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We still have a club. Romance enough.

 

We have a double barrelled, rudderless Omnishambles with both RIFC (month at a time) and TRFC (match at a time).

 

Rudderless may be a little inaccurate in that some have plotting a course but it isn't for the benefit of Rangers.

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As I've said before, I think a lot of it is how the lower tier teams set up against us, and we while we have the quality to win the vast majority of the time, we don't have enough not to have to graft for it.

 

I thought moving to the current league would make a difference and teams would fancy their chances more rather than stifling the game to avoid a humiliation but even the likes of Hearts killed the game after they scored and they were a higher level where our players didn't have many clues how to crack the wall. Yet, they still managed to graft for it for the equaliser and then immediately switched off, which might be a lack of experience at that level.

 

I think Clyde were different as Bazza probably primed them to play some football and we see how poor that made them, with our players enjoying the freedom to play it offered. Similar thing with Dumbarton. However, all that's done is show the smaller clubs which tactics work best, even if you're unlikely to get a result.

 

What other explanation is there for the same players having a couple of good games and then one that's less so? What did Ally do wrong this time when he was obviously after a repeat? You can't blame the line-up as it didn't change much and I doubt he kept the same side and then radically changed the tactics - or the training...

 

For me, as I've said before, while Ally can get his sides to win, he doesn't seem have the invention of new ideas that are needed to not only beat these sides but to do it more fluidly and more convincingly on a weekly basis. Although, to be fair to him, I doubt there are more than a few managers that do, and certainly almost unicorn-like for our chances of employing one.

 

I do expect some better games in the first half of the season due to some of the Championship sides trying to play us but I expect it will deteriorate in the second half if that mostly doesn't work for them.

 

I still think people are doing "pointless comarisons" with Rangers sides that had top class players, which make the huge difference. Second-class players have always brought us second class football in my lifetime, be-it Greig, Wallace (II), Eck (laterly), Le Guen or Smith (II). Even our world 11's that we've seen struggled to produce free flowing football a lot of the time under Souness, Smith (I) and Advocaat with two of them having seasons where even the results were well below our expectations from our financial advantage.

 

I now expect (and hope) us to rise up a gear in the cups against S.Prem sides like ICT due to our experienced signings and our players getting used to playing at a slightly higher level, but still suspect such games will be frantic. Ally desperately needs a top tier scalp right now, as his record against them in the cups is not good.

Re the 'pointless comparisons', people were criticising Rangers for having an ugly style of football before Ally McCoist carried on from where Walter Smith left off.

 

It's nothing new.

 

People are sick and tired of Rangers' well-paid, supposedly highly-trained professionals playing a brand of football that leads to thousands of fans spending more time on their smartphones than actually observing the game.

 

Some have chucked it while others spend their time at the match conveniently distracted or counting down until they can disappear to the pub.

 

The only way to make Rangers watchable again is to bring in enlightened management. Until we do that, the club will be avoided by thousands of fans until the temptation to return fades and dies and then they will lose interest completely.

 

Rangers needs to be all it can be just to get by nowadays. It is a long way short of doing that.

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Of course.

 

Did you think that everyone would just take up knitting or golf to while away the hours and hours that they spent watching Rangers each week?

 

No. I thought they might pick up the cues from your friends that keep telling us Scottish football is dead and that we should go to England and watch a decent game.

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His record against lower tier teams in cups is hardly what could be called satisfactory either is it?

 

But probably not as bad as you might think.

 

2011: W1 L1

2012: W6 L1, on penalties plus beat Forres and Motherwell, lost to DU.

2013: W8 L2, one in extra time. Plus drew with 1 and lost to DU. Couldn't play a large bunch new players for one loss so got to be some mitigation there - especially considering the team's results record after that.

2014: W3 L0

 

So 18:4, 82% win rate. Nothing special but neither a complete disaster considering the circumstances during his tenure.

 

20% win rate against S.Prem sides is not very good even with the circumstances.

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But probably not as bad as you might think.

 

2011: W1 L1

2012: W6 L1, on penalties plus beat Forres and Motherwell, lost to DU.

2013: W8 L2, one in extra time. Plus drew with 1 and lost to DU. Couldn't play a large bunch new players for one loss so got to be some mitigation there - especially considering the team's results record after that.

2014: W3 L0

 

So 18:4, 82% win rate. Nothing special but neither a complete disaster considering the circumstances during his tenure.

 

20% win rate against S.Prem sides is not very good even with the circumstances.

 

I've witnessed every single minute of our cup games under McCoist from Malmo to Airdrie and all I've seen is failure after failure after failure and there isn't enough mitigation on the planet to mitigate that.

 

The only win rate stat that counts is Cup competitions completed 11, won 0%.

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