DMAA

1 hour ago, BlackSocksRedTops said:

Too many factors for me. Jack and Arfield missing out is huge.

This is big for me too. Jack is brilliant in games like this.

They have replaced Brown with Soro who, to me, looks a very good player. I think he has the potential to emerge as one of their best players, though it is early days. 
Turnbull and Griffiths have come in and they have both improved their 11 too. 

That’s not to say we have anything to fear. They have weaknesses throughout their squad but especially across the back 4. But I do think some are getting carried away taking it as a given that we will hammer them. 
 

6 minutes ago, the gunslinger said:

Yup would be a great result for us. 

With a couple more old firms to come I think it would be an acceptable result. 

29 minutes ago, ranger_syntax said:

Confidence is through the roof among many Rangers supporters.

That’s because most of us don’t follow Celtic very closely. They are playing different players and a different formation than they were during their slump. Soro is a major improvement over Brown and Turnbull seems to be a pretty big improvement over Rogic at least at the moment. Griffiths has finally had a run in the team and is clicking with Edouard. Meanwhile our form has dipped quite a bit. I expect a close game. 

34 minutes ago, BlackSocksRedTops said:

My team would be as follows:

-------Macgregor------

---Goldson--Balogun---

Tav---------------Borna

----Davis----Kamara---

-----------Hagi---------

Aribo---------------Kent

----------Roofe---------

Helander for me and Aribo playing in the midfield 3 and Hagi in the forward 3. 
 

I do feel a wee bit worried without Ryan Jack or even Arfield in the midfield 3 for this game as they probably provide us with more than Aribo defensively. 

38 minutes ago, Bluedell said:

But you're hardly objective when it comes to Morelos. ?

I can hardly be accused of bias for saying I think Hagi has earned the shirt. That accusation would be more valid in the other direction, people being biased towards him. I see a lot of people saying Hagi is a certainty to drop out for Kent/Morelos and the reasons aren’t to do with current form and performances. 

31 minutes ago, Bluedell said:

You're accusing Gerrard of picking players due to reputation rather than what they bring to the team? That he's not going to pick the team that he feels has the best chance of beating Celtic? Wow.

 

Or could it be that Gerrard sees things both in training and on the pitch that is beyond you and me and that he picks the teams that he believes will perform the best?

Gerrard hasn’t picked his team yet

19 minutes ago, Gonzo79 said:

I have absolutely no doubt Kent will start on Saturday.  Gerrard's post match interview certainly gave that impression. 

 

I don't agree with it but Kent tends to turn up for this fixture, so I won't be losing any sleep over it either.

There’s Morelos too though. Has he earned a place over Hagi? Not for me, especially with how well Roofe has played centrally. 

11 hours ago, Bluedell said:

I'll be shocked if Hagi starts against Celtic. I reckon Gerrard will bring Kent back in as he does more off the ball and perhaps he thinks that the team is more balanced when Kent plays.

We shouldn’t be dropping players who have clearly earned the shirt for reputations. 

Only got to listen to most of the game today so I’m still to see it. But that is now 5 goal contributions for Hagi in 4 games/3 starts (including his shot which was spilled for Roofe to score). These last four games have been very difficult games where we haven’t been at our best and goals and assists haven’t been as easy to come by as at other times of the season and he has still delivered consistently with contributions that have directly resulted in a goal. That’s is the attacking midfielders job, first and foremost. Hopefully he keeps his place for Celtic. 

Happy with that team. It’s very rare for Gerrard to drop Kent so that is interesting. This is a strong team we are starting with which suggests there will be no complacency this time. Big game. 

6 hours ago, Gonzo79 said:

A fair percentage of penalties involve minimal or no contact and/or players over-dramatising it.

 

Quite often, the defender sticks his leg out and the attacker successfully hurdles it but also dives, earning a penalty. 

Cheap penalties are ruining the game. 

I thought the real potentially game changing moments came from Roofe, Aribo and Hagi. Kamara played a part in some goos moves. I voted Aribo because I thought it was primarily his quality that got us into very good positions. 

Another win so I’m delighted. 
 

Another game and goal for Hagi too which is great after he had been pretty much frozen out for months which I still find hard to understand. 
 

Morelos looked hungry when he came on and he did well, but probably should have scored again. 
 

Aribo was really good too. He adds so much creativity and quality to our team. 
 

I’m tired of talking about Kent tbh, he has some qualities but loses the ball so much and doesn’t cause the opposition back-line the problems others do so I just don’t don’t see him as the stick-on starter, full 90 minutes player Gerrard seems to. 

5 minutes ago, Rousseau said:

I think it's because Hagi takes more risks than Kent?

 

So, Hagi will maybe lose the ball more but he'll do something. 

 

Kent's been on the ball a lot more, but he's done nothing. 

Yeh that’s what pretty much what I see.

Just now, Rousseau said:

Roofe's useless; he looks like he's never seen a ball before...

 

Scott Nisbet is an excellent finisher 

3 minutes ago, Rousseau said:

It's moments like that when you think Hagi's not cut out for this.

He’s been better than Kent, even before the goal. 
 

Great play from Roofe and delighted for Hagi. Hagi always looks a threat even when he’s not involved as much as you’d want. One of reasons for that is that he doesn’t drop as deep as Kent. 

16 minutes ago, ian1964 said:

 

That’s the team I wanted to see, a bit disappointed with Helander dropping out though. I was really hopefully he was going to be fit enough to play against Celtic because I think he’s the better defender. It will be interesting to see if he gets minutes today. 

1 minute ago, Gonzo79 said:

We're certainly due Hibs a walloping but any kind of win will do.

Not long since the last one to be fair, 6-1 in August 2019. 

Gerrard’s selection will be very interesting today, particularly in terms of what he does with the CF/Morelos situation. A start for Morelos today would indicate he plans to start him against Celtic.
After Roofe’s performance at CF during the week, and the performance of Hagi, I think Hagi has put himself in contention and I hope to see a similar starting 11 today. 

17 minutes ago, BlackSocksRedTops said:

Hagi and Aribo proved last night that they are crucial if we are struggling to Tav/Borna in behind. Along with an effective front man (Roofe) they can create through the middle with their passing and quick feet

Absolutely. With Roofe up top, Aribo, Hagi and Kamara behind you have so much technical quality there, players who are so good at quick pass and move football. That’s the football I love to watch. Arfield is also very good at this. 

1 hour ago, BlackSocksRedTops said:

One thing I like about Kent is that he always tries to get involved and never hides

I think far too much is made of this, I don’t believe any of our forwards hide and sometimes Kent “not hiding” involves him coming way too deep to pass the ball about. What he is very good at is the off the ball stuff, like the way he won the ball before we scored the first goal. But I certainly don’t think he deserves to be in the “starts every game” category, you should be impacting the result a lot more to be in that category. 

1 hour ago, Gonzo79 said:

Hagi is a strange one - sometimes looks like he's never seen a football before but then sets up and scores

He had a few poor moments, but I thought aside from his involvement in the goals he still did very well for spells in the first half in particular. He takes the ball to feet in tight spaces very well and his link up play can be brilliant. He would have had the assist if the season if a goal had come from that flick. 

On 09/12/2020 at 22:08, DMAA said:

Both these make for good reading for Rangers. Not so much for Celtic. Love that Zander Clark basically put in his first decent performance of the season at Celtic Park 

Clark was every bit as bad as this chart predicted. Hilarious that he got man of the match at parkhead. 

Finished the whole game now. An excellent win and several very good performances got us there. The win was tied up early and we dropped down to first gear for the rest of the game really. I didn’t expect it to be quite so easy but it wouldn’t have been if not for Aribo and Hagi. 
 

Morelos taking that chance would have been the icing on the cake because it was a gift, but for me the gaffer should be seriously thinking about giving others a chance going into this old firm game, the competition is very strong and Hagi’s involvement in two goals as well as some very good build up play should stand him in good stead. Itten and Arfield should also be in contention.