Rangers turn their attention to Maoulida

[Danny 0]

There comes a time when you think to yourself 'do you really have to play miserable football to win the league?'

 

If it works, sadly yes. We'd all love the December period every match, but that appears to have been a total freak. We don't have the players to do that now. Therefore not the ideal formation.

 

Though I have suggested a 4-3-3 with Davis Thomson and Edu in the middle and Lafferty Naismith and Miller up top which might inspire decent football.

[chilledbear 16]

Not sure how we can afford Petrov's wages...

 

Fee or not, we have a structure and some players won't be happy if we break it.

 

 

Surely we will not go down that road again.

 

We should not pay inflated wages to players, who in the future will not want to leave for anything lower.

[Guest Flying Hippo]

If it works, sadly yes. We'd all love the December period every match, but that appears to have been a total freak. We don't have the players to do that now. Therefore not the ideal formation.

 

Though I have suggested a 4-3-3 with Davis Thomson and Edu in the middle and Lafferty Naismith and Miller up top which might inspire decent football.

 

It was a total freak because Walter refused to start Novo and Beasley after December for some strange reason (less strange in Beasley's case) and was also unwilling to keep McCulloch on the bench after his return from injury, meaning Davis was immediately back wide right

 

I've advocated a 4-2-3-1 formation many times and feel it would get the best out of Davis and Naismith, instead of totally isolating them

[Danny 0]

It was a total freak because Walter refused to start Novo and Beasley after December for some strange reason (less strange in Beasley's case) and was also unwilling to keep McCulloch on the bench after his return from injury, meaning Davis was immediately back wide right

 

McCulloch played in that December period m8. He was there for the Utd game especially.

 

I've advocated a 4-2-3-1 formation many times and feel it would get the best out of Davis and Naismith, instead of totally isolating them

 

Not the worst idea tbh.

[Guest Flying Hippo]

Confusing my injuries. Thomson was preferred to McCulloch against Motherwell at Ibrox but got injured early on. Anyway, in those 4 games where we scored 20 goals, we never played 2 holding midfielders in any of them and Davis started centrally in all of them. Why we were so reticent to ever do this again was beyond me. We proved that by playing nice football we could not only beat teams, but play them off the park

[Frankie 8,839]

After December we were so far in front, Smith went back to his favoured percentages style as he knew we only had to defend our leading position, while Celtic were continuing to falter.

 

Smith is like Andy Murray - capable of the odd bit of quality, excitement and curve-ball but happy enough to play until the opposition make a mistake. You can see this throughout his management style from his conservative selections, versatile players, minimal (and usually late) substitutions.

 

It's not the type of football that will have you salivating but it is effective. Juxtapose that with our financial challenges, then I, for one, am grateful for his stubbornness and self-belief.

 

Nevertheless, we should always be looking to improve and I'd like to think if we can find additional funds, Smith will look to do that as he hands over to his assistants.

 

[Zappa 0]

I suppose Maoulida might be worth a punt if we were getting him cheap and his wages weren't too high, but he's 31 years of age now and knowing our luck, he'd be carrying a niggling/reoccurring injury.

[Guest Flying Hippo]

I don't understand what Walter thought was going to go wrong though. Dundee United and Hibs were on great form at the time and we absolutely hammered them. Motherwell had an amazing defensive record at the time and we stuck 6 by them. Did he really think that continuing to play this way would lead to us losing games we had been winning by 4, 5, and 6 goals?

 

We even tried to open up at Celtic Park by going 4-4-2 with Lafferty and Boyd up front, and Novo and Whittaker wide, but as soon as Novo picked up his early injury in that game and Walter chose to replace him with Edu rather than Fleck, you knew the expansive football was over (for the season....)

[Frankie 8,839]

I don't understand what Walter thought was going to go wrong though. Dundee United and Hibs were on great form at the time and we absolutely hammered them. Motherwell had an amazing defensive record at the time and we stuck 6 by them. Did he really think that continuing to play this way would lead to us losing games we had been winning by 4, 5, and 6 goals?

 

We even tried to open up at Celtic Park by going 4-4-2 with Lafferty and Boyd up front, and Novo and Whittaker wide, but as soon as Novo picked up his early injury in that game and Walter chose to replace him with Edu rather than Fleck, you knew the expansive football was over (for the season....)

 

Like I say, percentages. He'd made his gamble and had won in December. So he was just wanting to see out the season ahead.

 

The pressure at our club over the last few years must be incredible. OK, these guys are millionaires because of it but I think it is fair to say if we didn't win the league over the last two seasons, we'd maybe talking about the future of our football club completely different to the one we're discussing now.

 

I don't think any of us fully appreciate what it must be like under that pressure. Working for the club you love and wanting complete success but knowing you lacked a few (financial) tools and if you under-performed administration was a serious possibility.

 

For that reason I understand Smith being somewhat conservative given he was still putting out a winning team on the park.

[Guest Flying Hippo]

I would've understood it more had his selections made any kind of sense. The amount of home games against diddy teams where we played 2 holding midfielders was disgraceful imo. What was the need for both McCulloch and Thomson/Edu against the likes of Hamilton/Falkirk/St Mirren at Ibrox? Yet when Davis played centrally, it was invariably against the likes of Hibs and Dundee United. Made no sense.