DMAA

Yeh I'm not going to pick on it because you can guarantee that 4 years was something he insisted on for stability in the twilight of his career and Mark Allen probably decided that was a risk worth taking and I'd imagine would have negotiated the wage down slightly as a result.

He seems to be a very confident guy. I'd think he'd bring a winning mentality with that kind of confidence and being another Scottish lad in the dressing room should integrate easily and bond well with the players. He seems to have lost his place in the Burnley side in January due to the signings of Aaron Lennon and a loan player from Spurs. However Burnley were in 7th place when he dropped out of the side too, and he had played 90 minutes for most of those games so he has played at a seriously high level only a few months ago.

McBurnie looks a quality target man/link up player to me. He's proven he's got goals in his locker too so I think he'd be a fantastic addition, although not at £4m.

After watching the last 3 games Gerrard has decided to dust down his boots?

I think a lot of the answers are already in our squad. Rossiter, Jack and McCrorie all possess some of the defensive qualities our midfield has severely lacked this season. It's make or break for Rossiter next season but I think we're all desperate for it to come together for him, 3rd time (season) lucky!

I was bundling this season with last. We've had 6 years to rebuild and we've spent a fortune in the past 2 seasons and we're still conceding goals like a bottom half team. As I say, Aberdeen are the proof that we can't make excuses for how poorly we have performed. However one decision is at the root of most of this, the decision to appoint Pedro Caixinha.

Well "remaining" and "regular starter" isn't the same thing. You can't answer that without taking into consideration that we have a limited budget, and the question is do we divide our budget by 15, 10 or 5 players for example. In other words what is the quality vs quantity balance which will improve the starting 11 the most? I'm of the opinion we need targeted recruitment with a greater focus on quality. Top of that list would be two proper centre backs who most likely cost us a good bit of money. If we had the money I wouldnt mind someone to start ahead of John either. So I would probably only see 2-3 changes to the starting line-up aside from the defence.

Wasn't Rossiter limping a bit though immediately before being taken off?

Well these stats shed a lot of light on why though, which should inform recruitment priorities for the summer. Due the the above I wouldn't quite go with this. We have some decent players further up the field but they've been let down time and time by a very poor defending.

I understand that, but the reason I don't accept that is that we've always done it. That's what the stats show. We've always scored at the very least 76, but we've conceded on average around half of what we've conceded this season. To add insult to injury Aberdeen pretty much managed it last season with a fraction of our budget. The bottom line is that we've scored a decent but not great amount but leaked goals like a bottom half side.

Doesn't matter how many we scored because it's the goals we've leaked all season that have cost us countless points through the season, which is why it's being discussed. 76 goals scored is not an impressive tally. 2 goals more than Aberdeen scored last season. Bar last season, our worst tally since Paul Le Guen in 2006-07. It is nothing to celebrate.

On a more positive note, big thanks has to go to Nicholl and JJ in my opinion for a far better end to the season than most of us expected with 3 very hard fixtures left after Murty's sacking. Rangers 1-0 Kilmarnock They received criticism for the manner of it but the context was that Killie had beaten us twice this season and drawn once before this game, our team barely knows how to win at home, and the following week Killie took a point from Parkhead. Aberdeen 1-1 Rangers Bar a poor spell after the heads went down due to the penalty decision, by far the better team. You only had to watch the highlights to see that they didn't have any! Robbed by a shocking penalty decision. Hibs 5-5 Rangers Hibs come into the game on the back of 7 home wins in a row (included wins over Celtic, Aberdeen, Hearts, Killie) and having scored 2 or more in all of them. Rangers come in with a severely depleted squad, missing possibly our two best players from the Aberdeen game. With not much to work with in terms of quality in the side and two very poor refereeing decision they still managed a remarkable point and so nearly got all 3. Very good managerial performance with the use of tactical subs, which were the first ones we'd seen all season!

To update this, we narrowly beat St Johnstone to 7th in the goals conceded table, conceding a whopping 50 goals. This is our worst season for conceding goals since 1985-86 when we conceded 56. The good news? The following season (1986-87) Rangers more than halved their goals conceded and jumped from 5th place to 1st place under the stewardship of a Liverpool legend. Time for history to repeat itself

They have been inconsistent this season but to lose to Aberdeen at home is pretty inexplicable. First domestic home defeat since Delia, first home defeat to Aberdeen in 25 games. And this is an Aberdeen side who could only muster 1 shot on target and who needed an assist from the man in black to score against us. When Celtic actually wanted to win they blew us away and inflicted Hearts' first home defeat of the season. They chucked it in both games simple as that.

Well my colleagues were ridiculing me on Friday saying there was no chance Celtic would take a point of Aberdeen. What a disgrace that there’s nothing we can do about the fact that they turn it in on against us and Hearts post split and throw both games against our rivals.

No I don’t see how it is. Nothing has changed regarding Rangers having to attack teams. We just leak goals now and didn’t used to and it’s largely because our players don’t have enough defensive ability.

I think he knows he’s peaked at Hibs too, it’s the perfect time for him to move. Like Aberdeen the Hibs squad is artificially strong because of their reliance on loans. Most of his best attacking players aren’t his; Allan, Barker, McLaren & Kamberie. Add to that McGeuoch who is leaving for nothing in the summer and Hibs are losing 5 very important players.

Well that's not my rationale though. I'm just saying there are 4 teams in the league who are harder to score against than us, and two others who are pretty much just as hard. We leak goals in a manner in which we haven't in 3 decades and as you say it's because our defence is horrendous. I agree with this. Two new strong centre backs who are strong in the tackle and good in the air, and midfielders who can tackle and are also better in the air than they are. I don't personally have a problem with Tav and John for now, but in an ideal world I'd prefer full backs with more defensive ability.

This doesn't square with the number of goals we've conceded this season. We are 5th in terms of goals conceded this season. And we're only 2 goals better than Killie and 4 than Motherwell. In other words we could easily be 7th. The stats don't lie, our defensive record is appalling and nobody has had difficulty scoring against us this season or last. Bottom of the table Ross County scored against us in every game. As did 3rd bottom Hamilton who scored 6 against us in 3 games. We've conceded 45 two seasons in a row, and we haven't even played our last game of the season. This is our worst goals conceded tally in 32 years. This obviously isn't due to having attack minded full backs, we just don't have enough defensive ability in the squad as a whole and that includes full backs.

Sounds like he's saboutaging his own team with his behaviour. It's all good news for us.

I think Rangers need to bite their tongue more often and foster better relationships with clubs like Hibs. We're the ones who'll suffer because there will always be players at these clubs who we want to sign and it's a disaster if they just refuse to even deal with us. Lots of good players have been signed from other Premiership teams over the years and it's essential if we want to have a Scottish spine in the squad. One way to do this would be to offer decent players on loan with favourable terms the way Celtic have done (obviously not an option with sides like Hibs at the moment). For example, I wonder if someone like Hamilton/Partick/Killie/Saints would take Herrera/Pena on loan for 6 months if we covered their wage. Some first team football would do a lot for their value.

Exactly. You're dealing with a hostile seller who aren't short of other options. Not to mention the fact he's a Celtic fan and Celtic would never let it happen.

I would have been quite confident that the team who ended against Aberdeen could do the business at Easter Road, but those two are irreplaceable. I'm so sick of this formation. Our options are limited this time, but it was only after a change in formation that we really improved against Aberdeen. However after that game I have a lot more faith in Nicholl than in Murty to change things up. With all the suspensions and lack of options in the squad it's an ideal time to get him on the bench at least. Our attacking options from the bench are woeful. I'd love to see Middleton get a game. We don't have players like him in the squad and he'd offer a goal threat we may be lacking on Sunday.

There are so many reasons why that deal wouldn’t wouldn’t go through, so I believe Dingwall. Have to wonder if it’s an unsettling tactic ahead of the game.

https://goo.gl/images/rTUay6