Leaderboard

I'd stayed away from social media for the past 12 hours due to the expected levels of hysteria and panty wetting that happens after a bad result. I didn't expect to find it on here. It's fucking ridiculous! Look at where we were before Gerrard came in and look at it now. Look at the players he's brought in. Look at the development we've seen from other players. How much in a worse place would we be without Gerrard? There's no way that the team would be anywhere near to where we are now. To throw the toys out of the pram after a few bad results is frankly pathetic.

If we have another trophy-less season then for me this does become a discussion we should have. I remain bewildered that Ojo and Barker remain at the club and Jamie Murphy is sent out on loan, or that Jordan Jones, a player who must be comfortable on the Rugby Park surface can't even get on as a sub. Gerrard has given us some great moments and, until January, was on a steady upward trajectory, however since the Celtic match we've been abject and the management team need scrutinised for that. What's really concerning is we seem to have made the same 'mistake' two seasons running, we head off on a winter break and come back like a different side. The energy and fluidity has gone, our shape disappears, our midfield can no longer control a match and most damning of all we've no heart or fight, the opposition know they can hurt us if they hang in long enough. We don't seem to be learning from our mistakes and that's poor management. A concern about Gerrard is his ability to manage players that aren't top professionals, that aren't brilliant trainers or laser focussed. This is the Scottish league, not the Champion's League, the manager needs to be able to get the most from his players, he needs to be able to get performances from 'average pros' too. I'm not yet ready to throw in the towel for this season, it's going to be hard but there will be twists and turns to come. But Gerrard shouldn't be beyond questioning or criticising, but for now he needs our support and should get it.

I dread to think how much we have spent trying to unsuccessfully replace candeias.

In normal circumstances, our points tally would be quite acceptable. The main problem, for me, is the manner in which we have dropped points at Rugby Park, Tynecastle and Pittodrie - all from winning positions.

We need 2 things to happen to enable us to get back into this league race. We need the Tims to get complacent and we basically have to win every game until the end of the season. Based on last night, the chances of these two things happening are beyond slim.

Is this because he's English? ?

The latest debacle can be spun any way we choose but the bottom line is we're still some way from being the team and the club we need to be. The league flag is a pipe dream unless we can fix the fragility that has dogged us ever since we returned to the PL. Whether individual elements such as the manager or captain or chairman or whatever are good enough is probably academic when it's clear to me we are simply unable to make the best of what we do have. I don't know why that is but we've become underachievers when our financial status requires us to be the polar opposite. We have half the team running around like headless chickens yesterday - Kent, Hagi, Morelos, Aribo, Halliday, Tavernier - none of whom showed the slightest self-belief or an idea what they were trying to do. It's profoundly dispiriting to see such a mess and yet see no obvious reason for it. You could be forgiven for thinking the show is coming apart at the seams - the manager has clearly lost faith in the players and the players have lost faith in themselves. When will this end?

The fundamental problem is the number of touches players take before moving it on. Nobody will move if nobody will pass. Aribo never controlled Hagi's pass last night because he never imagined he would receive one so soon. Need to hope that the teams gets on Hagi's wavelength rather than the other way around.

Really disappointed in the players' lack of belief alongside a lack of adaptability from the coaching staff last night. Means other teams feel they can have a go and we struggle to react. We've been poor as a group in 2020 but our inability to react to other teams' tactics & our own missing/off-form players means we've looked impotent for most of our fixtures this year. If we don't address this major fault it's going to cost us more points. Lots of work ahead!

The bottom line tonight, despite more horrific refereeing, is we are not good enough to win the league. How you can wait 81 minutes of that to change it baffles me. I don't want Gerrard out by any stretch of the imagination but I wish he would utilise the bench more and earlier. One of his main failings I would say

They are, but it's made easier when you don't play against 12 men, and even when they're having a bad day, like against Hamilton, the referees helps them out.

There's enough Drama Queens on today's Board without evoking Tosca.

Polster instead of Tav?

She threw herself from the battlements, at full time, I'm afraid.

Good chance we will beat them at home, in fact, we'll probably play them off the park and get all the plaudits in doing so, it's the games against the lesser teams that will be the problem for us.

A major gripe for me is our willingness to settle on a 1-0 scoreline. We keep doing it. 1-0 and we're happy to drift along. It's not good enough. We don't have good enough defensive players to do it, for starters. Secondly, we don't convert enough chances of our own to do it. Our main rivals are humping other teams regularly, so why can't we do it? Even if we can't, why are we happy to sit on a 1 goal margin?

Exactly, I highlighted this in my thread a few weeks ago. I said our starting 11 have shown themselves to be good enough to win the league but we don't cope when we lose key men. Every game we have dropped points we have had key men missing. Jack and Morelos missed big ones too, including earlier in the season.

My belated match report on yesterday's Champions Youth League game https://rfcyouths.wordpress.com/2020/02/13/atletico-a-step-to-far-for-youths/

It wont even have crossed the mind of the board to remove Gerrard nor mine for that matter. It's not a consideration on any level. Even if it were is it understood how much that would cost? Gerrard is contracted till 31st May 2024 and is on a reported £2 million a year. Pay 8 million to terminate his contract then what? We were laughed at for hiring him but firing him at this stage would be an even bigger joke.

Is that opinion based on the fact he doesn't vote for the SNP? In all honesty, I don't know how the players have maintained their challenge, so far, in the face of cheating refs.

Oh FFS! I really do hope admin bin this shite from the forum!!

It’s his team, his tactics, his coaching staff. He’s responsible, rookie manager, worth a try with a big name but it’s a failure.

I think it's hard to be fair. We're damned if we do, damned if we don't. We have a decent first XI but we have a lot of squad players that are exactly just that, squad players. Guys like Jones are not going to win us the league but what do we do? Spend money we don't have for expensive back up players? I'm sure SG was hoping the fringe players would press more for starting places but it's not materialised. I feel sorry for Stewart tbh. I thought he looked like he could offer something different between midfield and attack. Jones I do not rate at all. Looks happy enough just to be at Rangers IMO. I also question the judgement of throwing in Hagi into the team at this point of the season. I'm excited he is here but now we are looking for him to change games after 10 minutes in the country. I may get pelters but I would persevere with Kamara, Davis and Jack in the middle. It was working for us and helped us control games but I feel we've lost that dominance now.

To be fair Greg Stewart’s done ok with the limited time he’s had but the likes of Barker& Ojo have failed miserably

Our performance wasnt great but we lost to a very poor performance from beaton. Kilies no 8 should gave been sent off for his outrageous simulation after getting booked. Then they get a goal after a clear hand ball from 1 of their players. Then we get a perfectly good goal chopped off . You cant legislate for that. No manager can. We've already lost a cup through incompetence of match officials and now it looks like it will cost us the league. It will cost us the scottish cup as well.

One thing has been overlooked. The scum are on an incredible run, if you disregard their game against us. It's difficult when your rivals are humping all before them.

I'm not sure why that makes Polster better than Tav. Which he is not.

Agreed. Simply trying to look ahead and try to see a positive. Last night was utterly depressing as I genuinely thought we'd put ourselves in the box seat after the OF game. Oh well, it must true what they say...it's the hope that kills you

Braved the cold at Firhill and enjoyed much of Atletico’s play with Riquelme easily the best player on the pitch. Having missed a sitter to take the lead, our young lads didn’t cover themselves in glory with their defending at the first goal and whilst having a good deal of the ball lacked a cutting edge going forward. Nathan Paterson was taken to the cleaners for the second goal and from then on it was an uphill task as Atletico sat back and defended until some tiredness contributed to Rangers shipping another two goals. Undoubtedly, they missed the likes of Lewis Mayo but I couldn’t help but feel that there was a lot of unnecessary touches on the ball coupled with the fact that a combination of Mebude being largely isolated and some excellent and uncompromising defending from the visitors meant that Rangers were pretty toothless. It would’ve been interesting to see if a booking for persistent fouling by their number four would have had an impact on Rangers attacking prowess. Nevertheless, a steep learning curve for Murty’s young charges.

I feel we lack runners off the ball. Our front line is far too static, so even if we do get Hagi, Aribo and/or Kent in good positions, in between the lines, there's no one to pass to, there's no movement. We need runners in the channel, overlapping full-backs, our Defensive-midfielders (and Centre-backs, to be fair) breaking the lines by carrying the ball past a player etc.

Perhaps Gerrard could do worse than bring in some experienced help? To his management team, that is.

As usual politics comes into the discussion, pathetic.

The fans who paid good money to get in should get last night's award

In the first half Kent had two Killie players in front of him and what he needed was Halliday going on the overlap as Borna does. The result being that Kent was largely ineffective and too often cut inside and ran into a congested area. I felt Hagi was fine in the first half but fell out of the game in the second half. He looks a skilful player but we shouldn't expect too much from him but more from others round him. Tavenier got himself into good positions offensively but his crossing was very poor. He needs to try and play in an earlier ball behind the defence for forwards to run onto. Morelos simply looks off form. I also think that defenders have wised up to the fact that he likes to roll them and now position themselves to avoid this. In the early part of the season Jack used to run games but lately he has not been quite as influential. Finally the substitutions came too late.

Hysterical shite Criticise, give stick & by God he deserves some but let’s stop the bs eh

I don't think he is in danger of being sacked. No matter what, he will get next year too (unless we were to fall off a cliff?). However, I actually understand the broader issue in that something isn't right imo? Maybe things are being said behind the scenes re the general landscape, and obstacles that the club and playing staff are facing? The statements and the abuse of Alfredo may be affecting them (that was the intention after all). SG has just called the team "mentally weak" and questioned their "bottle" live on TV. All is not well and I worry more that SG will walk than I do him being sacked?

Have to disagree there. Two goals without ever creating anything. I don’t know how they keep doing it, other than that we allow them.

You are being ridiculous.

Oh come on now! That same rookie got us in to the last 32 of the Europa. And an away win at Parkhead.