Rousseau

Katic goes off, McAuley comes on?

3 minutes ago, Gonzo79 said:

It's noticeable that Tav refraining from taking corners has resulted in a couple of set piece goals this week. 

 

Middleton has a good delivery. 

It's actually Tav's set-piece deliveries -- not corners -- that resulted in one goal; His general crossing has been superb today. 

Middleton's taking the corners -- wonderfully, it must be said -- which resulted in the other goal. 

Half-time, 3-1.

We started with a nice tempo and got a deserved lead. 

We let them in with a sloppily defended goal, and the tempo seemed to disapate a wee bit.

We are still creating chances, though, with some nice play. 

Tavernier scoring from the Penalty, that red card for Motherwell, and Morelos scoring with a header has made it much more comfortable than it could have been.  

Nice play again. Morelos playing one-two's from deep, before threading the ball wide for Middleton, who's cross is blocked with Morelos sniffing around. 

Morelos is fouled there in that block. He looks like he might react, but Ejaria quickly goes up to him and tells him to stay down. Good play. It must be a ploy to negate that temper from Morelos.

Wonderful play from Middleton, taking on his men (3 of them), winding his way through them, cuts the ball across to Ejaria on the edge of the box, who slips in Morelos; his shot swerves just over the bar.

Pin-point set-piece delivery from Tavernier finds Katic, who's header is tipped wide for the corner. 

From the corner, Morelos, unmarked, nods it home! 3-1.

Right -- we need to be ruthless now. 

Put them to the sword!

Motherwell manager sent to the stands.

Tavernier slots it home, but the Ref wasn't watching (Muppet) so he has to take it again...

Same spot, 2-1 to Rangers. 

Penalty to Rangers!

McHugh sent off for the hand ball; second yellow.

1-1. Don't know what happened there?

Katic completely rolled by Bowman. 

Easy ball across for a tap-in.

Silly.

Nice switch of play saw Tavernier running at their defence. He slips in Greza wide right and he flouts in a nice cross to Morelos. His header just flouts over the bar.

Middleton is simultaneous superb and poor. 

With the ball at his feet, taking on his man, he's unplayable at times. 

His link-up play and passing leaves a lot to be desired. 

He's young, though; he'll learn through games. 

We've started well, with a nice tempo.

1-0, Arfield.

Lovely ball in from Tavernier, Arfield composes himself as the defender slips and slots it low into the corner of the net.

Goldson needed dropped.

We need a more offensive option than Flanagan against 'Well, and Halliday -- while not being the best option -- has done well. 

Grezda and Middleton get much-needed starts. 

Atakayi gets a place on the bench? Interesting.

These next 2 games in hand are important: if we can create a wee gap between ourselves and the rest we position ourselves well for 2nd. I still feel Hibs and Aberdeen are the ones to beat to 2nd (Hearts will fall away and Killie likewise).

3 points please! 

I think Rudden's been doing quite well, has he not?

4 goals in 8 games, for an 18 year-old, at the bottom end of the Championship, is good going. 

19.

I'm bored @DMAA -- I really don't care that much.

You seem unwilling to criticise Middleton. 

For me, Middleton is more culpable than Flanagan. Arguably, Coulibaly is more culpable than both of them, seeing it again. 

We'll just need to agree to disagree. 

@DMAA -- For me, Flanagan is marking the winger (?), Middleton is on the FB and there's a RCM in there too.

Middleton should be quicker to the RCM -- Coulibaly too, to be fair -- because he becomes the danger; Flanagan passes him on to Middleton.  

I still think Middleton leaves Flanagan way too exposed.  

I'm not saying Flanagan is blameless, but he's been given a really difficult situation to deal with and he's not quite quick enough to spot it; it is an exceptional ball too.

It's a moot point anyway if Goldson clears it properly!

5 minutes ago, buster. said:

I reckon he's been smoking something...

16 minutes ago, DMAA said:

Perhaps so, I'll have to watch it again. My initial reaction watching it, and as a full back myself, was why are you so out of line with your defence and so central. Full back's 101 is don't leave a gaping hole on your side of the defence and pass men on if they leave your zone.

Only if you're playing zonal. The Aberdeen FB's were following our wingers everywhere. 

I don't think he was way out of line -- I would need to see it again, though.

Middleton has shown several times that he lacks that defensive side of his game. 

2 minutes ago, DMAA said:

I haven't watched the goals conceded over, however you can't blame the attacking left winger for not tracking that full back. Flanagan was out of position and out of line with the back line. For me the full back should not get sucked in like that and leave a big gap for the opposition full back to exploit. We have defensive midfielders for a reason and if the opposition winger moves inside you (as a full back) tell the defensive midfielder he's in your zone now, I'm staying in my position so that the defensive keeps it's shape.

Yes, or a central midfielder covers across -- which I did mention. 

Ostensibly, it's still Middleton's man, IMO. 

Ach... these group stage games were always a bonus, for me. I didn't expect us to get past Maribor -- I did expect us to give Ufa a good go, but thought it would be very tough.

It's just desperately disappointing because we positioned ourselves wonderfully with some brilliant results.

The defending was criminal at times, but outwith individual mistakes / poor decision-making (Goldson going with the outside of the foot) or pure flukes (deflection), I felt like it was more down to the wide midfielders, or even central midfielders that cost us defensively. 

Flanagan was exposed time and time again, because Middleton didn't track his man. It was the Full-back that was getting in behind; that's Middleton's job, not Flanagan, who's covering the winger.

For the 1st, Tavernier was caught inside, but there was an overload of 3 against 1. Where's Candeias or a central midfielder to cover?

For the third, again Tavernier is caught under the ball, but again it's the Full-back, so it's not strictly his man. 

4th was a pure fluke, starting from the ball squirming out from Arfield's (?) tackle in the build-up.