buster.

It's going to take steady improvement and good recruitment over at least another couple of transfer windows for us to have a realistic chance over 38 games.

Can't agree tbh. League Cup offered an opportunity of a trophy whilst it's fairly clear that we aren't ready to win the league this season.

No minutes against Aberdeen when deperately needing creativity doesn't suggest SG has him high in the pecking order. That said he did get on before Middleton against Spartak. You get the feeling he's always going to come short this season. Maybe he can do a mini pre-season in the Xmas break.

McGregor Tavernier Goldson Worral Flanagan Rossiter Jack Arfield Kent Morelos Middleton

The press pack up here certainly don't get an easy ride with SG. He let's them and everyone know who is boss.

Last SF win in 90 minutes was back on 30 January 2011 with Walter Smith in charge when we beat Motherwell 2-1 in the League Cup........We went onto to beat Celtic 2-1 AET in the Final.

Excellent pod guys and gal, thanks to all involved. Mention in dispatches for Stevie and most of his analysis and for that matter, Ross for anchoring it so smoothly.

Yes, it was the quality of delivery that made up about 70% of the goal .....(same with the last minute Motherwell),...very difficult to defend. Some are saying McGregor should have come for it but to me, there is too much traffic for him to be able to get to a fairly fast whipped delivery. Bit cruel saying the Coulibally miss was a sitter. A good contact and it's probably a goal but reaction time is very short once ball passes players in front of him and it seems to arrive at an awkward height ((just below knee) and he couldn't readjust fast enough.

Over the piece, I think Tav has been an exceptional creative outlet during his time with Rangers and to compare him with other full backs wrt to going forward will often see the other way behind him. That said, when Barisic is available and playing well, he isn't far off him. Having Barisic, Flanagan and Halliday for LB is more than adequate. Tav and Flanagan for RB aswell IMO.

That in itself would be proof enough to show the law is an ass.

Common sense is sometimes spoken (eg. Justice Peter Smith in December 2015) but seldom fully represented in the ongoing judgements. It's of little practical use referring back to the BTC.

Flanagan is a fairly robust and adaptable defender that the manager has confidence in. IMO he's excellent cover for Tav, someone who up until now hasn't missed many games through injury. For a more offensive approach, we have Barisic. GMS is currently on a decent run of form, taking on just about all full-backs and getting by them. Passing the ball along the back line happens a lot in modern football and is often down to other reasons than the defenders inability to do something else.

Playing with nine might make it more of a challenge Re. LB: .....We have Barisic to come back once his injury is sorted.

Without knowing or being able to understand the finer details, this has the appearence of working out just how Ashley wanted. - Ashley using SDI as his plaything and being able to hang-on and continue it's vexatious intentions against Rangers - Continuous legal battles for which generally he seems to have better advice and a stronger base - Increasing Rangers costs and limiting its revenue I would say that the law is an ass when it so obviously allows: - officers of the club (Green, Somers, Lambias, etc) to act against it's best interests - an ongoing line in vexatious actions by SDI and over the piece, to blatantly not be a "normal commercial partner" - SDI an injunction to prevent any kind of transparency for supporters/customers, beyond the annual accounts which are made-up by SDI Are other shareholders of SDI fully aware of the nature of the 'Ashley campaign' against Rangers and do they agree with it ?

That's very true of the three 1-0 defeats we've suffered this season. Steve Clarke was sat in the stand yesterday and he'll have drove his car south to Ayrshire yesterday but with thoughts of coming back up to Glasgow on Wednesday with a bus to park.

Different managers, mostly different players.... The two that stick out are the Motherwell game and yesterday. Tav, Jack and Candeias are the only three to have played in both games. We need some stability at the helm and do without the annual purge of players.......and for the management team to develop the sqaud/team into something that operates at a better and more consistent level. Then we'll win more games at Hampden.

Just to add that Windass was very much part of the instant solution to previously being without Morelos/CF against Aberdeen (red card). I don't think Arfield could have been fully 100% yesterday and it cut more options and/or probably delayed his eventual sub appearence.

Yes, it's unfair to pin it on Sadiq. Players like Tav let us down yesterday. Normally the guy you can depend on for a spark of quality middle to front, yesterday he couldn't get anything right. More than enough credit in the bank for an off-day, it was just such an important match to have it.

For some games 3-5-2 is a good option. - The CB's need to be heavily drilled so as to be more comfortable than was apparent at Motherwell. - We get the best out of Barisic - We get two forwards on the pitch - We'd need to bring in another forward or two

When Morelos plays well, helps create space for others to move into, we can be dynamic. In short if Alfredo plays yesterday and plays well we win. It was asking a lot of Sadiq to make a difference yesterday and keeping him on for the full 90 minutes was IMO, a folly. We didn't have much time between the European match and yesterday so perhaps the CF for CF change was the easiest to make but it was never ideal. However, it was so difficult to pinpoint the change that was going to be made because it was so difficult to see an obvious one that you could have confidence in. Morelos got away with his petulance in the Ufa game, this time it has had a tangible cost. SG said that with hindsight, he shouldn't have played the Columbian against Ayr Utd. and that is the nearest you'll publicly feel his frustration towards Alfredo. SG talked about the lack of quality in the final third at the very start of the season in the first qualifiers, it's still our main issue and will remain being so until we properly address it. The kind of quality we need doesn't tend to come cheap and I don't think it viable to sort it overnight. I think we'll remain an improving work-in-progress throughout this season and would be looking for significant improvement come 2 or 3 months into 2019/20. SG&Co are looking to improve our football operation as a whole and neither can this be done overnight. We need some patience or we'll be our own worst enemies caught in a perpetual storm.

That's why we'll never get anyhere. We have to let this management team have time and sort things out over a full season and two more transfer windows ... Then make judgements next season.

This season was always likely to be 'work-in-progress' with teething problems for the management team. We started better than anyone thought probable and expectations quickly rose but we've hit a couple of bumps and some may think it's never going to happen. However, I think this management team will be the real deal but we'll need to give them this season to learn, get two more transfer windows in and continue progress throughout the football operation.

Tav is so often the player to provide a bit of creativity but today he wasn't quite at it. Not like him to put a free-kick over the bar by several yards and overhit crosses. It's not that all the players are suddenly poor, they badly missed an on-form Morelos.

As Frankie touched on earlier, SG can be too slow to make changes.

Excellent player that he can be, Morelos and his uncalled for yellow in the quarter-final has been costly IMO.