match thread (image) [FT] Rangers 0 - 1 Celtic

[cooponthewing 1,139]

4 hours ago, JohnMc said:

I accept we need to be careful of knee-jerk reactions fuelled by bitter disappointment, but football matches between evenly matched sides are won by small margins, and, in my opinion those are largely in mentality related. Personally I've not taken any positives from yesterday. 

Nice to read someone who is reassuring me that my sanity has not off the cliff? I thank you for making the point much more concisely than my John ?

[cooponthewing 1,139]

1 hour ago, craig said:

Are you really STILL saying Tav shit it ?  Even after Gerrard said that Morelos was designated penalty taker ?

Here is what is niggling me Craig. Tav spent this week telling us he had the greatest captain ever as manager. Well, if, and it's a huge IF, SG did nominate Alfie for pens, had it been SG in that situation he would have kept the ball, told Alfie he would deal with it and it would have been 1-1. He would have known had he missed it, it was his head for the chop but he wouldn't have missed.

Tav passed the buck. He was the captain, he was on the pitch, Alfie was missing everything and Tav, as Captain, and penalty taker bottled it. That's what happened. I watched him think about it then pass Alfie the ball. We are still missing that intangible something in belief and winners on the park. If folk don't want to agree with me fair enough. I'm too gutted to keep pushing the point.

[Walterbear 557]

3 hours ago, RANGERRAB said:

I’ve been disappointed with our management response to yesterday’s game. 

Can you imagine Lennon’s response if they’d lost to an offside goal, a penalty which should have been re-taken & denied at least one further penalty?

The harsh reality in Scottish football is that dignified silence gets you nowhere

With the YB game coming up then Motherwell and the nature of yesterday’s defeat I think their priorities need to be on resetting the players. I agree they need to do that at some point but it can wait. Just prior to the piggery game is the time to do it. 

[craig 5,199]

2 minutes ago, cooponthewing said:

Here is what is niggling me Craig. Tav spent this week telling us he had the greatest captain ever as manager. Well, if, and it's a huge IF, SG did nominate Alfie for pens, had it been SG in that situation he would have kept the ball, told Alfie he would deal with it and it would have been 1-1. He would have known had he missed it, it was his head for the chop but he wouldn't have missed.

Tav passed the buck. He was the captain, he was on the pitch, Alfie was missing everything and Tav, as Captain, and penalty taker bottled it. That's what happened. I watched him think about it then pass Alfie the ball. We are still missing that intangible something in belief and winners on the park. If folk don't want to agree with me fair enough. I'm too gutted to keep pushing the point.

So, let me get this right coop.

 

1.  You are questioning whether Gerrard is telling the truth ?  "If, and its a huge IF, SG nominated Alfie".

2.  You are suggesting that the captain of the team goes against the wishes of his manager

 

Yep, that makes perfect sense to go against the wishes of the manager.  A certain way to ensure that a tight-knit team remains tight knit is by going against the manager's express wishes and pissing off another team-mate at the same time.  Yep, makes perfect sense

 

I may be in the minority but it sure looks to me like you have found your scapegoat for yesterday's defeat - its a shame, particularly given Tavernier was one of our better players.  Even more of a shame given the person who actually DID miss the penalty was one who missed a number of chances during the game.  Personally, I wouldn't have ANY scapegoats as they all worked tirelessly for the cause.

[compo 7,048]

34 minutes ago, craig said:

So, let me get this right coop.

 

1.  You are questioning whether Gerrard is telling the truth ?  "If, and its a huge IF, SG nominated Alfie".

2.  You are suggesting that the captain of the team goes against the wishes of his manager

 

Yep, that makes perfect sense to go against the wishes of the manager.  A certain way to ensure that a tight-knit team remains tight knit is by going against the manager's express wishes and pissing off another team-mate at the same time.  Yep, makes perfect sense

 

I may be in the minority but it sure looks to me like you have found your scapegoat for yesterday's defeat - its a shame, particularly given Tavernier was one of our better players.  Even more of a shame given the person who actually DID miss the penalty was one who missed a number of chances during the game.  Personally, I wouldn't have ANY scapegoats as they all worked tirelessly for the cause.

Its all water under the bridge now lads 

[stewarty 2,027]

1 hour ago, Gonzo79 said:

To be fair, I though he was overrated last season and believe we paid far too much for him.  Nothing has changed on that front really.

 

On another note, I think the atmosphere at these matches has diminished over the years.  It felt quite flat yesterday and I was surrounded by blokes  who didn't join in with a single song but were quick to criticise players often enough.  I think some need to read the definition of 'support'.  

It was a strange atmosphere.   Their support was quiet until Eduoard came on and they sprung into life.. They quickly got the goal but even then didn't really make much noise until the last few minutes.

As for being critical of players... I was ready to launch for the guy behind me.  Constantly moaning, shouting and swearing at the slightest  thing that he perceived were failings by our players.  Sometimes we all agreed loudly, but the constant barrage of "awferfuxake.... [insert Tav, Goldson, Helander, Barisic, Kent, Arfield, Aribo, Kamara, Morelos]" was really grating on me from about 10 minutes in.  

 

[Scott7 6,011]

32 minutes ago, stewarty said:

awferfuxake.... [insert Tav, Goldson, Helander, Barisic, Kent, Arfield, Aribo, Kamara, Morelos

Or, Baxter, or Millar, or Wilson. Used to stand near you bloke’s  grandad. Been like that since time immemorial, I’m afraid. Clock him next time, stewarty. There’s not a jury in the land will convict you.

[Bill 13,717]

54 minutes ago, compo said:

Its all water under the bridge now lads 

Yup, that's the bottom line Compo. You can't build a time machine with all the whining in the world.

[JohnMc 2,754]

7 hours ago, buster. said:

Forget yesterday for a moment, positives are more evident in our situation as a whole.

 

We are taking incremental steps towards where we want to be and importantly have the right people in charge of the first team.

Generally, mentality  was good yesterday,  it was more an issue of definition and quality.

The main stumbling block remains finance.

 

 

I think we're a better squad than this time last year and light years from the year before that, so I agree about the situation as a whole. But we couldn't beat a poor Celtic side yesterday. That tells me we're still some way short of where we need to be.

[JohnMc 2,754]

7 hours ago, Rousseau said:

I think you make some good points. 

 

You may have a point about Tavernier, but I'm not willing to throw him under a bus quite yet; he's a good player, and has been a good servant.

 

I think you are mistaken about Aribo, though: he was never an Aluko-type player, which I mentioned at the time we signed him because people were thinking similarly, he's actually a box-to-box player, a destroyer-type that plays deeper, like Kamara. He's a good talent, with a big future, but he's not settled yet.

 

(Kent didn't do much, but I did say yesterday, there were 4-5 players around him every time he had the ball; that's not a bad thing.)

 

I think the obvious position to improve is Arfield's. If we can get that player you thought Aribo was into there, then we'd be vastly improved. 

You might be right about Aribo, I knew nothing about him before we signed him and made my assumption on the first couple of games I saw him play for us. I also agree that I don't think he's settled, some players take a few months to be fair. Had Davis been fit I wonder if Arfield or Aribo would have started, or if Kamara would have been on the bench.

We'll learn a lot about this squad in the next few weeks.