match thread (image) [FT] Ufa 1 - 1 Rangers (Ejaria 9)

[pete 2,499]

UFA v Rangers

 

One of the biggest talking points of the last while is whether the Russians fixed the American elections or not. Did Putin play his Trump card you could ask? Well if they can put that kind of influence into the American presidential election then getting to a Polish referee would not be too big a problem for them. Now I am not going to say the Polish referee had been paid by the Russians but his leniency to UFA's constant fouling and his blindness at two stonewall penalties definitely casts a shadow of doubt at his standard of refereeing. Lets hope his poor refereeing has no negative influence in the outcome of the tie.

 

Tomorrow we play the return leg in the far outback of Ufa in Russia. We will have to tend with the time difference of four hours so the game will be played at 3pm GMT so most people will have to take a few hours off work if they want to watch it.

 

We take a 1-0 lead with us after the first leg at Ibrox which means if we can get a goal the Russians will need to score three to advance to the next stage. Judging on their performance at Ibrox then it would seem unlikely they can do that. Complacency is of course the kiss of death as we found out last season in Luxembourg. It certainly made us play well below our capabilities against Progres Niederkorn. Stevie Gerrard will have to get that drilled into the team. Our second-half performance against Motherwell on Sunday was certainly not a performance that would breed complacency right enough. It was a very flat performance to say the very least. We have not seen anything as poor as that from this Steven Gerrard team until now so lets hope it was just a little blip.

 

One of the positives from the Motherwell game was the instant Man of the Match display by big Kyle Lafferty. He certainly looks a completely different player to the one that walked away in 2012. When we were actually playing football in the first half he was a huge thorn in the Motherwell defence. He did make his return debut in the first leg where he was on for about a minute before receiving a yellow card. If the referee was so quick to produce a yellow to the UFA players then we may have got a game without the constant fouling.

 

What can we expect from this UFA team? I really don't think they will start much different than they did at Ibrox. I think they will try and keep it tight and try and get the goal on the break to level the tie . I think trying not to lose a goal will play more on their minds than opening up and playing more attacking. I think they will hope we walk on to their sword so to speak.

 

I do think Rangers will come out and try to dominate the game. We all saw on Sunday that sitting defending our own eighteen yard box is not our strong point and we have shown that on a few occasions this season. The big question is how will steven Gerrard set up the team. Will he go for the 3-5-2 that we played on Sunday or will he revert back to his tried and trusted 4-5-1. Personally I think the latter as he will be trying to keep the defence as tight as possible.

 

I think the starting team will be if Coulibaly is not deemed fit enough :

 

McGregor

Tavernier Goldson Kadic Flanagan

Jack Ejaria

Candeias Arfield kent

Morelos

I certainly hope that with the return of Candeias that Tavernier is more alert in doing his defensive duties as he cost us two goals on Saturday. Big Kyle will appear at some point but that will depend on the score if we need to go for two up top or give Morelos a rest for Saturday

I think we will run out 2-1 winners.

The referee is:     Tobias Stieler (GER)

 

Lets hope the Russians have don't have him running for president.

 

Assistant referees

Mike Pickel (GER)

Christian Gittelmann (GER)

Fourth official

Patrick Ittrich (GER)

[MacK1950 2,378]

Good post but worry about left hand side of team due to Flanagan's lack of left foot ability and Kent consistently losing ball otherwise have good hope for result.

[BlackSocksRedTops 3,752]

Good preview Pete. I would prefer to have Ejaria closer to the front player(s) than having him alongside Jack in the middle. He has trickery, pace and quick feet and could do more damage further up the pitch IMO.

[compo 7,044]

Our manager is steeped in the Liverpool traditions so let's play like the reds of the 70s soak up the pressure and hit them on the break .

[BlackSocksRedTops 3,752]

3 minutes ago, compo said:

Our manager is steeped in the Liverpool traditions so let's play like the reds of the 70s soak up the pressure and hit them on the break .

That can't be replicated due to the back pass rule. The Liverpool team of the 70's and 80's were masters of killing time away from home with back passes to the keeper.

[compo 7,044]

8 minutes ago, BlackSocksRedTops said:

That can't be replicated due to the back pass rule. The Liverpool team of the 70's and 80's were masters of killing time away from home with back passes to the keeper.

Goalkeeper doesn't have to handle the ball he can use his feet and his brain .

[buster. 5,196]

This is going to be first and foremost about a much more compact defence than we saw at Motherwell,....as per previous EL away games this season.....0-0, 0-1, 0-0 respectively.....The one goal thus far came from a set-piece, leading to a Morelos goal.

 

What was apparent at Motherwell is the team looked jaded in the second half. I wonder if it would have been better to go in at HT level, pposed to 2-3 up. We didn't show much ambition for a 4th goal and it was too long to hang-on.

 

Wrt this European game, it's worrying if the team is getting leggy and more prone to mistakes. Keeping a clean sheet is about concentration, organisation  and wee bit of luck. I have a feeling we won't be able to keep them out this time and that we're going to have to score if we want to go through.

 

 

ps. Clinton lost becaue she ran a bad campaign and the DNC got caught at trying to fix a vote. We shouldn't think of doing a 'Clinton' and try and deflect to shift blame. We need to look to perform on the day and do another professional EL job......

 

Edited August 29, 2018 by buster.

[26th of foot 6,082]

Is it too much to hope Herr Stieler's grandfather suffered the horrors of the cauldron in Stalingrad during the winter of '42/43?

 

Surely, he must carry a grievance that ensures he penalises the Russians for constant foul-throws? Sending one or two of them off, in the tunnel would be a nice help too.

 

We can only hope.  

[BlackSocksRedTops 3,752]

16 minutes ago, compo said:

Goalkeeper doesn't have to handle the ball he can use his feet and his brain .

The ball has to keep the ball moving though and that can cause problems. Look at Loris in the the WC final. Back in the day the keeper could hold it for a time, drop it and slow the whole game down. Removing this has been one of the best changes in football over the last 20 years

[Uilleam 5,940]

48 minutes ago, buster. said:

This is going to be first and foremost about a much more compact defence than we saw at Motherwell,....as per previous EL away games this season.....0-0, 0-1, 0-0 respectively.....The one goal thus far came from a set-piece, leading to a Morelos goal.

 

What was apparent at Motherwell is the team looked jaded in the second half. I wonder if it would have been better to go in at HT level, pposed to 2-3 up. We didn't show much ambition for a 4th goal and it was too long to hang-on.

 

Wrt this European game, it's worrying if the team is getting leggy and more prone to mistakes. Keeping a clean sheet is about concentration, organisation  and wee bit of luck. I have a feeling we won't be able to keep them out this time and that we're going to have to score if we want to go through.

 

 

ps. Clinton lost becaue she ran a bad campaign and the DNC got caught at trying to fix a vote. We shouldn't think of doing a 'Clinton' and try and deflect to shift blame. We need to look to perform on the day and do another professional EL job......

 

Clinton garnered the greater share of the popular vote, but did not get the result. We certainly do not want to emulate that by putting in good performance, attracting plaudits, but achieving a poor outcome.