BlackSocksRedTops

13 minutes ago, Gonzo79 said:

Will Morelos be in the starting XI at McDiarmid Park, I wonder...

Was watching Alfies goals from 2019 last night and I was taken aback by how much weight he is carrying at the moment. He's not been the same player since coming back from that break last New Year IMO.

Saying that....I'd still put money on him starting on Wednesday though 

4-1 

FGS Roofe

10 minutes ago, Rousseau said:

I'm only thinking of the next game, and I hope the team are too. 

This

5 minutes ago, compo said:

Another plinth outside porkhead  to hold the statue of Neal the blessed history maker ?????????????????

It's up to us to make sure he really goes down in history as the guy that lost them 10

41 minutes ago, Tannochsidebear said:

I think it is clear that after 18 games we have done remarkably well and set ourselves up with a chance.

 

However after 23 games we will have a much bigger clue as to our destiny for this season.

 

Our previous mental fragility when asked the big domestic questions arose again from nowhere on Wednesday and after an hour yesterday a large number of us would have been forgiven for starting to think we were watching a rerun of seasons past. At full time we took a huge sigh of relief as we finally found the way through the wall of ‘Well, and it is another game we can say that we definitely wouldn’t have won it last year which gives us hope that we are a different animal this year.

 

To my mind we have 5 games to win the league. Win our next 5 games, we will have a minimum 10 point lead (in real terms) with just 15 games to go and we will have ticked off another set of games against the best 3 sides in the league. It should be cruise time from there.

 

Anything less and we open the door to the bheasts, and allow the questions of bottle to magnify as the run in continues.

I worry when I see words like "cruise time" in relation to this current Rangers team. 

13 minutes ago, CammyF said:

I rarely watch them when they are on TV but caught about the last 20mins of the 90mins. 

 

Weirdly, the outcome and performance from the today is probably the best outcome for us. They struggled to defeat an average Championship side over 120mins, but it'll be enough to keep TLB in a job and for their dillusional fans that they are world beaters again. 

 

From what I saw, they are no better than average, this is a huge chance for us to win 55 and one we can't let slip.

They were awful and they had an extra 30 minutes in their legs on a heavy pitch. Couldn't care less about their phoney trebles. Hearts demonstrated that they are still frail and continued to sew the seeds of doubt. And Lenninho keeps his job

11 minutes ago, buster. said:

Yes, but the reason we have gone on such a long winning run is because of those things.

 

If we drop those, we'll drop points and winning runs will become more consistent with the last few seasons, 3's and 4's.

In other words, we´ll leave the door open. 

Agree but that level was unsustainable. There was always going to be a patch were our form dipped. It's just how we cope this time that will make or break or season.

13 minutes ago, buster. said:

How many thought about compensatory control at some point during this 90 minutes ?  ?

 

 

That's 3 games and no clean sheets against provincial clubs that have all gone down to the wire. 

We won the 2 most important of them and lost the other. In relative terms, it's a blip of sorts but importantly, it hasn't had a negative impact on pursut of the main title.

 

However, with a tough fixture list on the horizon, if we can't get back into the habit of regular clean sheets, we will start dropping points.

Yesterday, we didn't get our now customary first half goal(s) and given the loss in midweek, I wondered if the crowd sound effects would include a few boos at HT ? With a crowd, you wonder if the players would have been allowed to stick to the patient version of wearing an opponent down.

 

 

Yesterday saw our 10th consectutive League victory. 

By my reckoning, that is the first time we've done that since 2007/08, when Walter Smith's UEFA Cup Final team went 13 League victories IAR and it started on Boxing day with a 3-1 win at Ibrox against Motherwell. Like Roofe yesterday, Kris Boyd scored an injury-time third goal. This was less than a year since PLG sat in the dugout.

 

The warning being that after those 13 wins, came a nightmare fixture pile-up, 4 league games without a win and we got pipped at the post for the title. On the other hand, we also reached a European Final, but it came at a cost. With that in mind and an eye on the big prize, not having further League Cup games into 2021 might not be the worst thing. But for now, as 26th's thread says....one game at a time.

 

 

Our one and only focus should be 3pts against St. Johnstone away on Wednesday. Level of performance, clean sheets, GD etc. are all bonuses at this stage of the season. There is no point in playing amazing, getting a clean sheet and then only drawing the game. 

Most important 3pts of the season IMO

If that happens in the middle of the park it's a foul

Why waste 15 minutes to do that? 

Hagi on ffs

Tav is looking like Tav from last season

Just now, der Berliner said:

A can moan as much as I want, as what you write goes without saying. Its just a shyte attempt of playing football, nothing new against us (or them).

 

Would bring on Hagi for Arfield, as the latter has provided not much, maybe Itten soon after.

Moan away. Motherwell were always going to play this. It's not a surprise to anyone

1 minute ago, Frankie said:

A really tricky conundrum this.  Motherwell offering no attacking threat but we gift them a goal as we again fall asleep during the second phase of a set play.

 

Bizarrely, I don't think we're playing all that badly but there's just no space to operate in and we lack a focal point in attack for when teams sit so far back.

 

Davis seems to be struggling a bit and Arfield isn't really in the game but not sure what we can do to change it.  A big 45mins ahead.

I don't think launching cross after cross is the answer

4 minutes ago, der Berliner said:

Two walls of 5, playing for time, drawing fouls, what a rancid "style" of play.

There is no point moaning about how they play. It's up to us to break it down

Hagi for Arfield for me. Arfield needs space and there is zero available

16 minutes ago, Bill said:

You could well be right although the way the front three rotate I don't suppose it matters too much how they line up on paper. In midfield I assumed Davis as sole sitting midfielder (it's Motherwell). At a push I might even add Zungu and replace Kent with Hagi.

 

I'm really looking forward to the game today. Nothing like a bit of adversity to freshen things up. The only concern is adversity has previously led to things going completely to shit. Much seems to depend on whether this team has developed some of Walter Smith's steel or if the powder-puffery is still there. If the latter then the management team is in some jeopardy

Agree about adversity. Hopefully the team will use it to their advantage today. High tempo from the off! 

The one concern I have had over the last few games or so has been our inability to score goals/create chances from open play. We have scored many goals from dead balls and corners and not really tested their goalkeeper beyond this. I want to see us getting back to Tav/Borna getting in behind defenders. 

Rangers 5 Motherwell 0

FGS Roofe

15 minutes ago, Gonzo79 said:

I read that we haven't won a league match immediately after losing a cup match, under Gerrard (not sure if this is 100% true).

 

However, we have reacted well after disappointing results this season and hopefully that continues today.

 

The next five matches are huge and today's is probably the easiest of the lot - we have to show our intent from the off.

Wish 1 - 3 points 

Wish 2 - Good performance 

Wish 3 - Boost the GD

I don't ask for much...

13 hours ago, Bill said:

McGregor

Tavernier - Goodson - Helander - Barisic

Davis - Hagi - Kamara

Itten - Roofe - Kent

 

I would go with the same personnel but change the formation slightly....

--------McGregor--------

---Goldson---Hellander--

Tav----------------Borna

----Davis----Kamara----

-----------Hagi----------

----Roofe------Kent-----

-----------Itten----------

Or does Aribo come in again to play himself out of this dip in form/confidence?

8 hours ago, the gunslinger said:

I think itten will come good but it's clearly going to take time. 

Agreed. I'm not going to judge him on cameos and especially in games were every player was way below par.

9 hours ago, Gonzo79 said:

I shake my head every time our team appears and we're wearing white socks with the home shirt.

 

The world would be a better place without white socks.

 

I know St Mirren (and Dundee Utd) wear black socks but what's wrong with red?

Maybe we should have an alternative sock with prominent red base and black turnover to retain the connection to Govan?

Two things stood out for me. 

1. Strips look so much better without sponsors splashed all over them (never going to happen)

2. The RFC monogram looks 100% better without those silly wee stars. I loved the scale of the one on the strip. It was large, bold and screamed of tradition. I genuinely hate those stars we have adopted on our famous crest. (could easily happen)

8 hours ago, Gonzo79 said:

We've been saying that our bench/squad looks strong this season.  If we can't rotate against the likes of St Mirren, we obviously don't have a strong squad at all.

 

A few players didn't play well last night, Gerrard couldn't find a way to fix things and St Mirren did their job - that's why we lost.

I think you are being kind by saying a few players. I can't think of one player that played well