Gribz 914 Posted May 28, 2015 Share Posted May 28, 2015 Stuart McCall admitted Rangers have to score first in Sunday's Premiership play-off second leg at Fir Park. Rangers went down 3-1 at home to Motherwell at Ibrox, but Darren McGregor's late header gives them a lifeline, with the away goals rule not in effect over the two legs. Lee Erwin, Stephen McManus and Lionel Ainsworth all put Ian Baraclough's men in control of the tie. "We'll still have belief going there," McCall told BBC Scotland. Rangers had defeated Queen of the South and Hibernian in the previous play-off rounds, but were caught out on the counter-attack time and again at a sold-out Ibrox. In a late flurry of pressure McGregor scored and Motherwell goalkeeper George Long saved well from Kris Boyd. "In possession of the ball that's as poor as we've been since I've been at the club," said McCall. "We're better than that. We didn't create enough until late on in the game. "We'll look to what happened last season with Hibs going to Hamilton and wining 2-0 and we've got to look to go to Fir Park and get the first goal. Everyone will write us off and probably rightly so, but we'll go there and think 'lets get that first goal.' "There were just too many players who didn't perform as they have been doing of late. As poor as we were tonight hopefully we can be as good as Motherwell - that was probably as well as they've played for a long time, certainly away from home." McCall said he has a number of players struggling for fitness for Sunday but would not reveal who, however defender McGregor will be suspended for the return. "I'm sure we'll have lots of changes," said the manager. "We've got a lot of people in there who are injured, so it'll give other people a chance So make a number of changes for the weekend then! Id rather see an attacking team with plenty changes and have a right go and not go up and play the same team. The only good thing is he cant play 5 at the back on Sunday, he HAS to go for it. Must be 4-3-3 for me. 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest DublinBear Posted May 29, 2015 Share Posted May 29, 2015 Hardie has to start , pair him with Jig upfront Drop Miller, Shiels and put Walsh and Moshni in midfield and Smith to replace Darren Put Galagher on the bench 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
der Berliner 3,803 Posted May 29, 2015 Share Posted May 29, 2015 Kudos to him for not bringing the amount of games played into him, as people would hare after him with the "excuse club". But at the end of the day, it is a factor. Playing 4 demanding games in 11 games takes its toll, and if you end up chasing a game at half-time, the strain will become even greater. Too much for those out there yesterday anyway. 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ser Barristan Selmy 222 Posted May 29, 2015 Share Posted May 29, 2015 The fact of the matter is we have won only 7 out of 16 matches under McCall. He is useless and so are the players. 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anchorman 0 Posted May 29, 2015 Share Posted May 29, 2015 The fact of the matter is we have won only 7 out of 16 matches under McCall. He is useless and so are the players. Really? That is a damning statistic actually. 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
craig 5,199 Posted May 29, 2015 Share Posted May 29, 2015 The fact of the matter is we have won only 7 out of 16 matches under McCall. He is useless and so are the players. The stats don't lie I guess. But I will still cut him some slack as he inherited this bunch from his predecessor. The two things that simply MUST be corrected post haste is the managerial position and proper scouting. 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
gisabeer 409 Posted May 30, 2015 Share Posted May 30, 2015 The McCoist legacy is dragging everyone down that comes into contact with Rangers. For what its worth i dont want McCall as manager. I dont like his tactics nor decision making but i dont blame him for the mess were in. Paul daniels would struggle to work any magic with this lot. We have have a squad of misfits who, no matter what combination you put them in, fail for the most part to function properly as a team. McCall was on a hiding to nothing when he took the job over. Its proving to be the case. 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tannochsidebear 2,429 Posted May 30, 2015 Share Posted May 30, 2015 Really? That is a damning statistic actually. 7 wins, 6 draws, and 3 defeats, including 2 in the play offs which are all must wins. Most bears would forgive McCall the two draws in the first few days of his tenure when he didnt really have any time to get his focus onto the players, but there have been too many disappointing performances like QotS (0-3), Falkirk at ibrox, QotS (2nd leg), Hibs (2nd Leg), Motherwell, and even some of the games we won under McCall have been poor performances. There have been some really good performances as well like the league victories over Hearts & Hibs, and the play off wins against QotS & Hibs, so we can see it can be done, but he clearly cannot get any consistency out of this lot. His substitutions have been borderline criminal (never more outrageous than when letting Hearts back into the game at Tynecastle), and his continual playing of Jig (even if he has dropped him a couple of times) shows he cannot make the big tough calls when he had to. Jig should have been dropped on day 1, and if he didn't see that then his red card at Ibrox v Hearts should have been his last action in a Rangers shirt. That McCall played him at all since then is enough to show me he is not good enough. His recall of Foster into the side, and playing Stevie Smith in midfield are all really strange decisions that I dont believe a good manager would make. He had the guts to bring in Hardie, who had two good games before being dropped for no reason to bring the wage thief Miller back into the team to run about like a headless chicken and giving the ball away with almost every touch. It seems that for every good decision McCall has made (revitalised Shiels, played Murdoch instead of Black, introduced Walsh & Hardie, Crawford at full back), there has been two bad decisions. it is that inconsistency of selection and tactical awareness that has ultimately cost us. Talk of 5 games in 15 days could have been avoided by winning our last 3 league games and clinching a valuable week off but we couldn't even do that, despite being in a winning position each time before our poor subs cost us momentum and points. 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zappa 0 Posted May 30, 2015 Share Posted May 30, 2015 I posted this in the other thread, but since you're talking about the managerial stats in here too it's quite interesting to look at them like this: McCoist: WLWWWWWWWDWLWWWWWWWWDLWLWLW McDowall: LWWLLLWDDD McCall: DDWWWLWDWDDWDWLL 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rousseau 10,812 Posted May 30, 2015 Share Posted May 30, 2015 I'll repeat my points: McCoist has a better Win-rate, and joint-best loss-rate, but the performance on the park was poor; McDowall has the worst of all, but he did come up against the 'better' sides; McCall has an average win-rate, but joint-best loss-rate, and the performance is better. McCall has actually done better against the 'better' sides. I think it illustrates that they all have a similar record, if you extrapolate a full season. One's opinion of whom is best just depends on a subjective judgement on the performance on the park. 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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