Rousseau

While initially surprised, I'm starting to think again about Muscat. I had no idea he had such a bad reputation as a player? He was recently named dirtiest ever player in a Spanish paper and had to pay out a few fines in his time for some bad tackles. I like the sound of him.

He's thought of very highly in Australia -- winning a domestic double in his first season, his team scoring more goals than anyone else by some distance -- and an interesting tactical coach, apparently. I read that he had "studied Brendan Rodgers at close quarters during a tour of Europe where he went to various training grounds to watch the most forward-thinking and innovative coaches at work" -- not sure what to think of that?!

He says, "'My thirst for knowledge is great. I went over to spend time with Brendan Rodgers, Frank de Boer at Ajax and Barcelona to gather knowledge and try and create my own philosophy.

'I won't shy away from my team being competitive, ultimately football is a contest, but I place high importance on possession. Using the ball wisely is the key but we like to attack quickly, a lot of goals are created in transition in the modern game.

'I was lucky enough to work with Terry Venables with the Australian national team. He was ahead of his time, how he structured the team and his man-management. It is one thing to have a great philosophy but to get the players to apply it, that is the hardest thing."

Now, his Melbourne Victory team have "gained a reputation as standard-bearers for Australia's emerging football market. They play attractive, bright football."

You can argue that the Australian league is of a poor standard, but they look to have better players than us! Muscat sounds like a really interesting option; young, has a distinct philosophy and appears to want to better himself -- he shouldn't cost too much, surely? I suppose though it depends how much of a backwater the league is, and if he can make the change.

I see Garry Monk is being linked. Perhaps a little far fetched, but I'd take Monk; he doesn't have the European experience but is a good, pragmatic and tactical manager (in the BR image...).

Do/did Swansea have a DoF? Another tick if so.

While I liked the two up top, I hope Murty doesn't continue with the 4-4-2 -- we were far too open!

I wonder if we would have the patience for a FdB: very much in the same vein as MW's much lamented "do plan A better" approach. I believe he's a better quality coach, however, and instead of being an imitation of the Dutch school, he really is from the Dutch school of football.

Just seen on SSN that former Valencia manager Pako Ayestarán "would be interested in the job" according to Jim White.

Posted this elsewhere but it's probably better here:

What about the Huddersfield manager? David Wagner has brought a modern, German pressing game to Huddersfield and has them sitting 3rd or 4th in the Championship. Huddersfield was his first real job but he learned his trade at Borussia Dortmund II. Nagelsmann at Hoffenheim brought fresh ideas, despite only being in his 20's and is now considered one of the best young coaches in the game. We need to show a bit of faith in a younger manager with modern ideas -- it is the only way we can move into the modern football age.

I agree with SBS, but I think gunslinger has brought balance to that thought. McLeish did "well" with us, but football has changed so that being well-organised and allowing your better players to produce a bit of magic is long gone. It can't be coincidence that he's done nothing of note since leaving us? Times have changed. We need to show more ambition.

To be fair, I think that's the thinking of the board. According to SSN they are considering changing the football structure, to include a DoF, something that was discussed 2 seasons ago. I hope it proves that harking back to a previous age is not the answer.

What about the Huddersfield manager? Wagner has brought a modern, german pressing game to Huddersfield and has them sitting 3rd or 4th in the Championship. Huddersfield was his first real job but he learned his trade at Borussia Dortmund II. Nagelsmann at Hoffenheim brought fresh ideas, despite only being in his 20's and is now considered one of the best young coaches in the game. We need to show a bit of faith in a younger manager with modern ideas -- it is the only way we can move into the modern football age.

You must have been at a different game from me.

 

We took off Holt from MF and sent on O'Halloran to play wide right. We pushed Waghorn into the middle alongside Miller and still had McKay on the left. We only had two midfielders on the park for the last half and hour: Halliday and Hyndman/Toral. From my position in the MSF we were very clearly playing 4 up and 2 in MF. If you are saying that O'Halloran and McKay were in wide midfield then I strongly disagree.

tbf I was going to add it was more like 4-2-4 at times. I think 4-4-2 is the basic shape, it was just that neither McKay nor MOH tracked back.

dont know where you see 442

 

It was waghorn and miller through the middle with mckay and ohalleron wide as usual with tav sweeping behind the mid three

It sounds like your describing a 4-4-2. Tavernier was just occupying the half-space.

some very nervous players today. Got to say i am happy after that. We made changes to tactics during the game, the subs were dictated by the play. Most of all i loved the tactical change near the end, very impressed.

 

I know the edge of the seat attacking stuff doesn't suit everyone but i enjoyed that more than any recent game i can remember. Still have a long way to go but at least we are on the road now.

I think the attacking play was because they had to open up. I don't like the lack of control. I did like the 2 up top, however, and I can see it suiting Waghorn and Garner more.

The 4-4-2 at the end was pretty crap -- I don't mind 4-4-2 as long as we execute it like Villareal! (Long shot I know!)

Like most have said, we gave them their chances -- talk about shooting ourselves in the foot! We were comfortable otherwise and should've scored more; same old story really.

These double points are a b****** to write up!

Everyone who entered gained 1 point for the Correct Result, with only Frankie, 26th of Foot, colinstein, TB, compo and SBS gaining another 1 point for the Correct Number of Rangers Goals.

Rousseau, gunslinger, BH and SBS gained 2 points for predicting Miller as FGS.

Finally, Frankie, 26th of Foot and compo gain an extra 3 points for the Correct Score!

And, of course, everyone's tally is doubled because it is a Scottish Cup game.

Latest Standings:

A week-by-week tally of scores can be found here:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1-uQa9LP4du35rep3iUemqtj2NihPxHUuAGJFhz2WW0I

I thought we were showing a little more urgency there, with more players getting into the box too, but the game has largely followed the same old pattern.

Rangers 3 - 1 Morton

FGS Miller

Sounds worrying, but he is only 19 still so plenty of time to come back.

Anyone else strangely looking forward to this game?

yes Giovanni van Bronckhorst is going to leave a team who he supports, who are on their way to be Champions of the Netherlands, which will make him a local legend, which will throw up CL money plus the money from a sold out 50.000 stadium every week and also get 9million euros TV money to join a team who has no chance of CL money with the same support roughly and a pittance in TV money. Nah that is not going to happen

Don't spoil my dreams with your reason and logic.

Results have been poor but I believe he's left the football structure in a good place, where a similar type manager/coach -- obviously more successful! -- can slot in easily, like Swansea/Southampton. We need to build on what he's done.

I'd like to see us go 3-4-1-2 with Garner, Miller up front; Toral would be a good Number 10 with Hyndman and Halliday behind:

However, I suspect Murty will go 4-3-3 which I think he's been using with the Under-20's, no? Maybe someone can confirm?

The Frank DeBoer option would be ideal, along with Laudrup or even Van Bronckhorst -- although, are we able to afford buying out his contract? -- who has Feyenoord top of the Eredivisie at the moment but they look to be out of our reach. Obviously the Dutch -- and the Dane -- guys know how to play and the above have played under some quality managers in their time.

I hope we don't go down the tired route of 'Eck, WS, Davies et al because we have to build on what MW did to the football structure. We must try to unearth a Marco Silva type manager.

Hipster option: De Zerbi -- Free agent Italian who had a lowly Foggia playing wonderful football on a shoestring and won titles in Romania with Cluj -- remember them? -- but screwed himself going to Palermo where the owner changes manager every couple of weeks!

Complete conjecture. Move on.

I can't remember the last time we had a 1 on 1 with the other teams keeper.

Does Wallace at the weekend count?

I think we all now agree the problem is our offense. It doesn't really matter (too much) if we concede the odd goal if we're scoring a few ourselves; we're not so those silly goals conceded are costing us big time.

I actually thought it was slightly offside at the time but no one commented so I thought it must have been the camera angle on RTV.

Those suggestions have certainly been made before, so there's no reason why we can't discuss them. I'll let more players give an opinion before going with the consensus.