Rousseau

I dread these fixtures. 

I hate that.

39 minutes ago, Stevie - 4lads Blog said:

Two Americans on trial, left back & cm 

 

one a college student & one ex LA & team mate of SGs 

 

 

There is something wrong at board level. Mourinho comes off the rails after 2-3 seasons. This was the time they gave him another 3 year deal. Mental.

The board are supposedly very good commercially, but when it comes to football they're clueless. Which perhaps explains why they are looking to appoint a Director of Football, before appointing another manager. 

I thought they should have stuck with LVG a little more, to implement their DoF structure. 

Laurent Blanc looks favourite to be appointed caretaker until the end of the season. 

3 minutes ago, DMAA said:

A bit of an over-simplification of my argument. I think the system works best when you have technically gifted players who're comfortable on the ball, passing quickly on the deck and good at killer passes. I don't think that describes many of our players. They have plenty qualities but they're not the most technically gifted bunch, evidenced by lots of slack passing all season. It's not about being world class, it's about the kind of player you are. For example the system suits a Barrie McKay far more than a Middleton or Candeias.

 

I confess I haven't seen them recently, but when I watched them last season their style of play was incomparable to ours, a big difference on the style and players type front. Mostly playing on the deck and getting a lot of joy from getting to the byline from smart through balls. And at that time Sterling and and Sane were on the wings and looking far more like wing forwards than just left and right midfielders like ours, and with proper creative players in the middle with both Silvas and De Bruyne.

 

I'm not saying we should never use it but Gerrard claimed he'd be flexible on formation and willing to change things but it seems it's not even up for debate.

That's an oversimplification of what a 4-3-3 needs. 90% of teams play it; not every one of those has superbly technical players. 

We're nothing like Man City (most obvious example of a 4-3-3), but the principle is similar: wing play to get crosses into the box. Like I said, it's failure of execution. Yes, our crosses are too deep; we should be hitting the byline more.

I think you're seeing how we're playing and trying to fit a system to suit; which is valid. But, I think it's a poor way of playing. I'm seeing that way of playing as a pale imitation of how it should be; we should be doing it much, much better -- I don't want to see us take advantage of a poor way of playing. 

I think he's more flexible than you give him credit. We've had 4-3-3, 4-1-4-1, 4-5-1 (variants of the same, granted, but there is a difference), 4-2-3-1, 4-4-2, and even 3 at the back a couple of times. That's dependant on the players we have: loads of central midfielders, loads of wingers, and very few strikers. 

6 minutes ago, DMAA said:

I think the system a team plays needs to suit the players they have and the style they are used to playing. To me there is a disconnect between those things.

 

In terms of the players; Barcelona play a 4-3-3 as far as I know but they manage to get Rakitic, Coutinho, Messi and Suarez on the pitch. Our Suarez is Lafferty, our Rakitic is Arfield, our Messi in Candeias and our Coutinho is Grezda. We just don't have the technical ability in our side to really do the system justice. The so called 4-3-3 becomes a 4-5-1 in reality.

 

Style is the other issue for me. Barcelona's technical ability is off the scale, Messi plays fast one-twos inside and jinks past players. They are very comfortable playing on the deck and that's their instinct because they're so good at it. Our style is pretty traditional. We try and get the ball wide and whip balls in the box. And we very often play long balls, especially away from home. This style really benefits from two strikers as we've seen over the years with Mccoist-Hately, Novo-Prso etc etc.

 

A lot of crosses come from deep, especially from the likes of Barisic and Tav, and this just isn't possible/feasible. It's normally Morelos up against two big centre backs. If the ball doesn't fall perfectly it will be hoovered up by the second centre back. 

Just because we don't have Messi is not a reason not to play it -- tell that to every other team that plays a 4-3-3, which is 90% of them. 

Arguably, we do have the players for it: loads of central midfielders, loads of wingers, and 1 striker. 

Our style is wing-play. This suits a 4-3-3. Man City cross it into the box all the time, and they're playing with either one of Aguero or Jesus, who are tiny! 

It's a failure of execution, not a failure of system.  

11 minutes ago, DMAA said:

Another demonstration of the madness of playing 1 striker against diddy opposition. I understand sacrificing a striker for a centre mid against Celtic but how many times do we need to see that 3 centre mids is a total waste against these teams, and how badly missed the second striker is with the dozens of balls launched into the box. 

I feel you're implying that the "madness of playing 1 striker" is a failure of the system. It's not. 

I agree there should be more players in the box, but there should be more in the 4-3-3. If the winger's crossing, the other winger, the striker and at least 1 midfielder should be in the box. 

From what I recall, there were those players in the box for us on Sunday, but only at the start of the game. The longer we went without getting that second they seemed to lose confidence and seemed to stay back, exacerbating the problem. 

Moreover, the "centre mids" help add control, and provides a more offensive threat. 

9 hours ago, Gonzo79 said:

A couple of posters suggested Hamilton players should have been booked and possibly sent off for manhandling Jack.

Meh.. yellows were fair.

It was the only way to stop his mazy runs and through-balls...  

Anyone see the ball boys in the Olympiakos-Milan game? Olympiakos needed the win, and to run down the clock and stop attacks they were throwing balls onto the pitch. It might have been the fans -- like Feyenoord. 

2 minutes ago, buster. said:

What does Lafferty need to do to get a goal ?

 

Last week he scored, but he didn't.

This week he misses an easy header from two yards out and has the goalie pull off a great save to deny another header.

 

He's obviously storing them away for the 29th.

That's fine by me!

We can play worse and smash a team. 

We're lacking something up front. 

Some creative options in January are a must.

Made hard work of it, but I'll take the 3 points every time. 

Jack my MotM...  

We've been dominant, but the longer it's went without that second, our confidence has just dissipated. 

We're retreating and giving away free-kicks out wide.

We're utterly dominant, but we need that second goal.

3 minutes ago, Gonzo79 said:

I'm sure Hamilton's defence are terrified at the prospect of Jack's mazy runs and defence splitting passes.

MacKinnon was; he had to drag Jack to the ground after being done one-on-one.

And again just there.

Middleton comes on, McCrorie off.

Jack dragged to the ground earlier. Surprised he wasn't red-carded: could've hurt the boy's elbow...

15 corners for us -- there's still a few minutes left.

Just now, Gaffer said:

How ironic (and embarrassing) that Rangers TV appeared to be using the BBC as its source for the score.  It was corrected just around the same time as the BBC.  That's incredibly poor.  At least on the park we are looking good though.

Or, the BBC are looking at the Rangers TV scoreline.

The Gersnet scoreline is the only one that matters... ?

I think it's just 1-0.

Just now, Gaffer said:

What's the score?  Rangers tv is only 1-0 but on BBC its showing as 2-0.  Did Lafferty score or not?

Yes, I think he hit the post?

Typical BBC.

It's 1-0, I believe.

Errrmmm... WHAT!?

Quite a good line-up, I think.

I'd love to see Dallas get a few minutes -- when we're 5-0 up...  

11 minutes ago, buster. said:

Past loan deals for youngsters from big clubs (IMO Roma and Benfica are big clubs)

 

Oduwa

Zelalem

Ball

Dalcio

Sadiq

Toral

Ejaria

 

I can see a pattern that we get players that will never make it at parent club.

I think we'd be better off developing our own players.

 

 

(I'm not sure Dalcio counts, as he was Benfica B, wasn't he?)

Hindsight's a wonderful thing.