Rousseau

That's @der Berliner's Christmas present sorted:

Me too.

Oh - ppg is only useful when it agrees with you? Disappointing. In the Hearts match: 2 or 3 (who signed Raskin?) were MB signings, I think; 5 were PC signings. He does play most of his signings. Like I've said elsewhere he did want more but we we couldn't get them. We can't blame him for that. I have no evidence. I'm not disagreeing with you, per se. I just get the sense that it's down to invididual injury prone players that he didn't sign (Yilmaz, Lawrence, Tamundo, Danilo, etc.) that we must release to get over it. Cortes, I agree, is the one solely on his watch. Worse case interpretation, it's the same. It's not worse.

I have exaggerated my position wildly, but in my defence, I prefer xG to Goals only in the sense that's it's more reflective of performance over a season. A team can play extremely well and not score, a team can be camped in their own box for 89 minutes and win with a single flukey, deflected goal. That does happen. XG describes this.

We should do away with goals altogether and just decide matches on xG...

Our xG difference is worse this season than MB's last season, which is more important to me than goals scored, etc. - although there has been an upturn over the last 5 games. This is still better than MB. I found MB particularly difficult, though. But, if we use ppg, my table shows PC is still better than MB - a 0.29 ppg difference, to be exact, which is substantial. PC has been poor this season but he's currently hitting what Gerrard was doing in his first season. He is still relying on MB players simply because we couldn't strengthen the first team as much as we and he wanted to. I wouldn't blame PC for that - or NK as we were in for more but the deals didn't get completed. On the whole the recruitment approach has been good: a lot of deadwood out, and young hungry players in. It's a good start. We had to take big losses on MB players - we will not have to do so on Jefte, Barron, Igamane, Diomande, etc., mainly because they are younger and didn't cost as much - Diomande aside. Injuries are still not good. I really think it's just down to individuals now: they are just injury prone. The only way to fix it is to release them. Our more recent Koppen signings have been a lot better in this regard. We did spend a lot. And while I wanted more first team players, I really can't fault our approach. I like the profiles targeted and I like that we didn't get dragged into spending more than we were able. I think case for keeping PC is still there. He's on board with the rebuild, prudent spender, works with our DoR, he is a competent manager - no matter what everyone says - has won a trophy, reached another two finals, good European results. Obviously that's difficult for fans when domestic form is so poor. I had already written off this season as a full rebuild. The big negative, for me, is the xG at the moment. It's worse than under MB (second season). It needs to improve - which it has technically over the last 5 games, but it's still meh. I'm okay with Clement, for now, considering all the off-field issues. But, if Potter says he's wanting a crack I'll kick PC out the door and crawl down to get him.

Covid.

Aye, but when I do it you call it nonsense! It's a bit selective. (The financial numbers are very misleading, too.) If we expand it, we can see why Beale deserved to be sacked. I was quite content going into that season with a 4-diamond-2, but the ppg drop off was quite severe. Clement then brought about an incredible turnaround, then we get a drop off this season. Gerrard's last season saw a bad drop off, too. GvB was quite consistent, I'd say - but the football was dreadful. Do you know what the average is over these 7 seasons? 2.25 ppg. Season Manager MP Pts PPG Change 18/19 Gerrard 38 78 2.05 - 19/20 Gerrard 29 67 2.31 0.26 20/21 Gerrard 38 102 2.68 0.37 21/22 Gerrard 12 27 2.25 -0.43 GvB 25 59 2.36 0.11 22/23 GvB 15 33 2.20 -0.16 Beale 23 59 2.57 0.37 23/24 Beale 7 12 1.71 -0.85 Clement 30 70 2.33 0.62 24/25 Clement 11 22 2.00 -0.33

When two stubborn posters clash...

This is what Brentford's B-team focused on.

What are your thoughts, folks?

DJ hits a maximum to take the lead! Correct Result (1 pt): Everyone who entered (except compo). Correct Number of Rangers Goals (1pt): R, compo, DJ and Lenny. FGS (2 pts): Dado, BEAR, FA, compo, Yorkie, DJ, Devil, Stewarty, Graeme, BD, T-1000 and CammyF. Correct Score (3 pts): R, DJ and Lenny. Latest Standings:

Is Haaland a sell?

There's very little evidence for that argument to be challenged, IMO - other than the fact he won the third division with Barca B which is not a lot to go on. I think the fact his philosophy has influenced most current coaches in world football suggest he is a tactical genius, but then again, so is Bielsa and he's won very little. He should test your hypothesis be joining The Famous.

Generally, I'd agree. Pep, though... ?

Guardiola might be available soon. Just saying...

It cost me points in my fantasy team but Citeh losing does please me so...

They're currently bottom of our league (36th)! That was a poor result, no doubt. We should be beating them. But then we beat Malmo and Steaua, and should have beaten Olympiacos, all of which are not unlike the Bratislava, Young Boys, Brugge and Dynamo Zagreb that they play. I think we could have won a game or two if we had their draw.

You're absolutely correct, but if we had gotten their draw...

What are your thoughts, folks?

Rangers 1 - 0 Hearts FGS Cerny

Rangers vs Hearts

Another good scoring round, with 3 maximums! Correct Result (1 pt): Franc, One, Yorkie, DJ, Devil, r_s and Ted. Correct Number of Rangers Goals (1pt): R, franc, BEAR, compo, SBG, One, Lenny, Yorkie, BD, Devil, r_s and CammyF. FGS (2 pts): R, compo, One, Yorkie, FA, DJ, r_s and Graeme. Correct Score (3 pts): Franc, One, Yorkie, Devil and r_s. Onevision, Yorkie and r_s get a maximum! Latest Standings:

Can you predict a defeat on Sunday? Sincerely, Every Rangers fan

Raskin is growing nicely into that pivot role.