DMAA

1 minute ago, buster. said:

it'll be Jack, Coulibaly and Arfield in the middle

I love that centre midfield combination. All ball winners, something we missed so badly last season. And then you've got Rossiter and McCrorie on the bench. So much aggression and grit in this team now it's brilliant.

I suppose Gerrard will know who needs a rest and who doesn't, not everyone will. Candeias could play 7 games a week and he'd still be on the treadmill before bed.

I'm wary of reducing the quality in the starting line-up with rotation because momentum is so important right now and I'd much rather take guys off early. Having said that, as well as Barisic, I'd like to see Middleton starting. I'd prefer to take Halliday on when we're winning but Arfield will probably need a rest.

2 hours ago, Gonzo79 said:

Disappointing, considering the three matches coming up.  Although Jack is playing well and Ejaria seems to be improving all the time.

1 hour ago, buster. said:

Relieved to see him in training gear again.

 

Maybe he will make the 2nd of September.

Personally I think it would be a big bonus to have Coulibaly starting ahead of Ejaria there. The main priority there is to keep a clean sheet and Coulibaly's ability to win the ball back would be huge for us. It's no slight on Ejaria but old firm games are often battles and the more aggressive team often comes out on top.

Relevant quotes from the press conference,

"Worrall is a fantastic player I've followed him for many years with England".

The link to Worrall is a very exciting, another big 6 4 CB who is good on the ball and good at defending apparently.

A centre back "could well be" all that is added to the squad before the transfer window closes. That would be good news for Middleton because it suggests he'd be Murphy's replacement. Raises a question of depth and variety in across the 3 AM positions though.

1 hour ago, 26th of foot said:

Their representative at Rangers visit to Villarreal was Alex O'Henley.

26 minutes ago, Franc Ergs said:

They are not appointed as an observer at a game involving a team they follow themselves as supporters, or a close rival team.

 

To my reckoning ,O'Henley should've been nowhere near our games.

Definitely a conflict there. Being from South Uist he's definitely a Celtic fan, although Celtic fans from there don't hate Rangers the way Glaswegian Celtic fans do, they share a highschool with the Protestant North Uist.

I'm loving the way Gerrard is dealing with the media and these kind of issues. Doesn't mean Hartley shouldn't get a ban, but again Gerrard and Rangers rise above it rather than lowering ourselves to bickering about stuff like this.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/45295844

By the way could someone tell me how to link articles/tweets properly?

9 minutes ago, MacK1950 said:

Ref Kent being right footed and unable to cross

It's actually more about decision making than ability. He consistently chooses to run inside in front of defenders rather than running to the byline and getting a ball in.

But you can't compare the left footed open play crossing of a natural left footer to that of someone who's trained up their left foot. I haven't been overly impressed with Kent's left footed crossing from open play or corners, though he's had a couple of decent corners.

9 minutes ago, buster. said:

With rotation in mind, I'd consider Middleton for a start in the Motherwell game.

That's certainly the kind of game you'd want to give him his chance in, allowing others a rest

9 minutes ago, buster. said:

Contrast the depth in FB cover with centre halfs. 

We'll get one in but we'll probably end up with one of the FB's needing to play CH at stages during the season.

I've advocated "quality over quantity" all summer and I'm delighted Gerrard has gone for that. We've brought in 12 and let 16 go. 

We need to be lean in order to make our money work harder for us in terms of our starting 11.

At CB, in order of priority we'll have Goldson, Katic, New signing, McCrorie, Wallace. That's plenty for me. With Rossiter returning McCrorie will be happy to cover two positions after his "play me anywhere" plea.

1 minute ago, buster. said:

Middleton is a good option to have on the bench

On what we've seen of him I'd say he's earned a start because he caused Ufa and Shkupi's defences far more problems than the players starting ahead of him. His age doesn't matter as long as that is the case. If that ball hadn't hit Lafferty's arm he'd have won a penalty, and that's because he's trying to get in behind the defence instead of running in front of them all the time.

3 minutes ago, buster. said:

Wallace seems as though he's being brought back into the fold so you have a LB logjam or simply Flanagan becomes back-up for Tav

If we start to get cocky we could see Tav and Barisic being the European full backs and Flanagan and Wallace playing domestically so that all players get rested. What's not in doubt is that Gerrard has a fantastic depth at full back now.

And yet again we get a pathetic match report (465 words long). Maybe we should be thankful, after all this is the longest match report we've had from our European run so far.

But once more it's dwarfed by Celtic's match report (750 words), with endless discussion and analysis of their stumbling towards the group stages having got the easier draw possible.

Isn't it time the BBC came clean and admitted their relationship with Rangers has changed far beyond simply not sending reporters to the stadium?

For the second week in a row I jumped in the car and switched the radio on within a few minutes of the game finishing and got absolutely no discussion of our game. On a big european night like that you'd expect a bit of analysis and discussion after such a big win but absolutely nothing they were just chatting away about Ayr United.

Have they every reported Celtic?

28 minutes ago, JohnMc said:

Our left hand side isn't working as well as it should. With both Flanagan and Kent being right footed we lose the ability to cross early and attack the by-line

Spot on. This is why I felt Middleton should have been introduced far earlier. At least the gaffer spotted this problem when everyone thought left back was the least of our worries and signed Barisic.

Flanagan could be a better option for away games though, I haven't seen enough of Barisic defensively yet.  

9 minutes ago, der Berliner said:

Middleton's pace, trickery and deliveries - even when he's got a guy near to him - are a joy to behold.  I would hope that at home we'll play him and two strikers up front.

Couldn’t agree more. I’ve been disappointed with how few chances he’s had (and how long it took tonight). I hope there are no penalties for not playing Kent because if there are he has no chance of breaking through. 

Some huge performances out there. Katic and Goldson were immense. I’ve been blown away by Katic. Ryan Jack was amazing and Arfield’s link up play is world class. 

My bugbear tonight was Kent constantly running into congested areas. Give me Middleton from the start any day. Make no mistake the boy is no Gregg Wylde, he has far more to his game than pace and a left foot. 

So tired of saying this but the ref was atrocious. Ufa’s defence were a bunch of divers and it killed the game ?

15 minutes ago, buster. said:

We did something similar on here to the above quote (text, not a graphic) and low and behold, BBC Scotland actually changed the wording of their article.

I didn’t see that but the wording is n that article by McLaughlin remains the same, are you thinking of another incident?

4 minutes ago, Frankie said:

Oppsie daisy...

 

 

Sounds like there’s someone with a bit of common sense and professionalism at Motherwell who pulled him aside. 

We’ve faced a lot of mouthy opponents this season. 

A quick look at their home and away record highlights the importance of tonight's game.

The home-away difference will be far greater for us since we face a gruelling 9 and a half hour flight (from Edinburgh) for the away leg which is almost identical to flying to Astana, where Celtic lost 4-3 last season after hammering them 5-0 in the first leg.

2 minutes ago, Bill said:

Sadiq?

Yes I missed him, I was working from the list der Berliner posted in the rumours thread

18 minutes ago, Rousseau said:

McGregor

 

Tavernier - Goldson - Katic - Flanagan

 

Ejaria - Jack - Arfield

 

Candeias - Morelos - Kent

I don't think there's any doubt that will be the line-up.

Looking at the squad I don't think there's any doubt Wallace will be on the bench. As far as I can see we only have 6 senior players to put in the bench including him.

Bench:

Foderingham, Wallace, McCrorie, Halliday, Middleton, Lafferty and a youth player

4LHD reporting fee as £450k including add-ons. Can't argue with that.

I think he'll prove a very shrewd signing and another masterstroke from Allen and Gerrard.

1 hour ago, buster. said:

Fullbacks:

Tavernier, Barisic, Wallace (?) + Flanagan (+ Halliday)

Gerrard said yesterday that Wallace could feature on Thursday. To me that means he's been given the go ahead to play him which is a big surprise. But good news imo.

The Worrall link is an exciting one. As usual ideally there would be the prospect of a permanent deal at the end but that doesn't look likely here. Karanka seems like a bit of an idiot to me. They've turned down a £12m bid for him and a few later he's 5th choice.

1 hour ago, ian1964 said:

 

Massive blow, absolutely gutted. Will not be cheap to replace him.