Match Thread [FT] Rangers 3 (Hagi 7'; Propper 66'; Danilo 81') - 0 Celtic

[BlackSocksRedTops 3,864]

1 hour ago, alexscottislegend said:

Now Butland out. Why are we having so many injuries compared to them? Anything to do with training methods?

I'm no sports scientist but I feel that the nature of our games doesn't help. So many of our games are tight and tense, with one or two goals in them until the final whistle. That means we are usually going at it for 90 minutes whereas that lot put teams away early allowing them to control games and deflate the oppositions desire. It also allows them to rotate and rest players,with ease. We usually rotate/change players with something on the line or when we are chasing a game. 

[Fa1833 247]

Why doesn't Uk football teams adopt

a similar approach like the Spanish La Liga in terms of taking time off over the festive periods? As clearly the players look demotivated with spending time away from loved ones in this period and

Come back feeling refreshed etc, All this busy schedule isn't good for anyone never mind the game after game we all have been having lately. Not to mention the busy fixtures in January today's game on the 2nd,  5th, 9th,  12th, 15th. Then back to the 26th for the next match yes there is the January transfer window but even so that's not an excuse to have a lull for 11 days surely that can be spread throughout the month as the players aren't involved in the transfers unless they are being sold on etc.

 major shake-up needs to be addressed in these situations? or am I just wanting to take my mind of the task at hand today with the amount of injuries we have 🧐

[CammyF 8,544]

2 hours ago, Rousseau said:

Excluding the League Cup, and a rough tally:

 

Total	played	pts	ppg
with Dessers	17	30	1.76
without Dessers	8	17	2.13

So quite hard to determine as twice as many games with Dessers. Is this games where Dessers started? Came on as a sub? Or both? 

 

Worth noting, we got to the final of the league cup, Dessers played (and scored IIRC) in every round with the exception of the final.

 

We must be the only fans who'll talk down having the leagues top scorer (in past 12 months). If only we had another 2 or 3 players on that list, we'd be far more competitive.

[CammyF 8,544]

26 minutes ago, BlackSocksRedTops said:

I'm no sports scientist but I feel that the nature of our games doesn't help. So many of our games are tight and tense, with one or two goals in them until the final whistle. That means we are usually going at it for 90 minutes whereas that lot put teams away early allowing them to control games and deflate the oppositions desire. It also allows them to rotate and rest players,with ease. We usually rotate/change players with something on the line or when we are chasing a game. 

Interestingly Clement mentioned this when he first signed. He said we needed players who could play 90mins, three times a week. He mentioned a perceived lack of fitness and had a dig at Beale's "pre-season" and how this was behind the amount of injuries. He said that it would be one of the 1st things he'd address.

 

Recently Clement has said the exact opposite in that no player can be expected to play this amount of minutes / games.

 

Is Clement being driven by and over relying on the sport science team? Our fitness and injuries haven't got any better under Clement (could be argued they have gotten worse) and the length of absence even for a "small knock" appears to be weeks rather than days. 

 

 

[Fa1833 247]

1 minute ago, CammyF said:

Interestingly Clement mentioned this when he first signed. He said we needed players who could play 90mins, three times a week. He mentioned a perceived lack of fitness and had a dig at Beale's "pre-season" and how this was behind the amount of injuries. He said that it would be one of the 1st things he'd address.

 

Recently Clement has said the exact opposite in that no player can be expected to play this amount of minutes / games.

 

Is Clement being driven by and over relying on the sport science team? Our fitness and injuries haven't got any better under Clement (could be argued they have gotten worse) and the length of absence even for a "small knock" appears to be weeks rather than days. 

 

 

I was listening to the last game and I think it was Derek Ferguson was saying about sports science as you mentioned and he  said regardless of the science when a player is being rested etc or only coming on for xyz amount of minutes to aid their recovery/fitness surely as a player who loves playing football that in its self is demotivating to say the least. Fair enough if its a long injury setback but these minor knocks are clearly being put in the hands of the scientists who have no clue about football. 

[DMAA 3,667]

1 hour ago, ranger_syntax said:

Maybe the players are injured because they have chucked it.

Well that doesn’t apply to Butland anyway

[der Berliner 3,866]

2 hours ago, Rousseau said:

I disagree.

 

I don't think 13 league goals conceded is anything to worry about. 

 

The thing making it an issue is we can't score. 

 

(We still need defensive cover: we're down to bare bones.)

I see people time and again going after Dessers, or before that Colak etc.. For they are no (half-season) Negri or (at his prime) Morelos. But our centre-forward isn't the problem, and never has been since our return.

 

Dessers, this season, stands at 29 games (subs incl.), 12 goals and 4 assists. Last season: 54 games, 22 goals, 9 assists. While we swoon over Igamane's run (20 games, 8 goals, 2 assists), Desser's form is that of your normal Rangers striker.

 

NIAR 1 Top-scorers (62-26 goals, 56 points)

Drinkell 12

McCoist 9

Walters 8

 

NIAR 6 (74-41, 59)

Hateley 22

Durie 12

McCoist 7

 

NIAR 8 (85-25, 87)

Durie 17

McCoist 16

Gascoigne 14

 

What we see is, time and again, that the workload of two strikers is being shifted on the head of one, against even more tight defences than back in the day of NIAR. And we simply do not have the people who carry the workload of ... the second striker plus the two wingers. Worse still, since we deploy two 6s, we have even less goal-scoring potential on the park. It was obvious during Warburton, it was obvious ever since, and no new player quality (in our sphere of economical interest) will be able to change the status quo in Scotland. See Sima or Silva.

 

I fear that PC will chuck the 2-striker variant today again, i.e. not Igamane AND Danilo, but Cerny and Bajrami, plus a light-weight midfield too busy to play the ball around.

 

You just hope that no matter what, Kelly (whom I hold in high regard) will not play to his fellow defenders but always up the park, no matter where, essentially. I might be tempted to play King too, to stand robustly on their attackers toes before they enter the danger zone.

[compo 7,294]

Talking to one of the family recently retired from police Scotland and he’s telling me officers are visiting known Rangers pubs looking for the Ned’s who’s pictures were in a recent newspaper I would imagine they might have better things to be getting on with .

[der Berliner 3,866]

Not that I expected anything different from PC. Our wingbacks are probably the most light-weight in years ...

 

Kelly

 

Ridvan - Sterling - Pröpper - Jefte

 

Diomande - Raskin (C.)

 

Cerny - Bajrami - Hagi

 

Igamane

 

Subs: Munn - Cortes, Barron, Dessers, Matondo, Dowell, King, Fraser, Danilo

 

 

[Rousseau 10,896]

Over the last month (since Dessers has been dropped) we've had 7 different scorers. 

 

Over the month of November (when Dessers was always playing) we had 3 different scorers.  

 

You have to cover August - November to get 6+ different scorers when Dessers plays. 

 

We just seem like a better team when he doesn't play.