Match Thread [FT] Athletic Club 2 - 0 Rangers

[compo 7,873]

3 minutes ago, Rousseau said:

You fully expect to come up against good sides at this stage of the competition, but that's no excuse for the ultra-defensive approach from Barry in all his European games. Just defending and hoping for a lucky break is no way to approach any game at this level. GvB was poor overall, but we could play in Europe; Clement was poor, but we could play in Europe. This, to me, proves why Barry should be nowhere near the Rangers job. 

Jock Stein once said the worst ninety minutes he ever spent was the semifinal against Dunlap were he set up to defend a slender lead after that they just played their normal attacking game and it paid off no point in us defending when we can’t defend 

[Fa1833 352]

As tough as the decisions were on the two penalty appeals were, actions need to be taken to actually take into consideration of the player who feels he has been fouled or at least looked at by VAR, Especially with the amount of time they usually take up drawing there Picasso lines or looking into bad fouls. Let’s hope our next few games and the take over are positive results.NS 🔴⚪️🔵

[Rousseau 11,632]

I thought both decisions were correct.

[Graeme Ro55 1,034]

45 minutes ago, Rousseau said:

You fully expect to come up against good sides at this stage of the competition, but that's no excuse for the ultra-defensive approach from Barry in all his European games. Just defending and hoping for a lucky break is no way to approach any game at this level - and it didn't even work, as we were battered from the first minute. GvB was poor overall, but we could play in Europe; Clement was poor, but we could play in Europe. This, to me, proves why Barry should be nowhere near the Rangers job. 

For me the team has regressed massively in all competitions since Barry & co came in. Our new home loss record proves that too. 

[buster. 5,591]

Excellent European campaign but beaten by the better side last night.

 

Three more home games for Barry to try and register a home win.

 

[Uilleam 6,373]

39 minutes ago, Rousseau said:

I thought both decisions were correct.

And you have the xPen statistics to back this up, no doubt. 

[der Berliner 4,143]

Thankfully, I was enjoying the evening at the first of the final Best-of-Seven series for the German ice-hockey title and got home with happy memories.

 

Scanned the thread in here and over at FF and, given our state and the fact that we were never in with a chance, it is still amazing how decisions go against us in vital games and moments. Be it the League Cup Final, or yesterday's non-penalty. The German commentator of the highlights had a wee chuckle at the referee's ineptness.

 

Since I haven't seen much else, I spare any thoughts on selection and substitutions. Just one observation from previous games (and months). Jefte will probably make a decent left midfielder. Perhaps a decent defensive left midfielder. But I don't think he is made for the demands of Scottish football and, as much as I like him, should be an asset for the summer window. The complete opposite is Nsiala.

 

All that aside, we need to make sure that the next manager comes in as early as possible, and is a manager who knows what is required in Scotland. No  four months settling period, no test fields, no projects. Unless he gets enough money to get people in who beat all the dross in Scotland hands down. Not many aside from Gerrard spring to mind, but his line-ups still give me the creeps too ...

 

[der Berliner 4,143]

13 minutes ago, Graeme Ro55 said:

For me the team has regressed massively in all competitions since Barry & co came in. Our new home loss record proves that too. 

Nope. Minimal at best. The one big failure was the starting line-up at Dundee. He has his hands tied behind his back with players unfit and unable to meet the demands, and there is no reason to believe that Clement or anyone else would have done it any differently than him. McCausland and Pröpper did their worst, and substitutions were no worse than what we have seen before. At the end, you need to have players up for it, and here's the one big problem that we have had all season. It didn't and doesn't really matter who we put out on the field, it always looks like a team that doesn't know each other, what positions they supposedly play, how to pick a good pass, where the goal stands ... and usually a combination of all that at various stages of each game. One can probably count a handful of good and solid displays for 90 minutes during the league season (yes, I am being kind), while, for some reason, the European games were better.

 

Barry beat that lot at the Scumhut, maybe we can at least retain the bragging right this season with another good show at Ibrox, as little as this might mean.

[alexscottislegend 2,682]

11 hours ago, Sutton_blows_goats said:

This aged like Kerry Katona 

Just call it premature exhilaration!

[alexscottislegend 2,682]

6 hours ago, Gribz said:

How can Dessers shirt being ripped off not be a Pen. Okay the big man goes down easily but rightly so as if you dont go down you dont get the pens 99% of the time. Why was it not even looked at - yet he gets booked for coming straight back onto the pitch after changing the jersey - why is that even in the rule books because he didnt go off with an injury. 

 

Yilmaz going off changed our plan A but not only the decision to put Diomande to LB was bad but that meant putting Jefte to left centre half which is worse! What a waste of a sub, which meant Hagi had to come off at HT to correct the decision and 2 minutes later Balogun comes off injured. 

 

For the second game in a row we started to actually play when going to a back 4, we had more possession second half.

 

But that was a tough cauldron to go into. Had Propper not been sent off so early in the first leg things could have been different.

Its a good run again in Europe and we certainly werent out of our depth in the tournament. 

 

Kind of hoping Man Utd go on and beat Bilbao in the Semi's. 

Why? I'd be happy to console myself with losing to the eventual winners.