Why Rangers should close the gap without spending heavily

[limeburner 0]

33 points is misleading. Although we are certainly under-performing, they are having an exceptional season. Walter Smiths (2nd spell) best points tally was 93 points, but included 3 draws and 5 defeats. They would need to lose 5 and draw 1 in their remaining 9 games to come up short of that.

8 points behind aberdeen,would you say this fact is also misleading?

[Oleg_Mcnoleg 50]

If you can't answer the question then fair enough.

Are you complaining we're unlikely to spend millions we don't have to close the gap a bit? After what we've been through?

Edited March 25, 2017 by Oleg_Mcnoleg

[Rousseau 10,640]

8 points behind aberdeen,would you say this fact is also misleading?

 

No, that's unacceptable. That's the figure we should be using to criticise the teams performance thus far.

[Gribz 850]

We are a newly promoted team who have obviously had off the park issues. 8 points behind Aberdeen only hit during a barring run of 4 bad games which saw the end for Warburton. I dont think we are 8 point worse than Aberdeen level wise - they have hit form.

 

To qualify for Europe in our first top flight campaign in 5 years is an achievement when changing manager.

 

People need to reflect back to 2, 3, 4 years ago when we are away to East Fife and Cowdenbeath. Lets steady the ship first. Aberdeen have a habit of finishing second at the moment, thats their goal by beating the rest of the league - we need to get back to doing that. Inverness and Dundee away have made us slip up but 8 points is only 3 games and we have Aberdeen twice.

[les186 271]

IF we beat Aberdeen twice and Hearts and perhaps reach the Scottish Cup Final, then I would say we are closing the gap.

Edited March 25, 2017 by les186

[boabie 230]

IF we beat Aberdeen twice and Hearts and perhaps reach the Scottish Cup Final, then I would say we are closing the gap.

 

Imo Les it'll take signing a minimum of 4 decent players before we begin to really close any gap between us and the manks. Yes, we'll gain the odd success or count ourselves unlucky at times but there is definitely a gap.

Between us and the rest I'd say there is no gap. We committed suicide all by ourselves and allowed the sheep to benefit. Guys playing at 50% and others fannying about cost us dearly in a few matches. Injuries didn't help. Neither did a manager who either couldn't give a monkeys or had lost total interest. Hopefully that will get addressed over the rest of this season.

[Gaffer 1,665]

In football there are very fine margins between winning, drawing and losing. Our team doesn't have to perform much better to turn some of those losses into draws, and draws into wins, but it does require a consistency and that's our problem.

 

We can beat Celtic, Aberdeen and Hearts when we're playing well. We certainly already have a first eleven that can do that but we now need to turn that into a consistent habit. There's a winning mentality that's missing and that in itself can help grind out points even when we're not playing well. The problem we had this season was that our players did not have that, and even now there are some that don't display that mentality when the going gets tough. That mentality can be developed and one of the best ways to build it is to have the confidence (and arrogance to some degree) that we will win games. That's the manager's job and although I really liked MW (notwithstanding his attitude towards the end), he just didn't seem able to build the mental toughness of our team. Murty may not have had the philosophical brain and vision that MW had, but he definitely knew how to motivate the team and make them believe they are winners. This was so evident when the players took to the field against Celtic. I'm sure many of us could tell we were up for it before a ball was kicked. I'm sure :their: players also knew we were up for it. There's something in the body language that says "we are here to win" and I'm delighted to see that back in the team. There's also something very intimidating about it for the opposition and we can start to use that to our advantage.

 

When PC talks about aggression at certain stages of the game, he's not only talking about a desire to get into the right spaces, or the desire to make risky and direct passes, he means the team needs to mentally destabilise the opposition by demoralising them. A large part of the philosophy is about quickly turning a defensive situation into an attacking one and thereby causing the opponents to think twice about committing for the fear of the consequences of a counter attack. I'm sure our players will understand that because that's exactly how we've felt for most of this season. You could see the fear in our players' body language even when we were attacking because they knew we were vulnerable if we lost the ball. That's why this season our players have made fewer risky passes in the final third (for fear of consequences) and hence our attacking style has become ineffective. With PC's philosophy we will be making more direct runs, passes and shots. This will ultimately mean we lose possession more often than before because of the increased risk, but the team will look upon those moments as moments of opportunity rather than moments to fear, and that's the difference. If we can build a team full of confidence and absent of fear, regardless of the situation, we have a winning mentality.

 

So it's over to PC now to see if he can turn a smart philosophy into an attractive style of football, but perhaps more importantly, a winning mentality. If he does that, he can transform a team of decent players into a team capable of a challenge. And if he can also add a few more quality players into the mix we could very well be in for an exciting time next season.

 

Depending on how quickly he can make significant changes, we could even have an exciting end to this one too.

 

[Ser Barristan Selmy 222]

33 points is misleading. Although we are certainly under-performing, they are having an exceptional season. Walter Smiths (2nd spell) best points tally was 93 points, but included 3 draws and 5 defeats. They would need to lose 5 and draw 1 in their remaining 9 games to come up short of that.

It's not misleading.

[Ser Barristan Selmy 222]

See Barristan Selmy: You said you don't visit the forums much. May I suggest that you do, because somewhere along the line you've built up a level of negativity that's unhealthy and it would be good for you to spend some time among friends that can help.

 

There's no doubt we have underperformed. Off the pitch, our troubles have resulted in us operating in a different financial league to :them: and it'll take some time before that's properly addressed but I'm sure you can see we are on a road to recovery. If you don't, arrange to come back for another session to the forums and I'll be happy to help you see the light. On the field, our playing squad is underperforming. That's partly down to the lack of funds to invest in players, but also because the previous manager could not find a way to get the best out of what we've got.

 

You mentioned the long line of illustrious keepers, and when I read that I instantly recall the likes of Goram, Klos, Woods, etc. The problem is that we are not in that position any more. We were once in a position where we could compete with the richest clubs in the world for the best talent but we're not now, and my diagnosis of your negativity tells me that this is the root cause. You're living in the past, but a large dose of reality each day will help and if you come back here for at least 3 days a week I (and perhaps others) will be happy to administer it.

 

We are Rangers, but our club has changed and so has the footballing world around us. It's either a time to throw in the towel or be excited at the prospect of rebuilding something exciting. Try it.

With the greatest of respect, I saw you recently talking up Scottish football as a viable alternative to the English Premier League for a prospective DOF. You can choose to live in an idealistic bubble, but I'll choose to live in the real world.

 

We are garbage just now and there's little to be positive about. This is the worst Rangers side I have ever seen aside from Ally's donkeys and no reasonably minded person could argue otherwise. Life is a cycle of swings and roundabouts though, so I've no doubt at some point things will change again and we'll be the ones in the ascendancy. I don't see any plan in place for this to happen, but it will at some point.

[Gribz 850]

.Life is a cycle of swings and roundabouts though, so I've no doubt at some point things will change again and we'll be the ones in the ascendancy. I don't see any plan in place for this to happen, but it will at some point.

 

Thats all I can agree with you. Rangers 80s awful. Celtic 90s awful. 2000s even. 2010s Rangers awful. Who is to say in 10 years it wont be Celtics turn again to be in the dire.

 

However where I disagree with you is the comeback approach we need to take. We cant automatically become No.1 overnight again. With the money Sky pump into England even the best Rangers sides would struggle to compete. Rome wasnt built in a day as they say so we have to take one step at a time. I go back to not getting promotion under McCoist in the Championship - a disaster but a blessing - we weren't ready. To give Warburton credit he came in and sorted out the footballing side and this is our first season back. This side has never played top flight football before so it will take a year to steady. Next year is when we can add judgments like yours.