DMAA

Tillman for me. I thought he was creatively excellent. Provided a real spark, linked up well and played probably more key passes than anyone. Crucially, provided the winning goal. Played out of position which has to be taken into account too.

Wow!! I’m the first to admit I didn’t see that coming. Credit has to go to GVB for getting the team right. Also, Tillman brilliant tonight, what a player we have on our hands. Colak deserves credit too, he’s a goal threat.

Good to see a bolder starting 11. The traditionalist in me can’t help but think it’s a night for 2 strikers, but hopefully this team has goals in it.

Yeh I saw that after my post, it was someone on radio Scotland who had said it. Jota didn’t score but got 3 assists though.

The trio that lost us the league last season.

I think it’s worrying, there has been no change in the way we play from last season. Worrying too that Celtic have picked up from where they left off, goals from each of their front 3 today. A lot of improvement required.

There are gems to be found from the youth of the elite clubs and we should be doing it more. The players are desperate for first team football and the clubs don’t need the money so you can get a better price than from smaller clubs.

Insipid performance. 2 shots on target in the first half at home to Kilmarnock is rubbish. We are obsessed with possession and caution and there isn’t enough movement and dynamism in the final 3rd.

I called it! Big season ahead.

Davies for Sands for me I think. I thought Sands’ reluctance to pass left was really poor the other night, and surprising. Reminiscent of Katic. Tillman probably dropping into CM and Lowry playing in front against smaller teams, though I don’t think GVB will have the guts to drop the big players for Lowry.

Went for Tillman but due to lack of options. He created our only real chance and was the only one giving us a way to get forward, albeit it didn’t really work out for most of the game. I was interested to see he was also our furthest forward player from an average position graph. Could easily go for Scott Wright who did well with his time on the pitch. Would have gone with McLaughlin but I thought he could have done better with the first goal.

Celtic fans are a bunch of anti-semantic’s as well

I think the worst thing about it was the failure to make changes to formation, strategy and players. There was a failure to actually address what was happening. We were getting absolutely nowhere and perhaps that was because we had three defensive mids on the pitch. There was nowhere near enough movement.

Kaunus

Very good piece on Tillman vs Livingston. I think he looks like exactly the kind of player we need. Hopefully get another look at him tonight, looks a big coup for the club if the reported £5m fee is correct. https://www.rangersreview.co.uk/tactics/20593017.malik-tillman-helped-rangers-turn-tide-livingston-victory/

Sure, but we are one of the only clubs at our level (EL latter stages) who haven’t had that big cash influx that comes from a year or two in the champions league in recent times. Olympiacos, Slavia, Dinamo Zagreb, Midtjylland, Club Brugge, Celtic etc. have all had that in recent years. It will be hard to maintain our levels if our rivals are getting that every now and again and we aren’t. Not to mention the reputational benefit. It has been so long now.

No luck this time, that’s a very difficult draw.

Of course not, I’m only saying the early signs are that they are starting well.

I very much expected that but they have started really well. They had very good results in pre-season and so far drew away to the team who finished 9th last season and beat Cherleroi who finished 6th last season. The team who finished 9th actually beat them at their own ground last season. So no signs of it so far.

Unless Matondo goes straight in.

Kent is out so it will be interesting to see how we line up. Matondo could directly replace him, or Tillman with Lawrence moving left if Matondo isn’t quite ready. There’s also Sakala if GVB really wants pace, though very unlikely.

It has to be Tavernier for the goal in addition to general play. Have to say I didn’t think we were dragged back into the game by individuals though, the whole team came out and lifted their levels as a unit. This gave far more opportunities to forward players to create, especially Kent, and I think Barisic deserves a bit of credit for that too. But I was pleased to see Kent getting the ball in the box a bit more than usual. The actual goal was more about the header than the cross, but the wrongly disallowed goal was an excellent cross. Wee mention for Lundstram too who did his job very well.

Tillman should be starting.

Never in doubt 😀