Rousseau

I thought the signing of Defoe was highly unlikely, but I can't lie: I'm rather excited by it. 

He was a top class striker / finisher in his day.

Don't know where he's going to play, though? 

26 minutes ago, alexscottislegend said:

Can you elaborate on that please Craig?

Bradley Lowery was the child who had cancer; a young Sunderland fan who took a shine to Defoe, and vice versa, when he visited him in hospital. Young Bradley died a year or two ago. 

38 minutes ago, Craigy1881 said:

has he progressed since he has left scotland? I know he had huge potential but I haven't heard much of him for years now.  Always liked him though and at Dundee Utd

Fixed that for you. Otherwise it was unpalatable. 

3 minutes ago, DMAA said:

I find this very unlikely. He will have plenty offers much closer to home from teams who are more able to pay his wages.

Defoe is also seeking first-team football; I find that equally unlikely with us. 

Sky Sources: Southampton will allow Steven Davis to rejoin Rangers, if personal terms can be agreed. Davis has 6-months left on his contract, but wages may be the stumbling block.

11 minutes ago, DMAA said:

Well, up until now he hasn’t been that effective. He’s been all about directness, pace and dribbling. His passing, crossing and shooting (i.e end product) has left a lot to be desired, evidenced by the fact that despite playing the equivalent of 3 games more than Middleton (an apparently “very raw” youngster) he has the same number of goals and assists in the league. Even on Saturday despite playing really well you saw that side of his game when he missed a one on one which should have been a goal. 

He shouldn't even be shooting: cut it across for the tap-in!

It's a real bugbear of mine. 

10 hours ago, craig said:

Hey @Rousseau guess who I was parked beside at the Albion ?  And guess who hugged me on the win ?  And guess who said he and I need to catch up when he gets back from holiday this week ?

 

 

He seemed almost most as happy as we were.  In his words “that’s the first I’ve seen a real Rangers team against Celtic in 5 years”.

Clearly wasn't the wife...

9 hours ago, buster. said:

Too busy celebrating to have thought about it 

 

Now that I get in....... 'Correct number of Rangers Goals':..... Get my point added

@Rousseau

 

 

Take your cheap point! 

When you need to nip to the shops after the game...

Steven Gerrard: "Andy Halliday is my unofficial captain".

I thought Halliday was immense today. That first crunching tackle set the tone.

I would also like my moment to gloat...

*cough* @DMAA *cough* 

... that was how a 4-3-3 should be played -- by us, anyway. 

Tight, compact, runners from the 8 position, nice triangles, runners in-behind, number in the box, with threats from out wide.  

I'm not greetin', you are!

It's a great day!

We have quite a few Correct Scores -- and a few that didn't have faith.

Rousseau, Yorkie, les186, Dado, BEARGER, Franc, Gribz, Coop, compo, onevision, Gaffer, Bill, FS, gisabeer, Lenny, BSRT, TB, r_s gained 1 point for the Correct Result. 

Rousseau, Yorkie, Dado, BEARGER, compo, Les186, 26th gained 1 point for the Correct Number of Rangers Goals.

No one had Jack as FGS.

Rousseau, Yorkie, Dado, BEARGER, compo, and les186 gained 3 points for the Correct Score.

New Leader!

Latest Standings:

Always goes in stages, doesn't it? Going from 'we've got no chance' at the start of the week to 'get in tae them!' on derby day.

Kieran (?) Dowell has signed for Sheffield Utd on loan.

1 hour ago, DMAA said:

We should be trying to copy everything the Red Bull clubs have done in terms of overall club management. From top to bottom they look like fantastic football clubs now. 

Yes! Absolutely brilliant club management. I love watching them.

(I do note they play 4-4-2...  )  

11 hours ago, DMAA said:

You can’t replace Arfield with McCrorie and expect us to keep creating chances and scoring goals. And we have no right to expect Coulibaly and Jack to play as “no 8s”. We are currently playing with three no 6s (defensive midfielders).

 

I understand the loyalty to Gerrard but I am nothing but angry when I watch attack after attack after attack breaking down because we are playing Mackeleles as Lampards and expecting players who have made a living out of tackling to magically become flair players who can be relied on to open up defences. Coulibaly is getting slaughtered because Gerrard is stubbornly forcing the system on the players available to him rather than adapting and playing a 4-4-2 based formation with Lafferty on. 

11 hours ago, DMAA said:

This isn’t true @Rousseau. We had no shots on target after an hour with the 4-5-1 against Saints. After switching to 4-4-2 with Lafferty partnering Morelos we had a flurry of chances, almost all of which Lafferty contributed to directly or indirectly. Morelos was allowed to get into goalscoring positions rather than constantly battling for balls with nobody running beyond him anyway. It is not true that chances only come about from “creative players”. A chance can be “created” from a long ball being headed down by one forward to another. Or from one forward pulling one centre back out wide, giving the other forward the space he needs to get through on goal. All happened in half an hour against Saints and was the way we scored most of our modern history goals pre 2012. 

Talk about stubborn.

They're defensive players, but they're not playing defensive roles. We don't play with three 6s. Matuidi, a defensive midfielder, plays Left Wing for Juventus. Is he a 6? No; he may be defensive but he's playing a wide role. I'm not suggesting they're [our midfield] any good at it, but I'm not sure any of our players get pass marks this month; they look shattered, physically and mentally, and injuries have taken their toll on our options.  

You're not suggesting we go back to 4-4-2, and getting the 'wee man' to feed off long balls to the 'big man', are you? That's brutal stuff. We'll never make any progress that way. I understand your loyalty to a certain way of playing but the game's moved on. 

Anyway, I'll leave you to it. I'm bored. We'll just agree to disagree.

It's always wonderful to have a post on the Transfer thread, but when it's Stevie fae 4lads...

Rangers 1 - 0 Celtic 

FGS Morelos

15 hours ago, DMAA said:

We’ve been over this. Lafferty instead of Coulibaly or McCrorie in a forward two. And if we must persist with 1 up front where was Grezda? It’s one thing to make a mistake but to repeat it over and over again is inexcusable. Nobody likes a stubborn manager and we’ve been here before and it’s  so frustrating to watch. And the football we are playing is dreadful to watch. 

Grezda was unavailable. 

Putting Lafferty in is not going to create us more chances. We're desperately short of creative midfield players. (I would've played Lafferty, but not as part of a 4-4-2.)

If we play 4-4-2 against Hibs, we are at a serious disadvantage: we're outnumbered at the back and Midfield. The only 4-4-2 I would have played would be the Diamond, but we're short midfielders to utilise that, I think. Gerrard has tried that. 

Maybe a 4-2-3-1 would have worked, with Lafferty in there, but then again, there's no creative midfielder to make it work. Gerrard has tried that. 

The 4-3-3, with two roaming 8s, is the most logical system with the type of players we have available. Is it working? No, it's not. Gerrard is trying it. 

Maybe matching their 3-5-2 would've been better, but we've not drilled that and I'm not sure we had enough defenders either? Gerrard has even tried that, at Motherwell. 

To be honest, I don't think any formation / system would help because the players just look shattered, both physically and mentally; our small squad doesn't help matters. 

Mix-up in the Hibs defense allows Candeias to head through Morelos to finish his one-on-one with the 'keeper. 

1-0 to Rangers!

We're so sloppy, giving the ball away far too often. That's not tactics. 

22 minutes ago, DMAA said:

I’m annoyed. A ridiculously defensive midfield with Coulibaly, Jack and McCrorie in the centre. Yet again we are relying on Morelos alone to score goals for us, and he’s going to be isolated again. When will Gerrard learn. Sorry for the rant but how many chances is this formula going to get. Far too much respect shown to these average Joes

Who does he bring in? Have you seen the bench?

They clearly want the 4-3-3, which I'm fully on board with. It doesn't necessarily need to be defensive; it depends how they play. 

Jack and Coulibaly will play as 8s, with McCrorie the DM, I presume. If the former burst forward, then it's not that defensive.

Tavernier is a frustrating one. I don't think he's Captain material, and he's been really poor of late -- how many times does he lose the ball when trying to take on his man? He then pops up with a crucial assist -- and I'd always back him to tuck away a penalty. 

Happy Christmas to all!