Leaderboard

We complain about our referees in Scotland but I lost count of the numbers of times Cantwell was fouled with no free kick given.

Wee word for Jack Butland tonight. He was superb & kept us in the game first half.

Considering it was only his 2nd game, I'm very impressed with Cifuentes. He looks like a player we've lacked for ages. Hopefully he just had cramp.

25 million euros, a lot of cash for us if we can get it

I have to admit that when I saw the same XI walk out for the 2nd half I thought we were done for. Switching Cifu and Raskin into wide pressing roles made a huge difference to our play. The Swiss seemed to lose their way completely and it nullified their FB's who were having a field day. Moving to a back 3 with the introduction of Sterling also seemed to help. Glad to see us through to collect that £5m. Still think we'll be better in the EL Groups with the higher seeding. CL still seems a bridge too far for this side currently.

What tonight was all about.

He was tremendous 2nd half, still a young player, bodes well for the future

Job done and £5M in the bank. Far better 2nd half but huge improvement required against PSV

Raskin been brilliant 2nd half

Huge night ahead for the club with money and prestige at stake against Servette in Geneva. I'm leaning to a diamond along the lines below which not only offers a solid defensive shape but offers a platform for our attacking players to express themselves in forward areas. I didn't see a huge amount from the Swiss side last week at Ibrox but I would expect them to have a different starting team and perhaps be a bit more expansive in front of a capacity home crowd. Vital we concentrate, avoid mistakes and take any chances that come our way.

Yes, if we go out tonight (or in the next round), we still go straight into the EL groups. If we get through to the play off though, we get an extra £5m, so it's imperative we get the job done this evening.

MB has mentioned in dispatches that he would like to replace Kent with a similar type of player. Call me crazy, but based on what we saw on Saturday from wee Rabi, it seems like we already have a player with that potential on the books. Has Matondo shown anything in his time at Rangers to suggest that he could fit this role? Not at all but I feel we've never seen any of his true ability. Maybe it's just a crisis of confidence or lack of consistent selection? It seems to be that MB believes he can take players whose careers have somewhat stalled and turn them around (Cantwell, Lammas, Sima, Dessers). Could he not try this with wee Rabi? He is our player after all and cost us money.

I agree with regards to the CL. That's not being defeatist. That's me being a realist. What I hope doesn't happen is that there is some over the top knee jerk reaction if we don't beat PSV and qualify. We need to stay calm as we can't afford anything to derail our primary goal this year, which is to win the title.

Home - Tuesday 22nd August 8pm Away - Wednesday 30th August 8pm Both games live on TNT Sports in the UK

I think we still have a lot of problems that need fixed. Defensive errors, a midfield that goes missing and a forward line that's not clicking. Tonight was worse than the home leg, in my opinion (in terms of our performance).

What, you mean Cantwell?🤣

We played worse away at USG by the way and turned PSV over. We'll be underdogs and that will suit us I think. Just need to rest key players against Morton now. Tav, Cantwell, Jack, Raskin, Danilo out and replaced - wouldn't push it further than that though.

I know it doesn't actually mean anything but historically our record vs PSV is outstanding. P8 W4 D3 L1 3 of those victories on their own patch.

I think they are weaker this year without Gakpo and Simmons both top class players.

Great result!. Is my post the 1st positive one?🤣

Said the same about Gio, they either didn't comprehend it or didn't want to.

Thought we started the game fairly well but from 10-15mins in, it's has been utterly dreadful. Cifuentes disappeared, Jack and Tav and have the proverbial stinkers and only really Jack Butland can say he's done his job. Manager has to find solutions for such a timid display.

Imo Beale put all his cards on the table this summer. He got everything he wanted, and early. I have to admit that my faith in him is getting seriously dented. this tie should have been finished in the first 30mins of the last match, this is shocking.

Souttar, Goldson and Tav all rubbish there.

‘MON GERS. Stop their watches for them.

I hardly think a player that the manager has forked out decent money for and has 3 games under his belt can be deemed a MB favourite. Perspective please.

Solid in defence and deadly on the break we should prevail . Mon the Gers

Servette does not look that good in defense and they will have to attack and play more open. That will be better for Rangers' attackers, they will have more room. I think you have good strikers now and they will find opportunities tonight.

We all did. He scores his last goal for the Rangers.

My guess would be Butland Tav Goldson Souttar Barasic Cifuentes Jack Raskin Lammers Cantwell Danilo

I found Lammers' shot xG: 0.34. Dessers' tap-in had an xG of 0.88. (For a base line, a penalty is 0.79 xG.) You say he should be scoring, but you've surely seen players miss from closer. I've seen players sky it from pretty much under the bar! As to your last point about 'enhanced his stats'. xG just described the quality of the chance, based on past shots - it's not applied to the player. Obviously, better players (Haaland) will over-perform the xG, because they can take chances that others wouldn't. On the opposite end of the spectrum, if someone is consistently under-performing their xG, they're p*sh. I used xG to defend Lammers' goalscoring record: Three goals in a season is poor, but his xG was 5, or something. He's under-performing, but it's not atrocious. It's not as if he should be scoring 25 goals from those 5 chances - no one can do that.

There are several data modelling companies, Opta being one. Football clubs will pay for the service - which includes far more data than I get from my wee preferred App. (The App I use gets its data from Opta, so they must be paying for that.) It should? I don't think so. Even Sima's goal at the weekend was similar, I'd say, but easier to score than Lammers' chance. It has an xG of 0.41 (I think - I can't remember exactly off the top of my head). 41% of the time players score that. It's quite high. That's what the data tells us. Remember: it's based on tens of thousands of shots. You say, 'it should be scored every single goddam time', but how many games is that based on? Can you say that with absolute objectivity. I actually think it was a tricky chance because it comes at him quite fast, from behind. It's difficult to get your legs sorted for that type of pass.

Can get away with him as a 6 in the SPFL against the dross but v them and in Europe need Jack there.

It's interesting that you've got Raskin further forward, rather than as the 6 where he usually plays. Do you think he's better further forward? I do. Nobody seemed to agree with me, though.

We definitely need to be creating more in these games. Definitely Rousseau is right.

Yes, low blocks are sitting deep. I've tried to explain xG above: They take hundreds of thousands of past shots, going back decades, from every conceivable position on the pitch, and check how many times a player actually scored. In practice, that means if a chance has 0.2xG, it should be scored 20% of the time, because out of those hundreds of thousands of past shots they've looked at, the player actually scored 20% of the time. They take into account many more variables than just position on the pitch, e.g.: - Type of Assist - Distance to the goal - Angle to the goal - Did the player strike it with his feet or was it a header? - In what passage of play did it happen? (e.g. open play, direct free-kick, corner kick, counter-attack) - Has the player just beaten an opponent? We do it in our heads all the time, using our judgement and past experience of watching games, when we say, 'that's a sitter - he has to score that'. The xG tells you how many times players in the past have actually scored from that position - and taking into account all the other variables. An xG measurement can be generated for both teams as a whole and individual players, giving an indication as to how well they should be performing in front of goal. Combining a player or team's xG ratings during the course of a season can give an approximation of how many goals a they should have scored. Not only can that be used to evaluate a particular performance, it can also be used in the projection of a future or long-term performance.

Well done

It wasn't pretty and there's a lot of work still to do with this team but that's an excellent draw in the end after an awful 1st half. €5m is a big bonus and I do believe further reinforcements are needed in wide areas and defence. PSV will be a huge test and we need to improve.

Hope you are right as I fear us trying to "hold" what we have.

I would politely request people be sensible with their choice as I do enjoy the maths later in the season; even if our forum is only a small sample size.

And does yours and tour good lady's uniforms fit OK? 🙂

Hold it together man! We got this... I hope...

It's just the quality of the chance. It's got nothing to do with the player or the defence. Like I've said before, if you give have Haaland and Sebo taking the same chance, one will score, one won't (Haaland ). The best players will score from low xG chances; that's why they are the best. The quality of the chance remains the same, though: on average and player in x position scores y% of the time.

It was more of a general point. I didn't really mean we should play him there for this game - although I now realise it's in the Servette match thread...

87% of statisticians are likely to bore you into a coma.