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I was in Bar'72 early yesterday and the Host brought in Tom Lawrence. He was replete in club blazer and necktie and spoke very well. On being asked on current fitness? He told of being back in full trianing as of today and was determined to be part of next weekend's semi-final squad. Here's hoping.

Add me to the 'not sure why we didn't buy Shankland' camp. He was the best forward on the park yesterday, scored one, created Hearts best other chance and held the ball up really well all match. He's 6'1", 28 years old and scored 24 goals last season in the league we play in. I suspect he'd have cost way less than either Lammers or Dessers too. He's also Hearts captain which suggests he has some presence around the dressing room too. Buying the best Scottish players available has worked well for us in the past. Shankland's experience of our league, ultimately the one we need to win every season, could have made him a real asset. It's all moot, but I'm a t a loss to what our football department saw in some of our summer signings but didn't see in Shankland or indeed Nisbet. As for yesterday I thought it was going to be one of those days we've become so used to in recent seasons. That it wasn't might be very important, or might be a blip, time will tell. Hearts tactics were so defensive, it was a grim watch. I don't think Mr Naismith will be in the job for long if that's what his side are displaying every week. We huffed and puffed but didn't look like blowing them down until we did. It was a better performance than many we've seen this season, Clement has improved us, but ultimately it's the same players and there's only so much you can do with them. A fully fit Cantwell and Danilo will make a difference, it was also good to see Dowell make the bench, if Lawrence and him can stay fit then who knows. Even with that we need more goals in our team. If only there was a proven goalscorer in our league we could consider...

The final xG was 4.03 - the highest of the season by quite some way. Even if we take out the 2 penalties, it's still one of the highest (2.45). Since Clement has come in we've seen an increase in our xG and a decrease in our xGA. It's progress.

Agreed, perhaps when he jumped on the scene and scored for fun he might have been worth a look but not now. Nisbet on the other hand might have been good enough which pains me to say. As for the match Big Phil gets the benefit of doubt that he has inherited some poor players and had minimal time on the training ground and games following Euro away days can always be tricky. But this win should be a spur for everyone for it to finish like that.

Highlights and stats for the game don't look that bad, but once again, 6 mins of quality football can't be our standard.

Not aimed at you, just picking it up here ... I am late to the show, but did you count out all the penalties he's scored? Had Morelos taken them, he'd be away with the European record for seasons to come. Tav never gives up, and that's a credit to him. But how many dire game performances have been papered over - like yesterday - with one good cross and/or a penalty goal? If Clement desiced to play him as a right midfielder in a 3-5-2 or 3-4-3, we might see some good years still with us. But as soon as we get a Ridvan-like successor to Tav, we should grab that chance. I have seen nothing from or in Sterling that suggests that he will be that man. I know people will come about and say that we won't cherish enough Tav's input until he is gone, yet, Rangers always marched on without iconic people. On Thursday I was almost willing to write that we miss Kent ... for getting fouled in or outside the area and an early goal. But then I remembered Sakala and forgot all about Kent. It remains fact that some folk won't carry us to the limits we required these days. I watched the highlights and Lammers and Dessers once more had chances and did some good work, but ultimately somehow don't seem to click. We are where we are right now and can but hope that Clement gets the best out of the current players. I am not sure that some have it in them to succeed here, or should remain ahead of others because of season's past.

Clement doesn't really have much choice. compo makes a decent point about the managers - winning the league is the main priority and other than 55, we've been nowhere near it.

The only "heavy" league defeat was 1-3 at home to Aberdeen. However, losing a couple 1-0 has cost us. Until yesterday, if we conceded we would lose!

Stats. I've got a stauner.

He’s not a defender either

Cifuentes, Dowell and Lawrence being back has gone under the radar tbf..could be huge for us in the next few weeks and months (God willing).

Just thought I'd post this link from an account on twitter as a follow up, still early but with your context it shows we might be at the start of something... I said at the start of the season we should aim for sub 20 conceded in the league, if we achieve that we'll have a good chance of winning it.

Apologies for going full football co-commentator but I've voted Danilo purely for what the goal means now and what it COULD mean in the future. Tav was rotten for 90 minutes but made massive contributions so you've got to respect that.

It's just a shame our forwards are about as clinical as...

Three points on the board but no one gets any higher than a three out of ten from me that was 99 minutes of complete dross

On the subject of Ridvan, he had one of his poorer games today. Offered nothing at their goals, where he was obviously targeted, got caught out a few times and was 0/5 for attempted crosses in the first half.

He did score a wonderful goal in a Scottish Cup Final......

By Rangers standards, the support have been through some amount of crap these past few years but have continued to turn up. I'd agree some of the stuff we hear at Ibrox crosses a line and some of the utter guff we see on various social media platforms is ridiculous but we have every right to moan about poor decisions and performances. Pedro and Beale were both shocking appointments in retrospect. The latter one and his shite recruitment will cause us problems for the foreseeable future.

It's not just the constant negativity, it's the force and toxicity of the negativity. This thread and the forum in general is a perfect example, never mind the wider support.

We don't actually concede many, so for us - right now - scoring goals is what is needed.

In fairness to @CammyF; and I am playing Devil's advocate here, if Tavernier had been putting down these numbers and performances for Celtic he'd have been lauded as the best right back in Scotland for decades and probably punted for 30m+. Hypothetical and far fetched of course because Celtic are fucking useless in Europe!

Done.

Agreed (unfortunately). I don't think RANGERRAB made the decision to include Tav in the HoF.

Aye it's telling that managerial novices like Kompany and Maresca have absolutely pissed that league - and in Kompanys case subsequently come up and stunk out the prem. Thank fuck for McKenna for adding a bit of colour to the promotion charges this season. Hope Ipswich do it.

With each game the new manager will be identifying the ones that he will need to replace

I gave it to Cantwell, he kept driving us forward and was the one creative spark while on. It's funny how we all see the games differently. I thought Davies was given a torrid time by Shankland, who constantly got the ball ahead of him, held it up and laid it off while Davies seemed to be a yard behind him.

Its pretty obvious just by watching. I think it was you that made the comment about trying combination passes in and around the box instead of cross, cross cross etc. Our winner came from a cross but probably because we didn't rip the backside out of crossing.

I will give it to Ben Davies. He was about the only player who didn't repeatedly give the ball away.

It was good to see the majority of our support stick around today. The UBs need to ditch that drum and sing more proper Rangers songs. The Ultra ones they do for never ending periods are crap. Hearts went 1-0 up and all we heard was that ow ow ow one for the next 10 minutes. About as inspiring as a Cliff Richard calendar.

Is he not Norn Irish?.

Ridvan is too small to play in defence. Opponents target him with high balls like hearts did today

Why was Ian Ferguson playing for St Mirren, John Brown Dundee, Ally McCoist Sunderland.......

Did you? Who at Rangers did you recommend him to? Doesn't matter how many goals he scored, he's a horrible human being

I wish we'd get over this not signing Scots players, there's plenty of guys that would have improved us over the last few years. Shankland is one such player.

It wasn’t a great performance but we deserved the win. Hearts scored early doors & tried to see out the win with 11 men behind the ball.I thought we might have changed formation to 3-5-2 but we didn’t. We looked jaded today after a hard shift on Thursday night in Prague. Our support need to understand that

Can you imagine the joy Atlanta and Cremonese were trying to hide when we started to enquire about Lammers and Dessers. They likely couldn’t believe their luck. The even managed to negotiate us up. Astonishing.

Wholly shit.

Spot on Bill. Compo, I'd rather have dug shit on the front of my shirt than watch rugby.

Do you think you could speak English on this forum please? I realise that you're a dude from Hicksville but some of us on here are language pedants!😉