DMAA

We’re ruining the transfer thread aren’t we 

1 hour ago, Gaffer said:

Tav needs to be selective in when he goes forward.  His time to move forward is as the right attacking midfielder is receiving the ball, not when McGregor has it.

I was mainly responding to the suggestion that he won’t be needed as much going forward this season, at least in this formation I think the opposite. 

I see what you are saying with this though, I can’t say I paid attention to the shape in this regard but I would agree that the full backs should always return to their positions and come from deep. Much less likely you will be picked up when you do this too. 

Also agree with @Rousseau that his end product was the main problem. The formation really seemed to provide him with opportunities to get in great positions but his end product was uncharacteristically poor. 

3 hours ago, Gaffer said:

 I was just pointing out that his attacking flair isn't required as much as before and it seems a waste to have someone central (Jack) and attacking who is sacrificed to cover each time Tav goes forward.  That last part was just a fact.  If Tav limited his forward runs and crosses I'd be much happier, but that's my opinion

Last season Tavernier had Candeias in front of him so arguably he shouldn't have been needed as much going forward. The way I see the 4-3-2-1 is that the full backs provide the width and turn into wingers when we are attacking so they can't just stay back. With 5 midfielders playing pretty much central, space is created wide that wasn't there before because with clever triangle passing in the middle you are pulling the full backs inside to cover an Ojo or Arfield and then suddenly you switch it out to Tavernier/Barisic who are in acres of space. Think of Barisic's assist for Jack in Gibralter for example.

9 minutes ago, Rousseau said:

And 17 goals. 

I think it was 5 non-penalties, which is itself impressive. Only 1 goal less than Candeias and Kent. Speaking of which, Ojo is already a third of the way to matching Candeias and Kent's totals from last season  I think I'm going to like this guy

16 minutes ago, Bill said:

In the long history of our club there might have been some players who couldn’t be replaced but James Tavernier certainly isn’t one of them. As far as I’ve seen, no one at all has brought out knives for Tav but it’s indisputable that he’s prone to losing form and to making costly defensive errors. He has been vital for the team but the team is changing and we can no longer afford a fullback whose defensive duties require the constant cover of other positions. What he brings in terms of attacking will now largely be provided by others and it wouldn’t surprise me if that’s been discussed with him already - hence his current apparent loss of confidence. 

Let's not get carried away. The season has barely started, traditionally we would still be in pre-season right now. I know this is an opinion you've held for a long time but I think his strong performances will return when the league season starts. A reminder of the final assists standings from last season...

Assists
Tav - 20
Candeias - 10
Arfield - 7
Jack - 6
Kent - 6

 

Going back to Edmundson, when I saw his pace last night I thought he could be the ideal Rangers centre back because of the high line we play. The majority of the goals we lose are counter attacks so pace is a far more important attribute for a Rangers centre back to have than it is for other clubs. 

1 minute ago, pete said:

Katic saved his backside often last season until Worrel was brought in. He couldn't save himself never mind Goldson as well

I remember a European game last season when I felt Worrall bailed out Goldson repeatedly but I can't remember which one it was. Goldson was a wee bit lucky last season because he definitely had a few howlers which didn't lead to goals due to poor finishing from the opposition. People only remember them when they lead to goals. 

19 minutes ago, cooponthewing said:

Thank goodness you saw that TB! I’m sitting reading all these comments wondering if someone had spiked my £3 juice from the kiosk? How he got MOTM astonished me, he has a mistake definitely and imo Goldson does not fancy playing beside him.

Edmundson's distribution is streets ahead of anything we've seen from a centre back in a long time in my opinion. That is what has really impressed people so far. We've gone from endless sideways passes from guys like Worrall and Katic to this guy pinging them with ease, switching the play really fast and stretching the opposition with pinpoint 30 yard passes. Gerrard wanted urgency last night and I think he really likes this side of Edmundson's game.

With regards to his errors, from memory at least a couple of them looked like just complacency due to the low level of opposition, but even then he recovered very impressively with pretty astonishing pace for a centre back.

At this stage it is impossible to judge whether these errors will be a problem in more serious games where you would be far more careful and disciplined, but I don't think so and agree with @Gaffer that we may have just struck gold on this one. Don't forget he's English so we can apply the English player surcharge when we sell ?

That's a shame because he had a poor game. His passing was poor, he gave away possession repeatedly and his crosses hit the first defender. I think he did gradually improve as the game wore on though.

Genuinely conflicted on what to do in the event of a bid for Morelos, I think Defoe is our best striker right now but what would the Morelos money even buy us? We've already built our squad now, the longer the transfer window goes on the less useful that money becomes. 

Well we only have the very basic stats for last night, but a straighforward one for me from last night is that 10 shots on target is not enough when you've had 72% possession. We had a lot of the ball without testing the keeper very much.

7 hours ago, pete said:

Middleton showed he was not ready for the step up. I thought that was pretty obvious.

He’s ready to be involved in the squad, I’m not suggesting starting

43 minutes ago, rbr said:

Ojo a waste of space,  ok he scored but we carried him the entire game , needs to do much better all round. 

Agree that he disappointed but if it wasn’t for that excellent finish from what was a half chance at best we could be going into the second leg with only a single goal lead.

 I’ll take a bad performance and a goal over a “good performance” with no end product any day. 

5 minutes ago, pete said:

Halliday was excellent tonight. Jack has found a new level and Aribo is a godsend.

It’s not that I’ve got anything against him, just seemed like Barisic was the number 1 again so I was a bit surprised. I thought Halliday was very good but Barisic generally has a better final ball. 

It’s ultimately of little consequence but it’s hard to deny that was a bit disappointing. Defoe had an instant impact when he came on, it was night and day, he killed the ball every time with his first touch and then brought others into play with great creativity and pin point passing. Jones looks very sharp but he’s a carbon copy of Kent style wise, always goes for the dribble and always ultimately hoping someone gives him an excuse to go down. Having said that he’s a good impact player. Lots of positives but overall disappointing we couldn’t put more than 2 past a goalie who had several howlers on the night despite not being tested anywhere near enough. 

Great to see Ojo finish so nicely on his weaker foot

Oh and we need to shoot more, this keeper is dodgy. 

A bit of a strange half, Gerrard is clearly impressing on the players that he wants to see urgency. You can see urgency in the way we’re moving the ball and yet we are struggling to penetrate them.

A few observations on some of the players, Edmundson looks brilliant again. He currently looks a first pick to me. Strange to say that but he is aggressive, rapid and passes the ball like his gaffer. It’s not happening for Ojo. I’m not sure if he’s just not totally comfortable with playing centrally yet but he has been ineffectual really. Aribo has been excellent again. Wins the ball back, has great technique carrying the ball and the finish was quality. The behind the goal camera showed how good it was. Morelos is having a poor game. He’s like this a lot though, poor passing and ball retention but then he’ll score. I have to say I much prefer Defoe as a player just now. 

I’d like to see Defoe, Stewart and Barisic get a game but I think it’s more likely Jones will come on, he seems to be getting more game time. 

I think it will be more of a 4-3-2-1 @der Berliner with Aribo on the left side of the 3 and Jack right side.

Great opportunity for Morelos to rack up the goals tonight. Would have liked to see Barisic play in this one though practically playing as a winger, I wonder why he’s gone with Halliday. 

15 minutes ago, Rousseau said:

That's pretty much full-strength, for me, excepting the odd change. 

Exactly what I was thinking 

34 minutes ago, pete said:

40 degrees here and I decided to lay 50x50cm garden slabs. What was that old song?

Mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the midday sun

You’re losing it pete ?

20 minutes ago, the gunslinger said:

I thought the lack of goals from midfield was the big issue. 

Yes fair point. A close second for me but closely linked really to a slight lack of creativity and quality.

This is actually one of the reasons I wanted Middleton involved more throughout last season. He might look raw at times during the game but unlike many senior players ahead of him he is a huge goal threat from inside and outside the box even if he performs poorly through the game. I still think it's a mistake to have him so far away from the matchday squad for that reason.

13 minutes ago, 26th of foot said:

I note BBC Scotland failed to cover the launch

That can't be right ?

14 hours ago, RANGERRAB said:

I’d like to see both Morelos and Defoe in the team tomorrow night. We should be able to play two strikers against a team like Niederkorn

I agree but the counter argument would be that the players need to use these games to get used to playing in the formation they'll be playing every week in the league.

45 minutes ago, BEARGER said:

42k tickets sold as at 1100hrs today.

Very welcome income for the club

26 minutes ago, the gunslinger said:

Stats prove one thing. When people say candeias didn't create enough they were wrong. 

I sympathise with your point of view because the criticism of Candeias was way over the top through the season, especially when all his goal-creating stats were above Kent across the board who wasn't criticised.

However in my opinion we lost the league in games where we were found out for lacking creativity/end product when it really mattered.

Losses to Livingston, Aberdeen and Kilmarnock and draws to Aberdeen, Kilmarnock, Dundee, Hibs (twice) and St Johnstone. Those games were worth 21 points. We scored 7 goals in those 9 games. Those games don't include the final game of the season loss to Kilmarnock, the 3-3 draw to Motherwell and both losses to Celtic. You could add a few cup games to it though.

Just my opinion but I felt we were pretty much fine in defence and midfield last season but the players tasked with creating goals just weren't good enough to turn more of those draws into wins and even losses into draws/wins. Celtic had the same very tough games against packed defences but found a winner time and time again. My takeaway was that we needed to find players better than both Kent and Candeias for our starting 11 this season and that we needed adequate cover for when Arfield is unavailable who is one of our most important players.