DMAA

Big let off there. Ball-watching really annoys me. 

1 hour ago, Frankie said:

Lundstram was excellent but seemed to tire badly for the last 10-15mins.

He doesn’t have the fitness levels of a Kamara or Jack and Davis should be coming on for him when he tires. 

I always worry about our goal threat without Roofe in the team, even when he’s not on form. An injury to Roofe is still a massive risk to our season. I won’t go over old ground on Morelos, but we’ve missed our chance to sell him at peak value. 
 

We are sleepwalking into disaster at the moment. One of the weakest Celtic sides in recent memory have been in the disarray and are within touching distance of us. Bear in mind we have had more favourable fixtures than them to date. We haven’t even been to Parkhead, Tynecastle or Easter Road yet. 

10 minutes ago, Bill said:

They've fostered their grievance as a substitute for trophies ever since. 

Exactly right. The giveaway question was whether people would prefer Celtic get 10 in a row or Rangers nick it. Aberdeen’s fans were the only ones who wanted Celtic to get 10, which is quite incredible given the whole of Scottish football would have never heard the end of it. 

18 minutes ago, Bill said:

I believe it takes its durability from the association with nationalism that afflicts a large element of their support

Aberdeen is a bit of a sore subject for the nationalists. Oil was central to their argument yet Aberdeen city was 58.61% no and Aberdeenshire 60.36% no. I do imagine yes voters are heavily over-represented in their support though. The No voters would have been working people. 

On 05/10/2021 at 21:41, CammyF said:

Personally not had much bother from Hibs fans and Easter Road has always been my favourite away ground.

 

I'd even say I dislike Hearts and their fans much more than Hibs. 

Controversial. I do occasionally frequent forums of Hibs, Hearts and Aberdeen to see what their views are on us and them. Aberdeen are totally different to the other two, they have made hating Rangers their sole purpose in life without realising it.
Hibs and Hearts fans obviously don’t like us but they’re generally fine, nothing unexpected. 

Referee is a disgrace for sending Kamara off for those two fouls. Sparta Prague playing acting. 

Let off after let off here. You can’t teach a centre back’s positioning and Bassey doesn’t have it. 

It’s crazy not having men on the posts. 

Intriguing to see Bacuna come in. A good chance for him to show the fans what he can do. 
 

Any word on if there’s a reason for Morelos not starting?

3-5-2 would be

           Tav Balogun Bassey

Patterson.                      Barisic

     Lundstram/Aribo Davis  Kamara

             Morelos    Sakala/Roofe

There’s a case for Hagi,  it unlikely given weak defence. I don’t mind the look of that.

4-3-3

Tav. Balogun. Bassey.   Barisic

       Lundstram Davis. Kamara

            Hagi/Aribo   Sakala/Roofe

                       Morelos 

Far more likely. 

1 hour ago, Frankie said:

Well, we have two options really in a defensive sense.

 

Move to a back three/five allowing us to play Tav / Patterson / Balogun / Bassey / Barisic which I quite like the idea of as it gives us extra defensive cover away from home but also the ability to counter quickly and directly.

I actually think that system would suit our available squad pretty well, but I agree it’s unlikely. Main issues with it I see are Tavernier essentially playing centre back and Barisic being thrown in like that in a 3-5-2, which I would say requires exceptionally fit wing backs to really work well. 

The centre back situation is worrying. On paper we should be the better team but away from home, with our absences and in current form I don’t feel very confident. 
 

Morelos always raises his game in Europe so hopefully a few others can rise to the occasion too and lift the team morale. In ordinary circumstances it’s definitely a game we should be winning.
 

I would have liked to see Patterson get a game so that we have his running but we aren’t dropping Tavernier so I don’t know. Sakala’s pace would also add another dimension in a game where I expect us to have a lot of space on the break. Without Kent I think you do need either Wright or Sakala so that we have that ability to counter fast. 

6 hours ago, Rousseau said:

Players don't become bad overnight. Maybe they are a bit too comfortable and complacent. 

 

I'd like to see us go with a back three - like Chelsea. 

I think this run of poor form is more than long enough to merit a change in formation now. Not that the formation is the problem, just that history shows that a change in formation can freshen things up for a team in the doldrums. I’d like to see 2 up front. 

There’s a difference between grinding out wins like champions and just plain getting off with it. The problem with the latter is that sometimes you just don’t, like our last visit to Dundee. 

Even if they'd had a meeting about it, who cares? Rangers are at liberty to explore options. If they took the option up, the conflict would no longer have existed. Since no agreement was made, a conflict does exist. It's another smear story with no substance to it whatsoever.

18 minutes ago, Rousseau said:

Of that first group, I'd only really want Goldson and Balogun to sign up - McGregor will sign another deal. 

 

It's the second group that we'd like tied down, or preferably sold. 

Yeh I wasn’t implying that I wanted all those to sign. It’s just a huge number to lose at the same time and without action on the second group it would be a massive rebuild, which we don’t want. 
 

It’s worth mentioning there is still a lot of work to do to avoid a bit of a disaster next summer. Goldson, McGregor, McLaughlin, Balogun, Davis and Arfield will all be out of contract and Kent, Morelos, Aribo, Jack and Helander will be entering the final 12 months of their contracts. Even with Kamara dealt with it would still be on par with the situation Celtic found themselves in this summer. Plenty time to deal with that though. 

Fantastic news, he would have been entering his final 12 months at the end of this season which would have been a nightmare scenario, similar to what Celtic faced this season. Well done to all involved in getting this over the line. 

50 minutes ago, Frankie said:

 

It is really tricky just now. When our form is poor I feel we badly lack movement, people willing to stretch the opposition and make runs in behind. We play in front of the opposition too much.
 

Sakala, Bassey and even Patterson all help us do that, but that doesn’t mean they should take the place of good players who won us the league last season. I don’t know what the answer is tbh but I do wonder if we should find a way to get Sakala into the 11, even beside Morelos in a front two. He’s not the finished article but his pace certainly adds another dimension to our attack. 

I’m a bit worried going into this campaign tbh. We have two excellent campaigns to match, but with Helander ruled out and Jack still missing I worry we could leak goals. We badly lack protection from midfield at this level, that was plain last season. I really wanted us to sign someone to take over from Davis who was fitter, more physical and strong in the tackle. In defence I see Helander to Balogun as a big step down in quality too. 
 

Optimistic as usual ? our record at Ibrox is outstanding and hopefully Gerrard can pull it out of the bag again. 

12 minutes ago, the gunslinger said:

This is very true. The sun could do a right number on them too but you suspect their Journalists are as bad 

I’d be shocked if they haven’t been on a deleting spree the past few days. 

If nothing else, this has at least exposed how utterly biased against Rangers that Newspaper is. It should now be clear to more of the population that it can’t be taken seriously in any critique of anything Rangers-related. 
 

This is what I like about the American way of doing News. People know Fox are biased towards the Republicans. People know CNN are biased towards the Democrats. At least that way there is no pretence of impartiality (certainly not that is believed). With fan media rather than MSM, both sides of every story are reported and the public can make their own minds up.  

13 hours ago, barca72 said:

And that is the real point, eh? As long as we're all right then the situation is okay.
FFS.

You wake up on the wrong side of your bed or something? Someone said they’d be coming after Gersnet next and I said I thought the site would hold up well to scrutiny. What exactly is your problem?