TRO: Rangers' solid foundations undermined by predictability

[aweebluesoandso 290]

43 minutes ago, pete said:

I am not 100% behind you on Morelos out of form. If it was not for Morelos we would not have been near Motherwell in the second half. He was starved in the first half and was the catalyst to our better performance in the second half.

Yip, i should have said he's not scoring because i believe he's not getting the service he was, for whatever reason? But my main point was to highlight what i feel is the reasons behind his misfiring, my trouble is i always go for the shorter version or long story cut short of my reasoning lol.

Edited April 3, 2018 by aweebluesoandso

[der Berliner 3,744]

Man management hasn't been great, IMHO. At least with regards to the attacking department.

 

Morelos has effectively played football ever since January 28th 2017, with very little lay-off time. We bring in Cummings and he hardly ever plays. We know that at Hibs he played behind / next to another striker. How often have we seen Cummings next to Morelos, or, heretic as it may sound, Herrera? Yes, Morelos is our best bet, but we should sure have given him the odd rest ... for we needed him sharp and ready for the run-in. Him being "off the boil" (by his standards) since the turn of the year was sure a factor in not getting as many goals as we might have.

 

I could start about Windass, but that has been done to death. Same goes for the one-striker line-up. Neither seems to work, at least not each and every week against every side. In stubborn MW-style, Murty persists with Plan A though.

 

Defence ... honestly, Bates is a solid Scottish centre-half and gets great tackles in. But he ain't much more. His passing and long-ball ability is average at best (and cause us much bother, as 8 out of 10 balls up front came straight back at us. I went mad when all of our MFs and defenders time and again picked him out to provide a spark of creativity ... i.e. blasting the ball up front.). I didn't see much in Martin either, i.e. him being a solid Scottish defender, but that's that. Imposing? Dominating strikers? Passing range? Sorry, not for me.

I know that for some reason, Cardoso seems to be a whipping boy for many, but I can't really remember that he did much wrong. In fact, him and McCrorie (polar-opposit in football-ability to both Martin and Bates, IMHO) would have been my future central defence before Bowman happened on Cardoso and McCrorie was floored. Neither will be perfect footballers that don't concede any goals (and I am always baffled when players talk about "better" defenders ... without ever naming one who never ever concedes goals ... and bad goals), but they look talented and good. Not least if protected by capable people like Jack. Maybe Bates can join them, as you simply need a solid chap more than someone skilled in long pases et al. But having Bates and Martin with no real protection and someone demanding the ball in the middle of the park rather than giving it to our centre-halfs for creativity sure cost us. But that's just one factor and as I said above, not the most important one.