Gribz 829 Posted December 25, 2016 Share Posted December 25, 2016 This was always a worry with only having 3 full backs with all 3 playing in the same team. If Wallace misses the games this week then it will likely mean Hodson to LB and Tav back at RB. Couldn't see MW going 3 at the back. Rangers face an anxious wait to see if captain Lee Wallace will be fit for Friday's Old Firm derby after suffering a leg injury in the win over Inverness. The left-back looked in pain as he received treatment 10 minutes from the end of Saturday's 1-0 victory at Ibrox. With Rangers having used their three substitutions, Wallace played on to the final whistle. "We have to see how he is. We thought it was an impact injury from the corner," said manager Mark Warburton. "He got a bang going for the ball. We will see how he presents later on this evening but hopefully it's nothing too serious." Rangers face St Johnstone in Perth on Wednesday, 28 December, before welcoming Celtic to Govan for the first time in four years on New Year's Eve. http://www.bbc.com/sport/football/38428288 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
der Berliner 3,716 Posted December 25, 2016 Share Posted December 25, 2016 (edited) MW said after the game that they thought it was more cramp than anything, but will have him checked over the next few days. The rest is conjecture. We do have cover with Hodson, who has played there before and done well. Likewise, Tav was rather anonymous in midfield yesterday, despite his workrate. You wonder whether we'll give the 3-at-the-back idea some thought against the Scum. If Walace stays out, we'll have Tav back at RB and Hodson on the left (worked before). That would be Kiernan's robustness, Hill organisation from the back and Wilson's passing, plus we'd have enough cover should our fullbacks go forward. Likewise, Wilson could move forward every now and then, Mohsni like ( :devil: ). We do need more than workrate in midfield and IMHO, Holt and McKay offer too little physical presence, so make that Miller and Waghorn, with Gardner up front to be his usual self ... 5-1-3-1 easily becoming a 3-5-2 or 3-4-3 Foderingham Tavernier - Kiernan - Hill - Wilson - Hodson Halliday Waghorn - Miller - Forrester Garner ... with Forrester and Miller the creative chaps in front of Halliday (and Wilson), while Wagorn and Garner staying up front. Edited December 25, 2016 by der Berliner 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
aweebluesoandso 290 Posted December 25, 2016 Share Posted December 25, 2016 Should not have played on after the first issue when he went down, big big loss if he's missing on Saturday. 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
pete 2,499 Posted December 25, 2016 Share Posted December 25, 2016 Should not have played on after the first issue when he went down, big big loss if he's missing on Saturday. I doubt it would have made any difference as he never moved much so I doubt he irritated the injury anymore. What he did do was make sure a defender had to keep an eye on him instead of having a free role. I would have done exactly the same and did do in the past. i would expect nothing less from a Rangers captain to be honest. 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
JFK-1 1,693 Posted December 25, 2016 Share Posted December 25, 2016 (edited) Might be the case that as captain he insisted he stay on since this thing was still finely balanced and we need the points to go into the break with a lead in second place. Win at St Johnstone then even if we lost at Ibrox next week we would still go into the break with a minimum 1 point lead taking into account the game in hand the sheep have. Hearts are falling out of contention and are going to be competing with St Johnstone for 4th. It's now in our interest for Hearts to take something from the sheep at Tynecastle on 30th December. Hearts might begin falling further out of contention since it appears to be the case that they may lose more than one key player in the January window while we will strengthen. Edited December 25, 2016 by JFK-1 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bearman 9 Posted December 25, 2016 Share Posted December 25, 2016 Looks to me like Wallace got a hamstring injury and those in charge never being in such a situation before asked him to stay on the park for whatever reason, maybe to guard the 3 points at that stage...weird one. Possibly if we had went down to 10 men the game could have been lost Warbs must have looked at that scenario and thought we cant take that chance. This is the problem we find ourselves in 2016. Shouldn't be a problem really. Teams going down to 10 men have always banded together, is our management crapping it when there's no need to? 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
barca72 440 Posted December 26, 2016 Share Posted December 26, 2016 I don't think we need to get over-excited about this. He never made any huge sprints up or down the park after he originally went down. He was used mainly as a zone-marking influence to protect the lead. There are enough instances to bash the management without being over-reaching. 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gribz 829 Posted December 26, 2016 Author Share Posted December 26, 2016 (edited) Foderingham Tavernier - Kiernan - Hill - Wilson - Hodson Halliday Waghorn - Miller - Forrester Garner ... with Forrester and Miller the creative chaps in front of Halliday (and Wilson), while Wagorn and Garner staying up front. For me that wouldn't give us enough in the final third, I think Dodoo would be better placed than Garner in that shape as you need your final 4 players to be mobile, fast and have that edge aka when we played Barca at Ibrox and Cousin was upfront on his own and was a complete handful. We have St Johnstone to take care of first but 3 points against them is as important as any as we look to cement 2nd place first. Therefore play Hodson and LB and Tav at RB in this game to get them back use to their surroundings in those positions. The system is creating 4 wins in a row so the personnel should come in rather than make formation changes. MW has good dilemma with who to play at CB now. For Perth on Wednesday Id go: Foderingham Tavernier Hill Wilson Hodson Halliday Waghorn Holt Forrester McKay Miller Edited December 26, 2016 by Gribz 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
SteveC 150 Posted December 26, 2016 Share Posted December 26, 2016 (edited) Looks to me like Wallace got a hamstring injury and those in charge never being in such a situation before asked him to stay on the park for whatever reason, maybe to guard the 3 points at that stage...weird one. Possibly if we had went down to 10 men the game could have been lost Warbs must have looked at that scenario and thought we cant take that chance. This is the problem we find ourselves in 2016. Shouldn't be a problem really. Teams going down to 10 men have always banded together, is our management crapping it when there's no need to? There was need to considering we we were lucky to be ahead with 11 v 11 and only just hung on with Wallace staying on for nuisance/tying up a man value. We were all crapping it in the closing minutes of the game. Edited December 26, 2016 by SteveC 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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