DMAA

Could do with Aribo coming on

Poor decision making here. Why did they leave that number 10 wide open there to make that cross?

Ishak was given too much space there. 

Great vision and pass from Hagi for Davis there. 

Finally some tempo, but we’re lacking end product. Passes and crosses are really lacking accuracy. 

Diving when he doesn’t even have the ball. Unbelievable. 

We’re letting them dictate things a bit. Need to take control of the ball. 

Looking a bit nervous

Kamara looking great again

How is that not a yellow? Pulling his shirt and studded the back of ankle. Can guarantee there will be cheap yellows later in the game. 

Brilliant from Roofe. Hagi could have done better. 

A wee bit disjointed so far but they look there for the taking. 

Quite incredible when you think of the players we are able to keep fresh for Rugby Park though. 

Happy with Roofe getting a start but a bit disappointed Helander misses out. 

They’re a hard team to judge from a look at their results. Had a look at their transfers and it looks to me like they’ve sold a few good players and, judging by their results, their replacements either aren’t up to it or haven’t settled yet. Last season their record was nearly identical to Legia who were a very tough nut to crack. 
 

But their record away in Europe has been very good. A 3-0 win in Sweden is impressive, and a 2-1 away win over a team ahead of Standard Liege in the league is impressive too. 
 

I think we will be too organised for them, but it will probably be a close game. 

An update to the tables posted last week. Our numbers are down slightly after Livingston, but Celtic’s have continued to fall too after Aberdeen. 
 

Interesting to see the rest of the league too. Most notable is St Johnstone so high despite being currently 10th. From what I have seen of them, Craig Conway has been a brilliant signing for them, reminds me of when Burke came back up here in his 30s but was still one of the best non-OF players in the league. 

Win impact rating is a combination of loads of stats, defensive and offensive. Not sure how much I trust it personally, seems to favour attacking players who take a lot of a shots a bit too much. Interesting reading anyway. Not including our front 3, Arfield, Jack and Tavernier all showing up with very high numbers. I’d think Barisic should be here though. 

A very low xG for a home game for us, shows how much we took our foot off the gas after getting early goals. 

Up to date goals and assists numbers for all competitions. I believe some “unofficial” assists are included here, for example a couple for Barisic which weren’t registered because the ball deflected slightly after he crossed it. 
 

Goals
Tavernier -9
Kent -5
Morelos -5
Goldson -4
Arfield -3
Roofe -3
Aribo -2
Defoe -2
Itten -2
Barisic -1
Barker -1
Hagi-1
Helander -1
Jones -1
O.G. -1

Assists
Hagi -7
Barisic -6
Tavernier -6
Arfield -4
Kent -2
Morelos -2
Defoe -1

12 hours ago, ranger_syntax said:

The 'supercomputer' has spoken!

 

https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/soccer-predictions/premiership/

 

Up until yesterday it was predicting that Celtic would win.  So I thought that it was a load of rubbish.  Now that it is predicting a Rangers victory I think that it is a fine method of prediction.

Well bang goes that method of deciding who wins the league when they decide to abandon it. Next up, average league points over the last 5 years will be used to project the winner. 

This one has been posted in another thread already but thought I would post it in here. Hagi posting very good numbers, especially when you remove the advantage of being a set piece taker.

Really good reading from Jordan Campbell’s latest article. Ties in with what Barry had said he had heard about Bassey, that he loves to learn. Very encouraging stuff given his raw talent is there for all to see. 

“..but Bassey’s appetite to learn can be seen in how he quickly asked Barisic for guidance after signing. The Athletic understands the pair have regularly been doing extra work together on crossing and other parts of his game the youngster wants to work on as a left-back. Connor Goldson is also said to have taken on a “big brother” role with him, as the leader of Rangers’ defence.”

2 hours ago, the gunslinger said:

plays some beautiful football. 

 

He also works hard and tackles back even though you can see it's not his strength. 

 

Going to be a great player and going to be vital against 11 man defenses. 

Which tells me he has an excellent attitude and follows instructions. One of the weak areas in his game is probably his strength and I think as he gradually bulks up he will get better and better. He only turned 22 the other day.