Rousseau

As pleased as I am for Barrie, it does seem like the praise has come on the back of a goal (a wonder goal) against Celtic and not because of his consistently superb performances. Maybe I'm moaning about nothing here, but I feel like they (Scottish football and the press etc.) have a strangely narrow definition of a good player.

As well as the others have done, there can only be one winner, surely?

Fast Facts (from the Rangers site): Seven different Gers players have scored against Livingston this season – Lee Wallace, Martyn Waghorn, Nicky Law, Jason Holt, Nicky Clark, Danny Wilson and Kenny Miller. Waghorn has scored a third of Rangers’ nine goals against the Lions. Livi’s home ground is known as the Tony Macaroni arena, a rather individual title afforded by sponsorship from the pizza and pasta restaurant. This will be Rangers fifth meeting with Livi this season, four in the league and one in the League Cup. They have beaten them three times but could only manage a draw at the Tony Macaroni Arena back in November. Rangers have played Livingston 26 times in their history; they have won 17 of those meetings and lost just once. Livingston will have to play-off against League One opposition in May to try and secure their Championship status. They can’t climb out of the relegation spot now, with just two games to play Dumbarton have pulled eight points ahead of them. http://rangers.co.uk/news/headlines/opposition-focus-livi-3/

MARK WARBURTON has made four changes to his starting eleven for tonight’s Championship fixture against Livingston at the Tony Macaroni Arena. Dom Ball, Dean Shiels, Michael O’Halloran and Kenny Miller all come back into the Gers side with Rob Kiernan, Jason Holt, Barrie McKay and Nicky Clark named on the bench after they featured against Alloa at Ibrox on Saturday. In goal for the Light Blues this evening is Wes Foderingham and in front of him is a back four consisting of James Tavernier, Ball, Danny Wilson and skipper Lee Wallace. Dean Shiels joins Gedion Zelalem and Andy Halliday in the middle of the park on this occasion with Michael O’Halloran playing through the middle of a front three with Billy King on the left and Kenny Miller to his right. Joining the previously mentioned quartet on the Rangers bench are Robby McCrorie, Nicky Law and Liam Burt. RANGERS: Foderingham; Tavernier, Ball, Wilson, Wallace; Halliday, Zelalem, Shiels; Miller, O’Halloran, King SUBS: McCrorie, Kiernan, Holt, McKay, Law, Clark, Burt http://rangers.co.uk/news/headlines/four-changes-gers/

If I'm reading the twitter feed of the press conference correctly, then he's not in the squad for tomorrow but will be for Sunday? We've been lacking a spark up front; he'll be a welcome addition for the remaining games.

"It’s just the way it is being a Celtic player." Indeed.

This is an uncomfortable -- and frankly, unnecessary -- discussion. I'm certain every Bear knows the situation and will weigh the consequences carefully. It's essentially a heart versus head dilemma; ultimately, a personal choice. One can certainly opine on the issue, but judgement should be omitted. (I don't believe for a second judgement was intended, but it has unfortunately reared its head.)

Still too early to tell. McKay was out on loan twice -- hardly setting the game alight -- before he returned more mature. Crawford is 23; I suspect he's not good enough.

It would take a courageous individual indeed to take such a sword to the leagues. Sadly, I don't disagree.

Frustrating. Meaningless, but frustrating. We just lacked a bit of 'oompf' (technical term) in the final third. Meh.

Well, I consider him a forward, but yes, he does do well in the midfield. I think this one gives us a good mix.

A bit of relief that it's 1-1 at half-time, so we can now start from scratch in the 2nd. It would be incredible if we didn't get another few goals, with the way we've been playing.

I prefer this midfield combination (Zelalem, Holt and Halliday) as I think it allows us to create more chances. We need Ball in there for the trickier games, but I think this is our best midfield.

I think we've been excellent, albeit nowhere near clinical enough. The penetration has been better than midweek, with us creating several good chances; players are just complacent on the finish. We gave away another sloppy goal -- almost carbon-copy of the first goal midweek -- which was disappointing and unnecessary. We've controlled the game, created chances and thoroughly deserve to have scored a few goals. I think Clark's role has suited us, giving our attacking midfielders a target-man with which to link up; the little one-twos between Clark and an attacker have been superb to watch, although not fruitful yet because the finishing has been poor. I think Clark will go, but another striker that links-up well and leads the line would be a beneficial option up top.

The pitch does look impressive: [tweet]723825066123898882[/tweet] 'Arry certainly thinks so! [tweet]723815838269235200[/tweet]

Despite several changes -- No Miller! *changes FGS prediction* -- it's quite an attacking line-up. It'll be interesting to see how Halliday, Zelalem and Holt play together, as it's been a while, and the front-three is quite direct-looking. Hopefully young Burt can get some game-time.

Just realised there was no preview! I've cobbled together some things from the Rangers site as a stand-in match thread.

FAST FACTS: Rangers’ 5-1 victory at Recreation Park in August was their biggest ever league victory over Alloa, either home or away, beating the previous best, 2-0, achieved in 1922. Rangers’ last victory over Alloa at Ibrox, came in the Scottish Cup in 2012 when Gers beat the Wasps, then in a higher division , 7-0 with Dean Shiels and Barrie McKay both grabbing doubles. Last season, Alloa left with a point on both league visits to Ibrox. Of Rangers’ five league goals against Alloa last season, only one, scored by Nicky Law in the 1-0 win at Recreation Park in January, came in the first half. Contrastingly, four of the five strikes at the same venue earlier this season came before the interval Jimmy Simpson (1947/48) is the only player to have managed Alloa since the war having previously played for Rangers. Alex Totten (1980/82) was in also charge of Alloa before a spell as an assistant to Jock Wallace at Ibrox (1983/86). Alloa changed their stadium’s name from Recreation Park to the Indodrill Stadium prior to their last league meeting with Rangers on September 20, 2014. Alloa are known as the Wasps due to the yellow and black colours that they first wore over 100 years ago. A new club badge was launched in 2010 with a modern-looking comic insect. Alloa were formed in 1878 and were originally known as Clackmannan County. That moniker lasted for one season and they then became the Alloa Association Football Club before they became Alloa Athletic in 1883. Archie McPherson was the manager of Alloa for 10 years from 1959. No, not that one, but a former defender who played at Rangers, Liverpool, Sheffield United and Falkirk and who went by the nickname ‘Curly’ http://rangers.co.uk/news/headlines/opposition-focus-alloa-5/

MARK WARBURTON has made three changes for his side to take on Alloa in the final home match of the season this afternoon. From the side which lost 3-2 to Hibernian on Wednesday, in come Gedion Zelalem, Nicky Clark and Billy King. They play in place of Kenny Miller, Michael O’Halloran and Dominic Ball. That means it’s the familiar back five of Wes Foderingham in goals, James Tavernier, Rob Kiernan, Danny Wilson and Captain Lee Wallace. In midfield, Andy Halliday will sit with Jason Holt and Gedion Zelalem in front of him, while up front, Barrie McKay and Billy King play either side of Nicky Clark. On the bench, Cammy Bell returns having been missing for Wednesday’s game due to inflammation in his knee, and yet again there is a place for youngster Liam Burt. The game promises to be a special occasion with more than 50,000 packed into Ibrox this afternoon to see Lee Wallace lift the Championship title after the final whistle. RANGERS: Foderingham; Tavernier, Kiernan, Wilson, Wallace; Halliday, Holt, Zelalem; McKay, Clark, King. SUBS: Bell, Ball, Law, Shiels, Miller, O’Halloran, Burt. http://rangers.co.uk/news/headlines/three-changes-gers-2/

Where has the Pienaar rumour came from? (I like these transfer rumour round-up threads you do. Thanks dB!)

Barcelona use a purely zonal-marking system -- no man-marking at all. Although they have one of the smallest sides in europe, they tend to have good aerial players at the back: Pique, Mascherano, Busquets etc. As offensive as they were, they had big Puyol chaperoning the defence for years! I'm starting to think O'Halloran may be better central. His asset is his pace, so one would think a wing spot would be good for him, but his passing and movement is not up to scratch. If he was central he could use his pace in-behind, and to push the opposition defenders back; like Aguero does -- albeit nowhere near his quality! Like I said, I don't think he's quite 'in-tune' with his team-mates yet. Hopefully it will come with time. He does need to push on.

Although I agree a centre-half would be beneficial, I think a strong, destroyer-type defensive-midfielder would go a long way to solving many of our problems -- unfortunately, he has to be able to pass too with us, which makes it tricky. Ball has done well and shown glimpses of what he can bring, but he is only 20 years-old, so we can hardly expect him to 'take command'!

I'm delighted he's finally coming good. I thought he was a real prospect when I first saw him in the third division; he was doing the same things as he is now, albeit not as successfully. He's a modern european-type player, technical rather than physical, which could easily have been overlooked in Scotland for a more physical player -- almost did with McCoist! He's the model. If we can produce more players, or develop and encourage more technical players, we'll be creating a good foundation for the future. The last player (recently -- relatively recently) -- there might have been others that I'm omitting -- I thought was a real prospect was John Fleck. I think his game was more technical than the norm up here, and it was wasted as a result.

I agree the centre-backs deserve criticism this season, and perhaps we do need better quality. It's unfortunate though. Kiernan exemplifies the situation for me: when he's on top-form, I think he can be sublime; positioning, ball control, distribution and tackling and general defending are all good, and very good in places. However, it's not consistent enough. For me it's the inconsistency that is the most frustrating: it's there, the ability, but we don't see it enough.

We dominated from start to finish -- outwith a 5-minute spell here and there -- but we really lacked penetration. We struggled to created chances through slow play in the final-third. We gifted them 3 goals -- quite literally 'gifted' them, or at leat 2 of them -- the third was poor defending. We seem to be using a mix of zonal- and man-marking at the corners. There is a line of 3 players on the 6-yard box defending the space, then the rest man-mark. A mix is probably the best way to go, but it's not working a the minute: we concede for too easily from set-pieces -- although a lot of that is down to having several smaller players. The zonal-players deal with the ball well enough (as in prevented a header on goal), but I don't know how Gunnarsson managed to get free at the back post? Foderingham has just 'boobed'. I thought it was hilarious that the home-fans kept jeering with anticipation every time a ball was passed back to him. He's fluffed an easy catch, yes, but he was impeccable with the ball at his feet; Control was good, distribution was good, and he invariably found his man. It was just one of those things with the catch. He rarely makes a mistake with his feet. I'm really disappointed in O'Halloran: he's not confident enough to create angles with a pass -- and tends to pass backwards as a result -- and then when he tries to use his pace on the outside, either he loses the ball to the defender or wiggles through only to fail to pick out any player in blue with a cross. He's got the raw ability, but I don't think he's quite in-tune with our way of playing yet.