DMAA

Fantastic from Barisic, trying the cross when it looked like there was nothing on. Tavernier starts and ends the move. 

Ya beauty

Kamara has been really good

Hagi just had that quality final pass, there is a lot of technique in getting the weight of a pass like that perfect

What a finish it was too with the outside of the foot

SCOTTY!

We just look flat, they seem to have more urgency about them. And we need to improve that final pass in the second half. 

Lacking a bit of creativity here, passing the ball around the defence and being forced back for the keeper

Really pleased with Hagi’s start though, looks in the mood

Morelos in particular I have to say, some good opportunities have slipped away 

Too many giving the ball away really cheaply and looking nervous. 

Looks like Galatasaray are at full strength. Their left back is injured though and their left back tonight is a natural right back, I think we can target him. Big Luyindama vs Morelos is going to be really interesting to watch. He is a very good defender. 

16 minutes ago, Rousseau said:

Aye, but you're not getting me off this high horse now.  

 

As @craig says, he's been superb recently, which we should focus on. 

 

Where does Aribo fit in now?!

It's a great problem to have. If everyone is fit, I'm not sure. But I am sure that he's in our strongest 11!

5 minutes ago, craig said:

I don't think the criticism of Arfield was unfounded either - he was poor, by his standards, for quite some time - proof of which is the fact that Gerrard dropped him and he struggled to get back in the team

That's fair enough mate, but on being dropped he was only dropped for a 3 game period last season in the league, and he had his best form after that, which strangely was when the team were poor. He was arguably poorest when the team were cruising early in the season. This season though he lost his place and only got back back in after injuries to Aribo and Barker. 

57 minutes ago, Rousseau said:

Again, it's not "unfounded" - which you claimed -- because he was poor for a spell, as the stats back up. 

I only said he had taken a lot of unfounded criticism, which he has, that isn’t the same as saying all and any criticism has been unfounded. 

50 minutes ago, Rousseau said:

(I really don't want to get dragged into a Kent argument. You're obsessed! Even though I agree Kent's return has not been good enough.)

I'm not. When making the case for a player who isn't rated it just makes sense to use the stats of a player who is rated as a reference point, especially when he is regarded as our best creative player by so many. Anyway, I wasn't trying to start a debate so I'll leave it there. Oh, other than to point out that I'm pretty sure the statistic you used is comparing 18/19 when he played as a number 10 (his best position and where I would like him to play) to 19/20 when he was pushed back to centre mid. Though as I said I do agree he was poor for spells.

1 hour ago, Rousseau said:

It wasn't "unfounded": He was rubbish, for a significantly long spell. 

 

However, I will admit he's been very good over the last few games, when he's needed to step in. I've been really impressed. His work-rate was always there, but nothing came off for him; now, he's back to being a dynamic, attacking box-to-box midfielder again. Great to see! 

That is an vast exaggeration. He definitely wasn’t at his best for spells but the criticism was way over the top and failed to take into account his contribution. Unlike others, he was not playing in his natural position but still chipped in with goals and assists pretty much all season and played a huge role in Europe. For a start, he got 4 league assists from centre mid when Kent got none from behind the striker. 9 goals was more than double any of the other centre mids too (including Aribo). He had spells of poor form but his ability was always there and people were far too negative about him.
 

I suspect you’re not going to agree but we can agree that it is great to have him on form again. 

So many positives from that win. When @Bill is singing Tavernier’s praises you know things are good. This is the game after I voted Kent MOM for the first time. 
 

I’m going from the RTV highlights unfortunately, but Itten’s double is without doubt the biggest positive. Some fans were already on his back. That injection of confidence could be huge. To have Defoe back and Morelos back in form too is great for that position. Fantastic for Bassey to get 90 minutes. He needs games like that to grow into a reliable backup. Subs appearances can’t give you that. I’m really enjoying seeing Arfield getting this run in the team too. He’s taken so much unfounded criticism from the fans and he showed his quality again. That stat is really impressive, a 93% pass rate at the same time as having played more key passes than anyone on the pitch (leading to another assist). A 93% pass rate is what you expect from a centre back who never plays it long. 
 

On to the Turks, who apparently toiled to a “brutal to watch” 0-0 against their arch rivals yesterday. 

10 hours ago, rbr said:

Just so I nail my colours to the mast on a certain rule , this handball rule is killing football .

Yeh I hate it. Cheap penalties aren’t good for anyone. 

1 hour ago, Bill said:

I hope he's back soon. I've always liked Tom Miller but Clive Tyldsley is a far far better match commentator.

It was a bit embarrassing how he got their right winger's name wrong for the full 90 minutes too. Nunnely is one of their main players and he called him Saddiki (who was playing centre mid) the whole way through.

Last night Rangers participated in a match in the country currently placed 10th in the coefficient table, in an open game with 4 goals and countless chances and talking points.

Celtic took part in a match in the country currently placed 37th, in a drab game where they "toiled" and "struggled to create chances". 

You would think it was obvious which game deserved more attention.

The poorly named "Scottish Football Podcast" failed Rangers fans again by giving Billy Dodds 60 seconds out of a 18 minutes and 47 seconds podcast to summarise the Rangers game (about 5% of the podcast). This was, of course, squeezed in in the last minute just in case people forgot we were playing.

The word count check brought up the same results too. Despite, again, Rangers have an exciting game with loads to talk about in the Netherlands and Celtic having a boring game against nobodies, the Celtic match report has about 570 words and the Rangers report has about 470.

I won't be checking again, but I did last season so I thought I would see if things were getting any better but, alas, no.

And on the live feed it read “Willem II 0-4 Aberdeen” there. With the childish people in PQ you just never know if that kind of thing is a mistake, it seems to happen so often. 

“Celtic dominant team in Riga win” the headline on BBC Sport. 
 

If we toiled for 90 minutes and nicked a last minute winner against Latvian nobodies would the headline be a Steven Gerrard quote? 

3 minutes ago, Frankie said:

Helander also showed his experience at the back time after time and is really under-rated by our fans

Very much so. Some would still replace him with Balogun/Katic. He’s one of my favourite Rangers players. 

Worth noting by the way that they haven’t lost at home in over a year, and haven’t lost by a 4 goal margin since the season before last. They aren’t used to being being hammered, and certainly not on their own patch.