DMAA

So many positives. Patterson, Zungu, Hagi and Itten were more or less coming in from the cold tonight and you couldn’t tell. They were all very good. It’s hard to believe how well things are going for us just now. 

Absolutely delighted. What a stunning achievement. 

1 minute ago, ian1964 said:

One thing is clear is that every player, as a squad are being well coached and they all buy into what SG & his staff are doing, excellent

Absolutely. 

Just now, blueflag said:

Kamara,tho, different gravy, i expect we will get a lot of interest in him.

Stands out every game in Europe. It’s almost as though tougher opposition suits him. 

Very pleasing half all things considered. You will always lose something with Tavernier dropping out, but Patterson has looked great. Zungu has looked good, albeit  maybe just a little bit more likely to make a mistake than Davis. 
 

Itten has been great. I’ve been saying for a while I wish he would get more game time, I have to say from what we’ve seen tonight I’m not seeing why he hasn’t been given more opportunities over Morelos. He has won the ball working way back into our half too. 

Benfica have gone with their strongest 11. Would be a bit disappointing to lose out narrowly by putting out a weaker team when our competitors aren’t doing the same. Finishing 2nd means losing out on half a million or so and getting a very hard draw in the next round.

6 minutes ago, buster. said:

I'm actually quite pleased with the line-up. I'm pleased Hagi and Itten are getting a chance. I'm disappointed Roofe isn't on the bench though.

Luckily Lech Poznan have held up their end of the bargain and made extensive changes too, so we can go into the game with confidence.

5 minutes ago, buster. said:

Wow, what a night for Patterson!

I think we'll go with,

                      Mcgregor

  Tavernier  Goldson  Balogun   Barisic

            Arfield     Zungu       Kamara

                     Hagi        Kent

                            Roofe

I don't know, I just don't see how anyone other tham Zungu and Hagi could be brought in here. Barisic was rested at the weekend, and the rest of the defence chooses itself. We know Zungu is starting, Arfield was rested at the weekend so he will come in. Kamara won't drop out as Aribo played on Sunday too. And then of the front 3, if Hagi comes in it's anyone's guess who for but I would hope Morelos and not Roofe.

27 minutes ago, Bluedell said:

We finished top of a 5 team, 4 match group in 2006/07

 

Rangers	4	10
Maccabi Haifa	4	7
Livorno	4	5
Auxerre	4	4
Partizan	4	1

Under the stewardship of another European football wizard....

1-2 Rangers

Roofe

4 hours ago, Gonzo79 said:

I agree with that.  The English player market is ridiculously under-inflated. 

 

I just wondered why Morelos and this kid ended up in Finland - presumably Finnish clubs have a scouting network/links in Colombia. 

I have seen suggestions that it was Rangers who spotted his performance for Colombia's youth team and orchestrated his move to Finland, possibly to because it is easier to get visa/work permit there. Probably nothing in it.

31 minutes ago, buster. said:

The usual and somewhat tired Battle of Britain tag would be largely replaced by the SG against ManUtd narrative but that would be in the context of being our manager. 

I think that narrative would actually work against us because I think they would normally be totally complacent, but Gerrard being in the other dugout would mean they would take the game very seriously to avoid the embarrassment of losing to him.

Great to hear Helander is aiming to be back for the weekend. If he had been affected by COVID I don't think he would be in contention yet so that is very good news.

It will be a big boost to have him back because we are in a bit of a precarious situation potentially having to ask Bassey to play there until he is. 

On 08/12/2020 at 15:29, Gonzo79 said:

What's with Colombians ending up in Finland?

Don’t know but I imagine it’s a better place to scout than the League 2/Conference League where most SPFL stars were signed from. 

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 

On 20/10/2020 at 19:47, DMAA said:

We both have 10 games in 42 days coming up. 

 

They have 3 league games, all away. 1 cup game at Hampden. 5 European games, 3 away. The Scottish Cup draw hasn't been done yet, but if they are drawn away that will be only 2 home games in their next 10 fixtures.

 

We have 4 league games, 3 at home. We have 5 European games, 2 away. If we are drawing at home in the cup, we will have only 7 home games in our next 10 games.

 

After Saturday, the timing of this couldn't be worse for them and couldn't be better for us. This a big test for them and it's an opportunity for us to press home our advantage. 

 

Their Fixtures                                     Our Fixtures

Thu  AC Milan Home                               Standard L Away

Sun  Aberdeen Away                              Livingston Home

Thu  Lille Away                                          Lech Poznan Home

Sun  Aberdeen Neutral                           Kilmarnock Away

Thu  Sparta Prague Home                     Benfica Away

Sun  Motherwell Away                            Hamilton Home

Sat   Hibernian Away                               Aberdeen Home

Thu  Sparta Prague Away                      Benfica Home

Sun  Scottish Cup 2nd Round - Draw not yet done

Thu   Milan Away                                       Standard L Home

Well that’s those 10 fixtures played now. They failed the test this tough block of fixtures presented them with and we very much took the opportunity to press home our advantage.
 

They enter an easier run of fixtures now which give them the perfect opportunity to get their act together and, arguably, the inverse is true of our fixtures. Some pretty tough fixtures lie ahead before we play Celtic. 

4 minutes ago, buster. said:

There is a run of difficult games on either side of Hogmanay, that if we can get through and at least retain the current gap, then I'd retain the good positive vibes, but without so much of the current nerves that come from too much scar tissue. 

 

For me, we aren't yet at Base Camp (after next OF match).

 

23/12/20	PRE	St. Johnstone	20 : 45	Rangers
26/12/20	PRE	Rangers	13 : 30	Hibernian
30/12/20	PRE	St. Mirren	20 : 45	Rangers
02/01/21	PRE	Rangers	13 : 30	Celtic
09/01/21	PRE	Aberdeen	16 : 00	Rangers
16/01/21	PRE	Motherwell	16 : 00	Rangers
23/01/21	PRE	Rangers	16 : 00	Ross County
27/01/21	PRE	Hibernian	20 : 45	Rangers

 

Hey, but it's only one game at a time !!!

 

 

 

That run of games is pretty much equivalent to the run they’ve just had. A series of tough tests. 

5 minutes ago, Rousseau said:

It's bad juju to believe anything else!  

For me the big worry is the same as last season, players being unavailable. Last season we had terrible luck after the winter break, this season we have the threat of COVID too. I think we are already suffering a wee bit from Helander being absent, I’m a huge fan of his and I think we conceded chances yesterday we probably wouldn’t have if he was playing. So there is plenty reason to be cautious because the risks are greater. 

1 minute ago, Rousseau said:

before I see anything to be optimistic about. 

Behave ?

Funny thing is if you compare our season so far to the same stage last season there isn’t a whole lot in it. In terms of points, the difference is just the old firm game, we won it away instead of losing it at home. So a 3 point difference. Goal difference was 35 instead of 42. Most of that difference was goals conceded. Even in Europe our performance has been almost the same, the big difference being the loss away at Young Boys, but we haven’t played our third away game yet this season so you can’t make a direct comparison yet. 
 

Yet I think we have reason to believe that the small differences are very significant. The fact we are barely conceding goals domestically is significant. The manner of our old firm performance in stark contrast to last season. The fact that our bench and reserves are so much stronger, we are making 5 changes and there is no drop in quality. 
 

Lots of reasons to be optimistic. 

1 hour ago, buster. said:

The records are tumbling ?

 

I wonder if Celtic are the first ever team to do a..... 'Pt.1/1Pt.'..... after 5 group matches ?

That is, the Pot 1 seeds collecting only 1 point after 5 matches.

 

Here is me thinking it was many in our support that were generally behind getting out of Europe this December !

 

On the other hand......

 

December 14, 2020

draw for 2nd (round of 32) Europa League

 

Europa League group stage winners and runners-up[edit]

Group	Winners (seeded in round of 32 draw)	Runners-up (unseeded in round of 32 draw)	Qualified (position TBD)
A	Roma
B	Arsenal
C			Slavia Prague  Bayer Leverkusen
D			Rangers  Benfica
E			Granada  PSV Eindhoven
F
G			Leicester City  Braga
H			Lille  Milan
I	Villarreal
J			Tottenham Hotspur  Antwerp
K	Dinamo Zagreb
L	1899 Hoffenheim	Red Star Belgrade

 

 

CL 3rd place transfers

 

Seed	Grp	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Seeding
1	H	Third place Group H (X)	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	Seeded in round of 32 draw
2	B	Third place Group B	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
3	D	Third place Group D	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
4	F	Third place Group F	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
5	E	Krasnodar	5	1	1	3	5	10	−5	4	Unseeded in round of 32 draw
6	A	Third place Group A (Y)	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
7	C	Third place Group C (Y)	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
8	G	Third place Group G (Y)	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0

(X) Certain to be seeded; (Y) Certain to be unseeded.

 

 

 

 

Winning the group would give us a great chance of progressing. Second place would

make it very hard. 

13 hours ago, Franc Ergs said:

Wonder which team have conceded the most goals in the Europa league so far ?

 

Just wondering.

 

They’ve conceded 2 more than Dundalk