnished. The Rangers administration was a farce from start to finish.

Of course the SNP have no MP’s or MSP’s who support Rangers. Did anyone expect them to have any?

They were once known as the tartan tories. Nowadays I’d suggest they’re the tartan Sinn Fein 

18 minutes ago, Gonzo79 said:

I said at 75 minutes last night that we could play for hours and not score again.  I have said similar and been proved wrong before though. 

 

Switch it wide, cross it, lose the ball, get it back, switch it wide, cross it, lose the ball, get it back...yadda, yadda, yadda...

Add the too slow tempo of our game & you’ve nailed it…

31 minutes ago, craig said:

We didn’t need to change tactics with an extra man.

By not changing anything we played into their hands. We made it easy for them. They even kept both their strikers on

35 minutes ago, Rousseau said:

We actually went with a 4-4-2 diamond with Kent in the hole and Morelos and Sakala up front, as the latter came on. Didn't change much. The players were still p*sh. 

 

I get your point, though; we should have made changes, to go for it more. To be fair, though, I'm not sure if it was so wrong to still be conservative after half-time; we were level and in a dominant position. But, when we went behind, certainly.  

We waited til they went 2-1 ahead before changing anything 

55 minutes ago, craig said:

We’ve been moving the ball far too slowly and rarely is it vertical.

 

Last night we played far, far too many square balls in defense and midfield.

 

Shifting the play from one side to the other is fine, but once you do so, you have to make vertical passes to get beyond their low block.  We didn’t do it.

 

we also moved the ball too slowly for playing against 10 men.  Last week they were out on their feet after 70 minutes get last night, for the most part, they were fine….. because we didn’t have them chasing anything.

 

So disappointing - such an opportunity to make the CL proper.

 

As said already, the formation wasn’t the issue.  We dominated them for the first 40 minutes and, in fairness, we could have been out of sight by half time.  I’m not even sure the personnel was the issue given that first 40 minutes.  But after the break we collapsed, mentally.  I do think we badly missed Kamara and even Roofe last night - so the fall out from Slavia has hurt us badly.

 

We also aren’t having any luck.  At various points last season we carried that wee bit of luck but so far this year we haven’t.  There were a number of efforts last night that were last ditch blocks that on another night would have went in.  But up 1-0 against 10 men we shouldn’t have to rely on luck.

We should have changed tactics with the extra man advantage. We did nothing at all. 

11 minutes ago, Bill said:

It’s facile to keep spouting about 4-3-3. We could have played any formation last night but if players can’t control the ball, pass accurately or put in a decent cross then the formation is the least of our worries. We lost to Malmö because too many in the team let themselves and the club down. Fullbacks were dreadful, central defenders were a bombscare, etc etc. It’s about players, not formations.

We need more variety to our game. Teams are wise to the way we play. 
They don’t let our FB’s get forward & double up on Aribo and Kent. 

8 hours ago, ranger_syntax said:

Explain the shortcomings of 433.

 

Then explain what problems your preferred alternative would solve.

The shortcomings of our 4-3-3 is we’re playing only one recognised striker

I don’t think Green or the D&P two will see any of their compensation if BDO get their way

The calibre of opposition we’d face in the CLQ’s was always going to be tougher than the ELQ’s we’d faced. 
I think that needs to be remembered.

5 minutes ago, Bill said:

The problem with disappointments like this is there’s no escape from it. You’re trapped by your allegiance. All you can do is suffer and hope there’s some relief around the corner. 
 

I’m just hoping Gerrard sees the problem because if he doesn’t then things are only going to get worse. 

Teams are now wise to the way we play. We need to look for alternatives 

When they went down to ten men we should have made tactical changes to benefit us. We did nothing at all

1 minute ago, ian1964 said:

You can argue all you want about team selection but tonight we put in a great 1st half overall, the whole team shat it 2nd half

Poor defending cost & needlessly giving the ball away cheaply cost us

We simply need to put this behind us and focus on getting into the europa league and domestically too

wee lesson tonight on the benefits of playing 2 strikers

4 minutes ago, Uilleam said:

They have just beaten Dundee 6 (six) - 0,

and that is after scoring 4 on Thursday. 

 

We'll be lucky to hit 10 by the end of September.

I think Dundee are certs to be relegated. I think almost everyone was amazed that they managed to beat Kilmarnock in the play off

7 minutes ago, rbr said:

I really don’t understand why all the wailing , gnashing of teeth and self abuse is coming from ,apart from last year , traditionally we never start like a rocket , and as has been posted elsewhere unlike previous years we haven’t had a set of Euro qualifiers to bed us in , every team will go through a rocky patch , calm down troops .

True but it’s how much come out of the rocky patch that matters. Changes were needed sooner in these last two games. 

As I said in another post Ive yet to be convinced about any of the players we’ve signed this year although I do concede it’s still early days for some of them 

Both Kent and Aribo were poor today and we relied on them a lot last season. Both should have been replaced earlier and I’m not sure Morelos should have started & stayed on as long as he did.

Also at some point I think Itten is going to need a longer run of games than he’s been getting.A few games and a few goals would help his confidence 

Im also a bit concerned that I don’t think any of the players signed since the start of the year have improved us though I do concede it’s still early days for some of them

1 hour ago, ranger_syntax said:

Zungu is gone.

 

Lundstram and Ofoborh are in.

 

There are question marks over both new arrivals.  The transfer window is still open.  Should we add another, try to bring Kelly in or trust what we have?

I think we have issues up front

Morelos has just returned & isn’t match fit and Roofe sadly will be missing meantime 

That leaves Itten & Sakala. Itten I think needs a run of games & Sakala not seen enough of yet

22 hours ago, JohnMc said:

I've a Romanian friend who I've got to know fairly well over the years. We found ourselves talking about politics one day and I asked about her memories of living under Ceaușescu and his hated Communist regime prior to the fall of the Iron Curtain. I knew what had happened to him but I was curious what happened to the thousands of others who were party members, supporters and politicians after the revolution. She simply shrugged and said "they became democrats", the same people stayed in power they just did it under a different name. 

 

As a Glaswegian I can honestly say I've seen no discernible difference in my local politicians since the SNP replaced Labour as the dominant party in the city. They are basically the same, they just have a different colour rosette. When Labour ran the city and the country there weren't many of their politicians pinning Rangers colours to the mast, but there seemed to be plenty happy to sport green and white and a surprisingly high number of Thistle supporters. Now the SNP run the city and the country it's the same thing. 

 

I don't have a particular problem with Murdo Fraser's article other than he's a politician himself and, for me, is clearly hoping it might garner him, and his party, some support. Judging by this thread he might be right too. I'm fairly cynical of his motives though. I don't think he's hoping a couple of SNP MSPs will 'out themselves' as bluenoses, or that Bute House will arrange a civic reception for Gerrard. I worry this is simply another salvo in the ongoing 'culture wars' that make up modern politics these days. In the end there's probably no other subject Fraser could have written about that would have created as much response, that's a very sad inditement on our society currently. 

 

In my experience nobody is going to have their political mindset changed by posters on a Rangers message board and so I have no intention of trying to alter any of my fellow posters deeply held political views. I have very few deeply held political views as it happens. In the last 20 or so years that I've posted on various Rangers related message boards the lack of political support the club and fans seem to have is a fairly regular topic. I actually do think it's an important topic. We all know that there are Rangers supporters in the SNP, just as there were in Scottish Labour back in the day, however they largely hide it. 

For me that's what needs addressed, a proper understanding of why openly supporting Rangers seems to be politically toxic and has been for a long time now. 

 

For work and now family reasons I'm a regular visitor to Ireland. Although I lived in Northern Ireland when based there I visited the Republic a lot and was initially wary saying I supported Rangers when conversation turned to football. I'd quickly discovered that certain assumptions were made about me when my football allegiances were known. It was assumed I was an Orangeman, I was a Loyalist and I was a bigot. I realised that most people there had never actually met a Rangers supporter, they'd a stereotype in their head from footage of rioting in Loyalist Belfast or Portadown, a basic understanding of the Glasgow football/religion split and perhaps some overheard song lyrics during a live match on Sky. After a few months I realised I was as much to blame for this stereotype as the disaffected youth covering his face with a red, white and blue bar scarf as he stones the police during a contentious parade in north Belfast. I'm not an Orangeman, or a Loyalist and I try not to be a bigot and yet I'm a huge Rangers fan. So I stopped down playing my football support and let people make their own minds up about Rangers supporters based on their interactions with me instead.

 

Like supporters of all clubs the Rangers support is broad and complicated. We all agree on very little, we hold different views on most subjects and, I believe, for the majority of our support who we want to win a football match has little bearing on who we vote for. I also understand that for some people supporting Rangers is an extension of their political belief system. For them it's an intrinsic part of their identity and belonging. That's fair enough and I don't get to tell them they're wrong to hold those views. At the same time they don't get to tell people they're wrong for holding different ones. 

 

I enjoyed my time living in Northern Ireland, it's a beautiful part of the world and I found the people there friendly and welcoming. I didn't care for their politics or politicians though. The politics of identity were dominant there then and remain so. I see shadows of that in the rest of the UK now. The rise of nationalism isn't just confined to Scotland. In my opinion Murdo Fraser's party are nationalist now, just a different type of nationalist. That's my political opinion and I don't expect anyone else to share it simply because we support the same football team. 

It’s an attempt by Murdo Fraser to stop Rangers supporters voting SNP.

how successful it is remains to be seen

Maybe this will be start of a run of games for Itten. 

8 minutes ago, craig said:

Wasnt even close to the worst player for us today.

Can he play 40 odd games again this season? Not sure we’ve an obvious replacement 

I genuinely worry if this might be a season too far for Steven Davis. 

Performance was poor on Tuesday. Continued today.