Rousseau

I think I'm seeing things: I thought I saw Rossiter. Can't be true; he's not due back for 7-10 days.

I enjoy watching Juventus defend; I can't say that for any other side.

I thought the referee was fantastic too, letting those 50/50 challenges go.

He's certainly worth an extended run in the team in that position.

 

However the downside is that the team suffers when he's not making his forward runs as it seems to create more space for our other forwards and also energises the team, although I guess there's nothing to stop him still doing it on occasion if he's playing alongside another DM.

According to that graph he has actually not been involved in too many chances created for us, but, as you say, that doesn't include his movement creating space for others. I think he's best when making late, darting runs into the box; which may suit that deeper role?

I just think he's been a revelation in a deeper role: the physical duels, pressure he puts on attackers, the energy he brings, the number of interceptions etc. have all seen the team benefit greatly, IMO.

If there is one position in the Rangers side that has been in desperate need of an upgrade over the last few transfer windows, it is Defensive-midfield (DM). While the role has changed over the years, in most sides there is that one player tasked with screening the back-four. As fans we've often thought who of our current players can play the role, even going so far as to say Kiernan should be given a shot! But, perhaps the answer has been staring us in the face all along: Jason Holt.

The most successful teams will generally have a world class player who screens the defense. The likes of Roy Keane, Patrick Vieira, and Edgar Davids excelled in the position in their heyday. Makelele brought a renewed focus to the role, being praised for his understated contribution to his teams.

As we do not have the financial muscle to acquire world-class DMs, we've had to look at more modest options. Invariably, that role has went to Halliday. Throughout his career he has tended to play further forward, therefore his skill-set is not best suited to the role: his first-touch is awful; his reading of the game leaves a lot to be desired; he tends to want to burst forward, leaving the defense exposed; and, most importantly, he doesn't win his share of physical duels.

These issues are compounded by the fact we tended to use a lone pivot, which often left our defense exposed when opponents counter-attacked in numbers. Quite frankly, we do not have any one player that is entirely suited to the role.

However, we've seen a move away from the more destroyer-types to more deep lying playmakers -- although they are still needed to defend, they do so as a collective instead of team's relying on that one individual to make that tackle etc. Busquets, Alonso, Toni Kroos or Marco Verratti are all more playmaker-types compared to the old destroyer-types. Here, Rangers have more options.

Pedro Caixinha's arrival has brought a slight change in formation, which now includes a double-pivot in a 4-2-3-1 or 4-4-2. Instead of having one player that must do all jobs, we can now use two that complement each other. In this way we can utilise our limited players; using their skill-sets collectively for the benefit of the team.

When you think about the top DMs in the game today, very few are known for their purely defensive qualities -- like the Keane's and Veira's of old -- Kroos, Alonso, Thiago, Weigl, Verratti, Carrick and Fernandinho are all preferred, not because of their tackling ability per se, but because of other attributes.

Modern DMs are expected to act decisively, keeping a detailed picture of what is around them; they have to be composed in possession, because it’s their job to get the ball off the back four and create, while also reading any danger; they need the vision and technique to execute crisp passes into space or into feet; they need to be good under pressure, and able to shield the ball from opponents; and, they need to be able to keep it simple -- over-complication leads to danger.

The current Rangers team has a few players with these qualities: Hyndman, Toral and Holt. While they don't have the physique of the old-type DMs -- we've seen with N'Golo Kante that you don't need a player built like a brick shithouse to break up play -- but their vision, technique, energy and passing ability lend themselves well to the more modern style DM. Rationally, these players seem unsuited to the role, considering their sight statures, but when they are used as a collective unit, they become something more than the sum of their parts.

Holt in particular has been nothing short of a revelation in the role. Holt's energy and stamina allows him to cover every blade of grass, giving us that early wave of pressure as soon as we lose the ball. His vision and reading of the game allows him to make key interceptions and cover our Full-backs; and his passing ability and technique allows us to build from the back.

A slight tactical shift has freed Holt to play to his strengths. Caixinha has sought to use his vision, ability to create angles and his passing range - which is more short-ranged - and sought to use it deeper, which has allowed him to use his energy to its greatest effect, to hound players. Playing deeper also allowed him to arrive into the box late, where he has the natural ability to find space.

Holt's slight frame has seen him play further forward earlier in the season - he does have the technique and movement with an eye for goal - but his most valued assets have been has boundless energy and vision. However, according to TheSPFLRader (@TheSPFLRadar ), he's not been performing in a forward role, being involved in very few chances created.

 

Provided by TheSPFLRadar

Holt's statistics have been quite remarkable in a deeper role. He was involved in more defensive duels against Aberdeen than any Rangers midfielder has in a single game this season. Only 4 times has a Rangers midfielder had 10+ interceptions in a game, 3 of which were in the last 5 games. Holt is only the one to do it twice. Again, in Saturday's game, no Rangers player was involved in more defensive duels than Holt. In the last 3 games, Holt has retrieved the ball 33 times.

Moreover, Holt's influence on the rest of the team has been similarly impressive. For example, Aberdeen's Ash Taylor averaged 35 passes per game, but against Rangers he had 60. Rangers' midfield structure forced Aberdeen to very often go backwards. However, the most important statistic in Caixinha's 5 games as manager, is that Rangers have only conceded 1 goal.

Rangers' Defensive-midfield has been in desperate need of a upgrade. While we've been hoping for an old-fashioned destroyer-type, perhaps a modern playmaker-type DM has been here all along. Holt has been a revelation; the number of physical duels he has been involved in is superior to any other player we have; moreover his ability to intercept and retrieve the ball is a key aspect of this new set-up under Pedro Caixinha. We may have indeed uncovered the white Kante!

I'd argue Mourinho is the best manager of the last 20 years. Simply down to his ability to get results when he is written off.

 

He might even be the best of my lifetime (38 years)

He's certainly up there. Does Fergie count within that time period? Guardiola is also up there, for me - Man City tenure aside!

Lingard- Rashford seemed to me to dovetail effectively, almost as though they had been practicing working together.

I meant "forced" in the sense that I don't think it was Mourinho's intention to play them both, but perhaps he did because Zlatan was fit? I believe one of the guys in the studio suggested they were good mates off the pitch, and have known each other for a good few years. I agree, they worked very well together.

A Mourinho tactical masterclass indeed - 6-2-2 formation! Mental, but it stopped Chelsea playing it into their danger men. A Lingard-Rashford pairing seemed forced, but their pace was a constant danger.

I agree, I still think/hope Chelsea win the league, but it just puts an element of doubt into the equation. I don't think Man Utd will finish top 4: they have an awful run-in.

what if the recipient is to blame for the pass failing, with either poor positioning or lack of fight? Or vice versa what if a team has a really strong forward who wins most headers in the air? put that same CB into our team and those long successful forward passes would become errors though no difference in the players ability to pass has occurred.

A CB's pass won't always be to one forward, though; it's any pass that takes a player out the game. That one failed/successful pass won't count too much in the context of a whole season.

You can't criticise a stat in isolation - it's never meant to be interpreted that way. The Packing stat is most interesting when compared to, for example, a CB's pass success %. Like the guy says: "Dedryck Boyata has the highest pass % in the league however his packing rate is only 1.8 which shows that the passes that he is making may be successful however they tend not to break down the opposition", i.e. they go backwards/sideways.

I know... more stats! This one is quite interesting, though, looking at the number of 'effective' passes from the centre-backs rather than the normal pass success %, which is usually misleading with CBs as they predominantly pass to the 'keeper or each other.

Packing is a recently introduced model of analysing the game/players looking at how many players are beaten by passes. Stefan Reinartz and co who developed the model used the example of Brazil vs Germany at the most recent World Cup that showed Brazil ahead on some basic statistics that are commonly used but Germany thumped them 7-1 in said game. Packing showed that Germany beat 61 players more than Brasil which obviously doesn’t completely explain the game it certainly gives us a better idea of how the game went.

The current version of Packing looks at all passes completed and totals up how much players were removed in these passes but what I’ll be looking to do is refine and narrow the field down to the passes that I feel are a bit more insightful for Centre Backs in Scotland’s Big 4 Clubs.

As we all know Centre Backs passing % is one of the most overrated stats in football statistics. Centre Backs usually rank high in this category due to the high probability of the passes they make usually for example the short back pass to either the other Centre Back or the Goalkeeper. I’ll be removing those as they don’t bare any relevance in judging a Centre Backs ability with the ball.

I’ll be focusing on Successful Forward Passes that are made to the opponents half or made in the opponents half. The better Centre Backs are able to pass through the lines and start creative build ups for midfielders and forwards.

I chose to focus on just Aberdeen, Celtic, Hearts and Rangers due to those teams dominating in the possession stakes more often than not so Centre Backs will have a lot more players to pass through and a lot less space to do it in due to teams playing them with a lower block. I’ll be totalling all players beaten by the Centre Back’s passes and dividing it by how many successful forward passes that are made to the opponents half or made in the opponents half to determine how many players are beaten on average of a successful forward pass. Here are the results;

 

Conclusions

Anthony O’Connor is really good with the ball. At the time of writing Anthony has gave up an absolute howler of a goal in the 3-0 loss to Rangers that finished the game as a contest however this put a dampener on what was a really good performance. O’Connor handled the nuisance that is Joe Garner and other than a late fatal mistake produced a number of fine passes that broke down an organised Rangers side. Rangers had a counter-attacking approach to the fixture which meant both Aberdeen Centre Backs had a lot of the ball. As you can see Anthony O’Connor is one of only two Centre Backs in the Big 4 clubs that has a packing rate of over 3 players. His usual partners at the back are Reynolds and Taylor who are more traditional Centre Back’s than O’Connor. They either distribute the ball to people like O’Connor and the deep lying midfielders so they can make the more difficult passes or they’ll go long to the central striker. The onus is on O’Connor to bring it out from the back to break down determined teams in a low block and he thrives in that role. Here is some of the ability demonstrated from games against the top 6 this season.

John Souttar is only 20 years old yet for a Centre Back so young his passing is of someone more experienced. Up until his injury in late January Souttar had been very effective in building the play through his ability on the ball. His impressive packing rate is no surprise to anyone who’s watched him play at Dundee Utd and then Hearts as he’s always been a positive Centre Back who looks to play the ball forward and build attacks. Souttar’s absence due to injury has left Hearts without a focal point to start attacks from and they’ll be keen to have him back next season.

Celtic’s stats should maybe only be compared to themselves. Most teams that face Celtic domestically use a really low block in comparison to the type of system they use when facing the rest of the big 4 clubs. Dedryck Boyata has the highest pass % in the league however his packing rate is only 1.8 which shows that the passes that he is making may be successful however they tend not to break down the opposition and his lower than teammates Erik Sviatchenko and Jozo Simunovic. Jozo Simunovic has an impressive packing rate per pass of 2.4 which shows how effective he is in comparison to other Celtic Centre Backs in passing through teams who usually keep 10 sometimes 11 men behind the ball for most of the game and he ranks second to Wilson in total players beaten by his passes again showing what he can do when passing.

Danny Wilson is the premier passer amongst Centre Backs at Rangers. Wilson has beaten more players with passes than any Centre Back in the big 4 clubs per the packing metric. Wilson has a terrific range of pass and it certainly seems that the onus is on him to pass through the lines as he’s attempted more passes to the final third per game than any Centre Back in the big 4 clubs. Wilson is often criticised but his effectiveness with the ball continues to rank above his Centre Back teammates. Both Clint Hill and Rob Kiernan have good packing rates per forward successful pass however the second image shows that the amount of players they have actually beaten isn’t in the same league as Wilson. Evidence of his ability can be found here:

Hopefully the use of Packing can provide a bit more insight on how good Centre Backs are with the ball at their feet than traditional passing metrics.

http://www.eatsleepdrinkfootball.com/player-analysis/packing-for-scotland/

Wilson may have been crap because Kiernen is a car crash

He's now finally got support from the midfield too.

FT 2-0. Slow start, but we grew into the game. We stepped it up a level in the 2nd after some astute changes. Holt was my MotM: he was everywhere today; covered every blade of grass.

Bates is crap with his feet, but better in the air and when he uses his strength; reads the game well enough too.

Waghorn off for Garner. Waghorn was poor first half -- unable to hold it up -- but second half he's been better, running into space rather than being asked to hold it up.

Stop it, Danny! That's filth.

We're playing some nice stuff now after the changes.

What. a. goal.

On a plate.

PC has changed it to take advantage of what PT are doing. Tav now playing it up the line and a forward always there to take it.

Dodoo on for McKay -- Barrie not done much tbh.

Very poor offensively until that decent spell of pressure just before Miller scored. Miller has been awful, but then pops up with a goal... again.

I've been disappointed with Waghorn -- his hold-up play has been poor -- we need someone next to him, like Miller did do towards the end of the half, or get Dodoo/Garner on for him.

[tweet]853232918088622081[/tweet]

I've been critical of McKay but this video suggests it's not all down to him:

[tweet]852630581309571073[/tweet]

If weakening Aberdeen is part of our signing policy then we would be as well giving up now. He isn't the calibre we need to bridge the gap with Celtic, but would be useful backup.

It's an added benefit.

Jack is a centre half is he not ?

Midfield; He plays Defensive Midfield.

Perhaps not the calibre we would like, but he is a solid SPFL player and captain of a team that have done fairly well over the last few years; not to mention that taking their captain weakens them. I'd take him as a squad player. It's a pre-contract so it won't cost much.

It's interesting looking at the appointment of Rangers’ new Portuguese manager Pedro Caixinha, writes Stephen Elliott.

The one thing that has stood out for me other than his nice suits, is that he has changed the training schedule for his team including cancelling their day off on Wednesday.

This may have shocked a few but I can't say I was too surprised.

The situation reminds me of when I was at Hearts when another immaculately dressed Portuguese guy, Paulo Sergio, was appointed manager.

I remember the first day he walked in the door. He looked like something out of a Hollywood film rather than a football manager. He had a real presence with his hair slicked back, all suited and booted, not too dissimilar to Caixinha.

He had come in to replace Jim Jefferies, who was a very popular figure in the dressing room and probably dismissed slightly unfairly in my view.

With this disappointment fresh in our minds, naturally Paulo wasn't welcomed with massively open arms by the players.

The lads were probably looking for faults in our new boss and probably didn't give him the immediate respect that he probably warranted on his arrival.

One thing that did strike me about Paulo when he came in, was that he knew everyone’s name and their attributes on the pitch. It was a bit of a surprise as nobody knew of him before that, and for him to have so much information about us showed that he was more prepared for his new role than we initially thought.

This probably also tells you that he was tapped up for the job a long time before the club actually sacked Jefferies, which in my opinion, was poor by the club.

However, it was a relief to be honest, as the last thing we needed as a squad was somebody coming in who didn't know anything about us.

I think Paulo was taken by surprise of how we trained on his first day in charge. I remember we played some small-sided games on the indoor astro at Riccarton and there were a few hefty tackles flying in.

This was usually the case in these games as nobody wanted to lose, but the fact that the indoor pitch was so tight, always made it a little more dangerous.

When the session finished, he pulled us into a meeting and explained to us that we needed to take a bit more care in protecting each other during some of our tackling in training. I think one of the lads piped up, possibly Ian Black if I remember correctly, saying ‘that is how we always train in Scotland’.

Paulo was quick to point out that it wouldn't be the case any more.

Paulo also informed us that he was going to be changing a lot of other things around the place and it was going to ‘start in tomorrow's training’. Now bearing in mind, this was Tuesday and a day off on Wednesday was usually a given. So this piece of information definitely ruffled a few feathers.

You could see how a few of the lads were definitely not happy with this. Especially the guys who were travelling from a little bit further afield of Edinburgh. They were not shy in letting Paulo know this too.

If he thought managing Hearts would be plain sailing, then I think he thought again after his first day.

Paulo was very into the tactical side of the game, and by the sounds of what’s coming out of the blue side of Glasgow, it is exactly the same way Caixinha is going about his business.

The training that we did with Paulo was very difficult to get used to. We went from playing lots of small-sided games, to literally hours of phases of play every day of the week. Paulo’s mindset in training was to get players to know exactly where he wanted them to be on the pitch.

We would go through a drill from back to front sometimes 20 or 30 times, until every player involved in the drill knew exactly where they had to be. It was very time consuming and probably not the most enjoyable training when we first got stuck into it.

However, we soon bought into his methods and we all knew the roles expected of us on the pitch.

Over the first few months, a lot of the lads really didn't like Paulo as they felt the training wasn't as sharp as it had been.

They also probably weren’t too ecstatic about his decision to bring an end to their Tuesday nights out. Although I'm sure a few of the younger lads still did go clubbing, judging by some of their performances in training on a Wednesday.

Paulo even had us in on Sunday’s most weeks for warm downs and core work which certainly didn't go down well with the lads.

Especially the church goers! It took some time for him to win us over but once you got used to his methods, you realised he was a good guy.

In time, everybody grew a lot warmer to him. He was an astute hard-worker who left nothing to chance.

Even after a defeat, he had a great way of lifting everybody's spirits. He also enjoyed team days out and always made sure the whole squad were there.

We had a great team bond, which was very important, especially when you look at all the off-field problems that arose in the club during that period.

A lot of plaudits must go to Paulo for keeping everybody positive during a time when a lot of lads were in real financial pressure due to the lack of wages. I’m sure he might have loaned some of the lads money out of his own pocket when they were desperate.

We may not have been a real expansive attacking team, but when it came to the big games, he got it right more often than not. This was proven during our Scottish Cup winning run, when he got it tactically spot on most occasions.

If I was a Rangers supporter, I’d be very positive about what the future holds. I have a feeling that if Caxinha is anything like Paulo, they are going to win a lot more of the big games then they have been doing of late.

They have already seen his impact with their important win away at Aberdeen last week.

At times this season, Rangers didn't seem to have any identity of how they were setting up to play.

I have no doubt this is a big reason as to why they have gone for a Portuguese manager.

We will soon see a much more structured Rangers team on the pitch that know exactly what they are doing.

And I’m sure in time, the lads there won't mind the extra training too, if it means they start challenging for trophies again!

https://www.sportdec.com/app/article-single/hdzkoeqmfzck13qhhytrtdoeu

PC is taking a good line: keep it in-house.