Rousseau

What are you expecting? The player from 10 years ago that played with Suarez and Stirling and scored goals for fun, or the recent journeyman that can't play for more than 90 minutes without getting injured?

Kenny Miller is available - he scored a lot of goals 10 years ago. 

Rangers 5 - 0 Hamilton

FGS Morelos

45 minutes ago, compo said:

MCGREGOR 

 

Tav, Weir , Brougherra ,Papac

 

Arfield ,Davis , Hagi , Edu

 

Naismith!  Morelos  , 

 

 

 

Naismith over Jelavic!? No!

Papac was class, but do you think he's a better all-round player than Barisic?

Where's all this coming from? His post match interview?

5 minutes ago, RANGERRAB said:

Davis is finished. The Steven Davis playing for Rangers now is a shadow of the Steven Davis who left in 2012.

I wouldn't say he's finished, just yet.

But, he has been absolutely awful in recent months.

30 minutes ago, Doc said:

Agree up to a point but we have probably been hoping for too much from some of those experienced players. Davis blows hot and cold, and especially cold if opposition midfielders harry him and don't give him space. Defoe is excellent and looks like he genuinely cares. He still offers a real threat but too often we are lumping balls in to him rather than looking for something whipped in low from wide positions for him to run on to. His injury hasn't helped us at a critical time. McCauley was a fucking disaster and a complete waste of time and money. We should not be relying so much on players at the fag end of their careers. They can do it in the odd game but over a whole season they are going to give you quite a few games like yesterday.

 

Other than Defoe I don't think these veterans have necessarily improved the younger players as much as we would have hoped they would. Maybe I'm wrong but I would rather have taken players 4-5 years younger and with more energy because in the league we're in you can't carry passengers and too often the likes of Davis are passengers.

 

 

Davis has been tremendous, but has fallen off a cliff since the break. I don't understand it?

Defoe and McAuley were from last season - the post I responded to specifically said this season's transfers.

Found this interesting question on Reddit.

It's a bit of deflection from recent woes, but also compares how far off we may be to a title winning XI.

Pick your starting XI from a mix of players from the 2010/11 title winning side and our current squad, based on raw ability.

2010/11 Squad: McGregor; Whittaker, Bougherra, Weir, Papac; Davis, Edu, Wylde; Lafferty, Jelavic, Naismith; McCulloch, Weiss, Miller, Broadfoot. 

2019/20 Squad: McGregor; Tavernier, Edmundson, Goldson, Barisic; Arfield, Davis, Jack; Hagi, Morelos, Kent; Aribo, Kamara, Katic, Kamberi.

Based on raw ability, and their age at the time.

Mine would be (4-3-3):

McGregor (2010/11)

Tavernier - Weir - Bougherra - Barisic

Davis (2010/11) - Jack - Aribo

Naismith - Jelavic - Morelos

Feel free to add any players I might have missed.

19 minutes ago, Bill said:

Would this be a bad time to regret the loss of Josh Windass? 
 

Thought so. 

There's never a bad time to think about Josh Windass...

7 minutes ago, cooponthewing said:

In all honesty Rab; i was standing there yesterday thinking we have been treading water for a year now (at best). Even the manager agreed the performance was a parody of the dire stuff watched before arriving. The recent domestic performances have been abysmal and I am certain the players are not performing for him. They will turn it on for Europe as they are in the shop window, but domestically they have chucked it, and Gerrard can't motivate them. SG has become the new PLG and the tactical similarities with MW are haunting. Sure, we have beaten C****c and our European performances have been good so in that sense improvement has been achieved. However, my point was that I don't see SG winning anything as a Rangers manager. I wish I was wrong and hope I am but its what I see.

Eh? 

10 minutes ago, RANGERRAB said:

What this means is we cannot afford mistakes when buying players. Unfortunately we have made too many especially last summer.

They are not mistakes -- other than Barker, I'd say, and the [early] loanees.

The profiles are good: youngsters with potential; solid, experienced Premier League players. 

Where I agree, is that we've got our priorities wrong: squad players instead of quality first team players. 

1 minute ago, RANGERRAB said:

Getting rid off ‘poorer squad players’ is never easy because they’ll be on wages at Rangers they won’t get anywhere else.

Of course, but that's where Wilson comes in. 

We're just shooting ourselves in the foot if we start selling first team players but retain the dross. I don't see how we improve. Our first XI may improve, but we've still got to fall back on the dross. 

I have a problem when we start saying, ' we need to get rid of X, Y and Z first team players', and almost hoping you get someone better.

That's not the way you improve, IMO. 

We should be retaining these first team players, and then replacing the poorer squad players with better quality first-team players. So, it's like a conveyor belt: for example, Polster gets sold, Tavernier goes from being a first team player to a squad player, and then we sign someone better than Tavernier for the first-choice RB.

You don't get rid of the first team players and leave the dross squad players behind. 

1 hour ago, RANGERRAB said:

A lot of Gerrard’s problems come from poor recruitment last summer.

The likes of Jones, Barker, Stewart, Hastie, Ojo & Edmundson haven’t made much of an impact for one reason or another.

Only really Helander & Aribo have made any real impact & Helander’s been injured for the past 3 months.

And ironically the two loaners who arrived in January, Hagi & Kamberi have looked the best of all recruits so far this season in my opinion.

That’s not a good situation to be in.

 

I don't think it was poor, per se, but the focus was on depth, rather than first-team players. 

They're not, and were never meant to be, first team players, so not having an impact is irrelevant, IMO. What we were looking for, is for them to play a few games here and there, put in solid performances and/or develop their game. 

Jones and Stewart are solid Premier League players, who wouldn't have cost too much. They have each contributed a little: Stewart's came off the bench to grab a decent number of goals for someone that doesn't play much; and Jones grabbed important assists in EU qualifying, but then has been injured for the majority of the time. 

Hastie and Edmundson are youngsters with promising futures. Edmundson looks good at times, but make the odd mistake; that's not unusual for a youngster. Hastie has not done much, but he's only 20; he was one of the best youngsters in the League. 

Ojo is a loan that showed early promise but has disappointed. 

Barker was just an opportunity to add to the squad depth, IMO. He's not good enough. 

I don't think the profile of player we went for is wrong: they are youngsters with promise, or solid premier league players that can add to the squad. 

What I agree with, from those above posts, is that we have focused, wrongly, on squad players to add depth. What we needed was more first-team players. Hagi, Kamberi, Aribo and Helander are good signings, in that regard.

(I think only Hagi and Kamberi are Wilson signings, I think? I might be wrong.)

Nae points.

I didn't even have to leave my phone. 

I'll post the table tomorrow.

There's no point blaming individuals - it's all of them. 

But they're not bad players.

I'm as angry as the next guy, but I'm also quite confused - how can go from being the best team in the country, blowingvaway top European sides, to this gutless, impotent performance? It's inexplicable.

I would like some answers from SG.

I can't help but feel we need a complete rebuild, or reset, but that's simply not true: this squad is capable of playing some great stuff. 

Where is it?

It's inexplicable how bad we are.

Arfield has pulled his hamstring, so he's coming off. 

I'm not enjoying this, at all. 

We've done nothing. 

Until we learn to win the battle that this is, or find a way to negate it, then we're getting nothing from this. 

This place is empty.

Hagi probably needs a rest.

Morelos is in need of a break too, but I did expect him back. Is he not in Colombia?

2 minutes ago, MacK1950 said:

Hey guys to those voting Morelos FGS get fingers out and change he's not in squad.

Shhhh...

I need to make up some points.