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There was an interesting interview with Roy Keane a few years ago when he spoke about his regret over how he'd treated Sebastian Veron when he was Man Utd captain. He'd been delighted Utd had signed Veron, Keane felt he was one of the best midfielders in the world at the time, Keane had played against him in Europe and really admired him and was really looking forward to playing alongside him. But Veron's form was poor and Keane was really on his case about it. Veron complained that his family weren't settled, he was living in a hotel, his wife and kids missed 'home' and their friends there and they were finding the language barrier a big problem. Keane dismissed all this poor excuses, Veron was being handsomely paid and was a top professional, he should be able to switch off from domestic issues when on the pitch and Keane told him so on a number of occasions. It didn't work out with Veron and he eventually left Man Utd. Later Keane joined Celtic, his family stayed in Manchester and Keane lived in a hotel when in Glasgow. Keane was amazed how much it affected him, he didn't appreciate it how having his family and friends around him created the right atmosphere for him as a player. For Keane there was no language barrier, no time difference and he could pop home every week, yet still he struggled for form and was unhappy in Glasgow. Keane thought back to how hard he'd been on Veron, and how he'd not appreciated how some players could be affected by off-field stuff. Morelos isn't living in a hotel, but his domestic life must be fairly turbulent currently. None of us can say how that could affect them because we're all different and we all react differently to similar situations. I was diagnosed with high blood pressure when my wife was expecting our first child, I was so uptight about everything (her blood pressure was fine!). I don't think it's fair to dismiss the off field issues Morelos is experiencing simply because he's highly paid. Robert Enke was highly paid and highly successful, that didn't stop high standing in front of an onrushing express train. Morelos is off form, I think he should be benched for a couple of games, but he needs our support just now, none of us really know what he's going through.

Sensible stuff by and large but if we accept the physical peak argument (and it may or may not be true), then the mgt can analyse through significant scientific data the club collects on each individual. Given a 3 week break and availability of data you would expect batteries recharged and whatever adjustments are needed on an individual basis to ensure they renew fresh. The cause if you agree with the premise, is not that players are reaching a physical peak and can’t do more. The cause is that we are doing or not doing something during these winter breaks that doesn’t regain their physical (and/or mental) peak. That’s down to the non-playing staff. I’m not convinced by the premise. It’s simpler. We have our best player off form (or unavailable), some key injuries and sloppy individual performances. Tiredness does not explain the fact we have dominated the games we have dropped points in. We have outrun these teams. It doesn’t explain the inability of a CH to head/blooter a high ball away from danger when that is his only option. I suspect there is a combination of lack of experience and some lack of depth of quality, but all of that is explained easily by the fact we were never going to catch up with Celtic so quickly (especially with the wasted Pedro year) unless someone dropped £50m into our bank account. Overall significant progress is being made. Patience is Rick Roberts conclusion. I’d agree with that, and anyone wanting rid of SG has no viable alternative and in any case he’s improving us considerably on and off the park. Be careful what you wish for.

As always, excellent stuff from @Rick Roberts so make sure you set aside a few mins to have a read later! https://www.gersnet.co.uk/index.php/news-category/current-affairs/1151-the-jerking-of-knees-and-other-tales Part 1 - Rebuild Begins I’ll reset the clock to when Dave King and the three bears came in: January 2015, over five years ago now. Let’s count this as ground zero as the previous regimes were a sand upon which nothing purposeful could be built. And at that time almost every facet of the club was a pitiful, dilapidated mess. 2015, a New Year and McDowall was in place following McCoist’s departure. The football was dreadful, soulless and fruitless - lurching to third place in that year’s Championship tells us everything we need to know. The boardroom was a battlefield and much of the corporate violence and parting shots from the charlatans are still being felt many years in the future. The first six months on the pitch were a write-off but then more important work and energy were required elsewhere, repairing the club and laying down some proper foundations for the first time in four (if not fourteen) years. With that in mind, given our place and time, Mark Warburton was somewhat of a coup. Up-and-coming, a decent enough shout and generally well-received. He came aboard in June 2015. We got some good value and promising players in the door, and importantly, we started to take tangible steps forward. We had some football and players to properly celebrate for the first time in a while. One thread to consider which is still valid today were the budgetary constraints. For Rangers, and Rangers-sized expectations, the money was still very limited. He came, he saw, he was gone (or was pushed out the door he had opened). Things had run their course and perhaps Rangers had out-grown Warburton. By the end, the timing and manner of departure in Feb 2017 were inglorious and it left us in a bit of a pickle. Youth coach Graeme Murty stood up and stepped in. This was still our first season back in the SPFL Premiership and it had been a steep learning curve for everybody. Pedro Caixinha joined in March 2017 and was probably the first contentious move from the club but with some of the players brought in (e.g. Bruno Alves and Mexican internationalists) I could certainly see the intrigue at the time. In reality (through migraine-inducing hindsight) it was a disaster and probably wasted a whole season. The Caixinha experiment ended not much more than six months later. Player-wise we arguably saw a general improvement. However, we undoubtedly saw too much wastage and shouldered many unwanted burdens which would linger for a few years. Caixinha was perhaps doomed from the start and was certainly never going get a fair crack at it, as the press were on his back from day one and wishing him to fail - that said our board should have known better. Next up is perhaps the least impressive move from the board as Murty was again asked to stand-up and took the reins through to the end of April 2018. This really was wasted time. The only tolerable explanation was that the Gerrard deal was already in the pipeline and we had chosen to wait it out until his arrival. Off the pitch and our growth was (still is?) being stunted by Mike Ashley’s depraved badness. We’ve had Dave King and others tied up in legal rope for years. Our press relations, in Scotland anyway, still at rock bottom and our name still a punchbag for any small-minded broadcaster with low self-esteem. By any measure our turnover was still pretty poor - not that we shouldn’t have been pulling away from Aberdeen and the rest of the pack by this stage. The constant clear outs, periods of uncertainty and upheaval didn’t help anybody. Part 2 - Gerrard Years Like most fans, I was happy when Steven Gerrard joined. And mostly I still am. He brought a clarity and a positive, tangible rise in standards across the club. A higher state of consciousness and stability, if you will. The Gerrard name is an undoubted factor. It commands respect across the football world and it has helped us land some prospects and players perhaps otherwise unavailable to us. In 2018/2019 our Europa League adventure brought a welcome distraction and something fresh and enjoyable away from the perma-toxic domestic slog. Progress was being made but we were still guilty of being soft and predictable. Our competitors were again figuring us out as the officials allowed the game to be taken to the floor. An unwanted trend of this season was the lack of winning runs and the unwelcome bottom line was the lack of any trophy. We had found another gear but couldn’t find it anywhere near often enough. Like the year before, 2019/2020 has been highlighted by our Europa run. This has been a truly incredible achievement, really. But perhaps we’d swap some of that stardust for a bit more grit and functionality domestically. There has been tangible improvements and solutions to old problems but, again, there have been more mistakes. The win rate has improved, a lot. But the repeat of the post-break slump is a serious concern. It is currently nearing the end of February and the mood, like the title challenge, are burst balls – both very much deflated after a flurry of dropped points. A heroic Europa win against Braga appears at this stage a dead cat bounce. How the season unfolds from this point forward will dictate whether plaudits and reprieves are on hand or whether thermo-nuclear criticism will be aimed at Gerrard and his team. Recruitment will be scrutinised - a less than perfect hit rate is expected and low risk, low cost punts can be worthwhile but the lack of real contribution to the campaign, compounded by a lack of success, will judge last summer to be a poor window. More wasted time. A lucky few have been the manager's favourites and have been afforded regular valuable match time but some have offered little. We have to yield to the manager's discretion on his choice and handling of his players but if a standard is applied then it must be applied to all? Surely favouritism has to be earned and reviewed on a weekly basis. I agree with the logic of Gerrard’s philosophy of insisting on perfection in training but is being an excellent or diligent trainer worth anything if you’re not showing up on the park? Everybody will have theories about the post-break slump. I subscribe to the theory of over-reaching and unsustainable form. From a purely athletic point of view, then peak physical form only lasts for several weeks. Exceptional or gifted athletes may be able to operate at a consistently high level throughout the year but even for them there is a window of peak conditioning that they can work towards. Outwith that window there is a drop off. Anyone not naturally exceptional or gifted has to strive harder to reach those same peaks. And when it comes then the inevitable drop off is greater. Perhaps a positive we can draw from our Europa nights and December form is that Gerrard and his staff are able to build our players into a place of exceptional form – a plateau within the season where we have a footballing unit capable of operating at a very high level and capable of giving everyone a run for their money. But perhaps too, in those moments we are performing well above the sum of our parts and when the form drops, then the residual level is only average. Players can only go to the well so often. Striving for perfection is fine but continually over-reaching is unsustainable. The science of athletic performance and capacity is well defined and measurable, but equally other factors exist which all play a part and follow similar curves – concentration, focus, ambition, morality etc. For world class players like Gerrard, and world class squads like Liverpool’s, then perhaps the reach to perfection is sustainable over a long period of time. But not all men are equal and the reach for lesser players is perhaps too much. Maybe not at first, but after a month, or six months then it would understandably start to falter – physically and mentally. The solution would be to use and rotate the squad to stagger these peaks and loads. This perhaps dulls the highs but then it also minimises the lows. Alternatively, we find a high quality, more capable, more consistent calibre of player who can handle these demands – not easy within a limited budget. Others have stated and explained the limitations of our tactics and our go-to set-up and formation, which appear well suited to certain situations, but which are now repeatedly falling short in domestic games. All of these are factors, and all are fixable if our management team can recognise short-comings and adapt. I would like to think that pride doesn’t prevent us bringing in whatever help is needed to clear any blind spots and find solutions. Part 3 - Reflection Before I started this, I would have said we were pretty much on course but upon reflection we have written off considerable chunks of entire seasons (admittedly my outlook may have hardened in recent weeks watching this season escape from our grasp). To be at Rangers compels that every single minute has to be focused towards winning. I believe the board has some questions to answer on that score. We cannot change the past, but we can learn from it. I believe they have to provide greater and more robust support to Gerrard in all areas of football and the business of football. The media impasse and accompanying PR mess are worrying. Our assets and brand being attacked and devalued is worrying. The referee situation and any possibility of external influence on our title challenge is unacceptable. The merchandise/retail situation remains frustrating with Hummel and Elite now apparently on the black-list. The board have to stand up here, they have to improve – on both communication and performance. If they cannot perform then they must bring in help or move on, because like the playing staff, there isn’t any time for sentimentality at Rangers. On the park, we are where we are. We have some real assets and quality to build upon. We could possibly be further along but equally we could be considerably worse off too (and I don't think this can be dismissed or taken for granted, considering the scale of the rebuild). Gerrard is certainly capable of getting this squad of players punching above their weight on occasion and I really can’t see any knee-jerk upheaval going smoothly or without considerable cost and disruption. We need better players in, absolutely, but another total rework and rebuild is not an attractive or viable option. Like all areas of the club, there is an ongoing necessity to see quality and consistency added to the right positions. Returning success to Rangers was never going to be an overnight job for Dave King and, five years in, it's never been more true. Taking all the above into account, then the old adage of patience being a virtue has to be our conclusion.

Unless it is a different part of the second goal then it was Katic. From my recollection it was Katic who pumped the ball straight up in the air (remarkably similar to the first goal) and from the subsequent corner it was definitely Katic who played the ball, at the front post, into the centre of the box - or at least had he made a proper connection that was the direction it was heading....

Anyone not voting Kamberi didn't watch the game

Surely Wilder only got beat because of his 'Walk on' costume, nothing to do with being out boxed.

You could extrapolate that further too, by looking into results that Celtic have gotten thanks to favorable refereeing. Given both teams haven't dropped a huge amount of points it wouldn't take too long to look at the points dropped.... but how many points have Rangers increased due to dodgy refereeing ? I can't think of any in all honesty - the only contentious incident I can recall which might have had a bearing on the result was away to Hamilton the other week and that was in the Cup. Celtic, on the other hand, at the same venue, were 1-0 down, should have seen Griffiths red carded, the same player was then on the pitch to win the free kick which allowed them to equalize just before half time.... and the offending Accies player red carded..... so instead of Celtic playing with 10 against 11, they ended up playing with 11 against 10.... think about that for a second.... So just looking at the single game there, we have dropped 5 points that we shouldn't have (although, that said, we would likely have missed the penalty against Aberdeen....) and Celtic obtained 3 points from a game where they, plausibly, could have dropped all 3 but possibly at least 2. A 7 point turnaround thanks to poor officiating. All the above said..... we also need to look within at our own failings whilst also highlighting those failings of the officials.

Over a period of time, that is true - and over the last two years Morelos HAS contributed more than most, if not all, at the club.

I wouldn’t want to have to ask Rocky Marciano to wear a walk on costume. Dressing gown and trumpet fanfare is all you need.

I never watch them unless they are playing Rangers so I don't really know much about them but their results don't indicate any weakness. Forms a strange thing though and there's still time for a swing in fortunes.

The only reason he would have had to have knocked him out was because all the judges were American. Even before the fight almost everyone in the boxing world had said that if it went the distance then Fury would win - Fury is a far better boxer than Wilder - Wilder was shown up to be little more than a right hand, one which Fury negated by cutting the distance and rotating away from the right hand.

Rotherham had a public enquiry and then subsequent prosecutions?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p084mxzv If you're a masochist then you can listen to this drivel from Tom English and Darryl Broadfoot as they debate the SFA's disciplinary system. The Keatings incidents is highlighted and is held up as an example as to why the system is not fit for purpose. Fair enough. You will be amazed at how they manage to not mention any other injustice or inconsistency of the system (i.e. Griffiths getting of scot free stands out a mile). Rangers and celtic are lumped together as one entity in this. We should stop "bleating" and do something to improve the system. It's overlooked that the system has been a closed celtic shop since 2011 and Rangers have suffered greatly. The only explanation is that they are up to something here? Possibly dismantling or rejigging the system on the back of a decisions involving Rangers?

It's been ongoing for almost 40 years. Whilst there's a lot of people involved, you'd have thought that at some point during that time that there would have been a period that there wasn't a live investigation going on where there could have been a public enquiry.

Factual error? I didn’t say he only played 1 game I said he was dropped after one iffy game, in other words due to one dodgy performance. You like a wee snide comment don’t you.

Kamberi reminds me of Marko Arnautovic who played for West Ham until he went to China last year.

He has scored a couple but they were incorrectly disallowed, and not for the first time this season.

If ever it was decided we needed an effective leader on the park, there would be no need to look beyond Ryan Jack.

On Morelos, I have been eating humble pie for the first half of the season because his goalscoring has far exceeded my expectations. I have often pointed out that he looks very raw at times and technically poor. But he was outstanding in Europe and for most of the first half of the season. But now that he has gone 7 league games without a goal, a closer look at his record is required. He has scored 29 goals this season, but really I think the 4 against part timers St Josephs in a round we should never be in are a bit of a gift for him. In Europe, he has been great until Braga. Domestically, he has scored 15 in 28. Now you have to say that is no more than a decent record given the number of chances he gets as our only striker. Scrutinising it more, you discover that 10 of those 15 were in games we won by at least 3 goals, in other words games which were pretty straight forward. And only 1 of the 15 were in games won by a single goal. In the 7 games we have drawn or lost domestically he has only scored in 1, and as we know he has been guilty of spurning big opportunities in some of those. Not least against Celtic. I don't know what to make of it all. He has proved me wrong time and time again with heroics in Europe. Yet he proves me right at other times, giving the ball away so cheaply, failing to link up properly with our midfielders and missing countless easy chances over the course of the season. For now, I think his suspension is a blessing in disguise. We get to go with the on-form Kamberi without needing to "drop" Morelos. If Kamberi gets the chance to score and takes it, this potentially gives us the pretext to keep him in the team and send Morelos the message that there are consequences to his recent profiligacy in front of goal.

We seem to have two problems. One is easy to fix, but the other can only be sorted in the summer. Our first problem is that the management team believes in playing players out of their poor form. This is a sensible approach if one or two are not performing but at the moment we have 3 or 4 who need to be dropped. That's too many under performers to carry. Katic, Davis, Kamara, Kent and Morelos are way below their best so they should be dropped. It's harsh but it's so important that the rest of the team sees that they will get their chance if they perform well. At the moment Stewart, Kamberi and Edmundson must be wondering how they will ever get a starting role, despite their counterparts playing so poorly for a while now. Equally, players must know that they have to perform or they will lose their place. That must be demoralising all round. The second problem is something I said concerned me last year. When things are not going well on the pitch, or when players are not performing, who on the pitch is dealing with that? After we lose a goal I don't see or hear a single one of our players challenge those responsible. All successful teams have someone who kicks backsides or puts an arm around their team mates to get the best reaction. We don't have it and it's particularly obvious when we face tough decisions or incidents on the pitch. Against Braga we relied on Hagi to inspire those around him but that only works sometimes. We don't have a leader on the pitch and we badly need it. Theres no doubt our team will click again and we will be back to playing great football. However, teams don't win leagues based on their best form. The win it based on their worst form. At our best we are the top team in Scotland (and in my opinion by some margin), but at our worst we are mid table level and that's not good enough. Gerrard needs to play the form players and drop those who don't perform. He then needs to get someone in to that team who takes charge for him on the field. Until then we will continue to suffer.

First and foremost we should be playing the players who are on form and dropping those who aren't. For me, there's no excuse for not starting Kamberi when it's clear he is hungry to impress and, more importantly, has the abliity to match the hunger. As I've said for a long time, Kent and Katic are the most overrated players at Ibrox and more fans are waking up to that now although they still have staunch fanclubs. Lots of others are underperforming but have more credit in the bank. But we need to use our squad more. Edmundson shouldn't have been dropped on the basis of one dodgy game, he deserved a proper opportunity. Others like Stewart deserve a chance too. Dropping Kent alone would make a big difference to our play in the final 3rd with the existing formation with Aribo and Hagi behind Kamberi. Aribo showed us how good he was in that position in December and bizarrely he's been sacrificed and dropped back to midfield or dropped altogether for Kent's benefit.

I think the domestic league is over, but the season? No. I find it slightly bewildering that fans are on Gerrard's back, or the boards for that matter. A few years ago we couldn't beat Alloa, now we are in Europe after Christmas and we've won the first leg of our tie - there's a decent chance to progress and who knows what could happen? We also lost a cup final to an illegal goal and we are still in another cup. I still think Gerrard has done a pretty remarkable job in the short time he's been here. We've shown improvement year on year and before the break everyone was loving it. I would like to see us taking a more direct approach at times though. I feel we've lost a bit of the aggressive pressing we were doing and we are playing too many wee triangles.