Rousseau

Graeme Murty: Our old model was tactical, technical, physical and psycho-social. We’ve changed that to ball, game, body and mind - the four pillars. And we’ve got four moments in a game – in possession, out of possession, transition out of possession and transition to attack. Within every training session all four of those elements have to be hit. There are individual player targets for the session as well. We plan in 12-week blocks, with a six-week plan that is repeated. Week one is build, two is finish, three is transition to defend, four is setting traps, five is final-third defending, and six is transition to attack. Take week one, when our objective is build. We have topics within that – breaking lines, changing the point of attack - and the counter-topic will be setting traps for the team out of possession. With 'finish', in week two, it’s about different ways of getting into the final third and scoring goals versus final third defending. Each day within the week will have a specific theme and focus: match day plus one, plus two and so on. In the Under-20s programme, we generally play on a Tuesday. So Wednesday is a regeneration day; Thursday is match review, which we call restart, which will identify tactical and technical themes we want to work on – team and individual; Friday would be strength and ‘Rangers players day’, with smaller areas, smaller numbers, and high-intensity and continuous work. Saturday is 'Rangers team day' – full capacity, bigger areas, bigger numbers, longer times, looking at high-intensity distance and sprint distance, looking at how we want our teams to play, what our patterns are, what our style of play is. Sunday is a day off to recharge, and Monday is a match prep day working on specific areas we want to see in the game. We wanted to have a block of three days, which we call 'acquisition days', to get some really detailed work into them. So those are typically the Thursday, Friday, Saturday, as I've outlined above. We will individualise our player target areas physically - how much high-speed distance we want from them. Your specific targets will vary depending on your position. The player targets will be what you’re going to focus on for the next six weeks. We have a coach who leads the session, looking at the session objectives, making sure those are hit, and a shadow coach who will look at the opposite theme, making sure the team out of possession is working in the right way. He will give detail individually for specific stuff they are working on at that time. We are in the process of making a playbook – each theme will have a dozen practices, with diagrams, descriptions and video. All the coaches are encouraged to experiment and feed back. They can work with it and improve it and feed back for the technical group. Every club has a periodisation plan, even if it might be labelled and displayed differently. It’s basically a plan for the year with the technical, tactical and physical you want to work through. We use periodisation and we like it, but you could just as easily call it a curriculum. Our Tactical Periodisation is as integrated as I’ve seen - it’s about making sure we hit as many of those objectives as we can on a regular basis. The big thing for us is what’s the next big concept to come along? We want to be at the forefront of that. There is an open-mindedness here about how to change and improve. https://www.trainingground.guru/articles/graeme-murty-how-rangers-use-tactical-periodisation Thank F*** Rangers are moving in the right direction!

Football is NOT a "simple game, complicated by idiots"; that's a complete fallacy. Do you think Mourinho, Guardiola, Conte and Pochettino tell their players to "go out and play and win the game"? That's mental. The only situation where it could ever work would be when a team has substantially better players than everyone else, but even then it is not a given. Over the last 5 years Man Utd have spent more than anyone else, but they've been nowhere near winning the league. Now they have a manager that analyses every minute detail, works on tactics, implements tactical periodisation etc., all to make his team the best. The [in]famous Galactico's of Real Madrid won bugger all! If this is the attitude of Scottish coaches, we're going nowhere.

That's staggering to me. That was outdated when Walter was doing it, so it's completely out of the question now, for me.

Sums him up: sublime, first-time pass, then trips over the ball...

He's not boasting, just a wee reminder that when everyone was slating him he was suggesting the stats were suggesting he was doing better than it appeared. Your right, he's not Ronaldo all of a sudden. I do think the stick he took was over the top. He is one of our best players.

GIRUY! [tweet]937333475543314432[/tweet] It doesn't mean he's suddenly turned into Ronaldo, merely that his play up until now warranted more goals - his xG was higher than his actual goals.

I appreciate both sides of the argument. He's done nothing to show himself in a good light over the last two games, and they played some poor football -- football that can't be played at Ibrox. However, he's been very consistent in getting results and 2nd place finishes. We sort of need that. There's also this unknown variable, as to what he can do with a bit more money -- he's not had much at Aberdeen.

I wasn't really watching them, so I might be wrong, but I thought they were piss poor. What did they actually create other than a couple of chances from set-pieces? I expect more than that from a Rangers team -- I even expect more than that for a team that is supposed to be clear in 2nd place, although they're not now... If only we had won those two diddy games against Hamilton and Dundee...

I find it hard to criticise him, but the fact that he got caught out from a similar position last time makes me think he should be doing better. It was a cracker of a strike, but...

Was Ramos not just sent off for the 25th time in his career? It doesn't diminish his impact. He's a prick at times, but you want him in your team. Same with Jack for me. I wouldn't be asking him to dial it down.

I didn't see anything wrong with that tackle whatsoever. He couldn't get that red out quickly enough. I thought was Bates was great in the air, but awful with his feet -- I lost count the number of times he kicks it out, when a simple ball up the line was on. Safety first , though. I can't really fault the hunger and commitment from the players. Terrific display. There were a few hard tackles, but it was nice to see us dishing them out for a change! Pena is better when he's instinctive. The one-twos, first-time through-balls were brilliant. When he has time, he steps on the ball and trips! The wee triangles and inter-changing of positions from Holt, Jack etc were brilliant too. I've not seen that for ages. I thought Windass was MotM -- work-rate was terrific. I was expecting him to be knackered after that first half, then a wonderful burst of energy gets us a vital 2nd goal. Tavernier was excellent also. McCrorie strolled it against too. Actually, I can't pick a MotM!

Watching the last 30 minutes like...

Oh, crap! Wilson off, Cardoso on.

I was a bit annoyed at the Referee blowing the whistle when we had that free-kick -- it couldn't have been that much over 45 minutes?

I think Bates is in there because he's a more direct replacement for Alves, in terms of shear aerial ability. He's not lost an aerial duel in that first half. I think we need that in these games. Cardoso is better with his feet, but so is Wilson. The ball control from Holt and Jack has always been good, but add McCrorie and Alves to that and we can play some nice stuff. Windass has been excellent -- that dive aside. His pressing, along with Miller and Pena is giving our midfield space and runners off the ball. Morelos for Miller later on may be a good replacement.

You're wrong. In retrospect, not only was there a recognisable style, it was actually working well, albeit not consistently enough.

Felix Magath is leaving his Chinese Super League Club at the end of his contract...

Pena entering the dressing room at half-time like...

Was it not in the RangersTV interview? I do recall something like that, but think it was in reference to the appointment of Caixinha. I'm not sure, though.

I thought Pena really burst a gut tracking back too. In one instance I recall him sprinting back quite aggressively -- only for McCrorie to overtake him and clatter the Aberdeen player... legally. If we can make space for him, then he'll do a job in and around the box; that's where he is most dangerous. His build-up play can be quite good, but paradoxically also very bad. 5 goals in 10 games speaks for itself.

"Real tactical insight" from Murty, but Pedro gets slated for using the exact same tactics... Just saying. It does show what happens when we're fired up. Murty did well to motivate and execute the 4-4-2 diamond. I believe someone else nullified Aberdeen playing similarly? Even Motherwell did so against them to good affect -- which is what PC tried to do last season! The front three were terrific. Having Holt, Jack and McCrorie behind freed up Pena to do what he does best; and Miller and Windass constantly drifting wide meant their CB's couldn't pick them up, creating space for the midfielders. Windass is much better when we can focus his qualities in the right way -- same with Pena. McCrorie was a bit rash on occasion, but phenomenal for the most part. He can really find space, control a ball and pass crisply. He's good in the tackle too when he times it well. Having Alves and Wilson behind helped him too -- and vice versa: Alves and Wilson didn't have to do as much running! The danger is we get out-flanked if we don't shuffle across quickly enough, but our aggression mitigated that for the most part.

To be fair, they had been knocking on the door all game. It was only a matter of time. The Referee's door, that is... (Shamelessly plagiarised from Twitter. )