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I'm enjoying this thread and it reminds me of something I posted a couple of years ago when MW was in charge. One thing he really understood was that corners and crossing can be a waste of possession, and almost never result in goals. MW was a financier and as a result he understood the game in numbers. Corners hit directly from the corner flag will very rarely result in a goal. This statistic holds true across every league in the world, including junior and youth level. To score from a corner, you have to have a short pass first, in order to change the angle that has proven to score more goals. However, it is still a tiny percentage. We'd be far better holding on to the ball and playing it into the middle. As for crosses, we are still trying to cross the ball forward. Again, it's been shown statistically that this will result in very few goals and is a waste of possession. To drastically increase the chances of a goal from a cross, the ball has to be cut back. It can be cut back on the ground or in the air, but either way it has to travel away from the goal to result in a goal (again, statistically speaking). I appreciate many people doubt the value of numbers and statistics in football, but it is hugely valuable information and it frustrates me that we don't apply it. There are three things we need to do. Two of them we did brilliantly in the beginning and have slowly fallen away since then, and one we need to change. 1. We need to get back to moving the ball quickly. We have too many players who are not moving into space at the right time, or not picking out the pass before it comes to them. This was something I thought the management team had changed when they came in because the passing and movement was so obviously drilled, and it was brilliant to watch. 2. We need to have players making the inside forward runs. Crossing from wide positions is ok, but to achieve the precision of cut back crosses, we need that forward run on the left or right edge of the 18 yard box. I appreciate the change in formation can contribute to that, but that's more of an excuse than a reason. In the earlier part of the season, we had Coulibaly and Kent making those runs and it carved teams open. We don't see that now. 3. As a result of the pressure we out on teams, we now get a ton of corners. Please, please, please stop hitting them directly from the flag. There's no point. We need to keep the ball in these situations and maintain the pressure while we look for a cut back or through ball. We do need a particular type of player to do these things consistently, but I also suspect that the loss of training time (due to Europa League games) has slowly diminished the application of many of the players. These training drills make players do things without thinking. We need that time back on the training pitch to remind the players what made us so potent and get us back to that asap.

I’ve always considered Michael Beale to be the tactician of the group, so it doesn’t surprise me in the least

Stolen from elsewhere: the Spaghettihad.

Brilliant post Gaffer. With regards to your point about crossing forward and back, look at Man City. The majority of their goals are from cut backs from someone getting in behind and hitting the by line. They rarely score goals corners or speculative shooting.

Candeias was MOTM for me. Although I thought McCrorie played well and gave us a bit more drive, that we lacked when he came off.

I think it should not be underestimated how difficult it can be to create goal scoring chances when the opposition have nine/ten players behind the ball and the penalty box is congested. It requires a good understanding between the players, a good awareness of space and for the players to have good technical ability. Rousseau mentions Man City which is a good example but they have Aguero, DeBruyne, Sterling, Jesus and especially Silva. We do not have comparable players and this makes it even more difficult for us to create chances against a packed defence. We, thus resort to crossing the ball into the box from the wings with a consequent low success rate of conversion into goals. this is not helped at times by the quality of crossing especially from the right hand side. As an aside I think we saw in previous games that when Kent is on his game how he can create chances for himself and space for others. I had hopes that Ejaria might fulfil the role of playmaker but unfortunately those hopes have been dashed.

Surely that's an automatic fine from UEFA? They're fining clubs these days for far less.

Rapid were doing that towards the end of our game too

The sponsors man of the match is quite often baffling and leaves you thinking "was I watching the same game"!

Could not possibly have been any worse than the one in front of the West Enclosure who gave the impression that he would rather have been anywhere else on the planet than Ibrox. Worrying that our youth players demonstrate such disinterest at Ibrox.

January 2017, after a year long struggle with brain cancer.

The correct players coming in during January could win us the league. Hopefully we are still in the running after the next 4 matches.

The anti-Rangers 'journalists' at PQ will be delighted that anyone noticed their deliberate error. I'm just glad I don't bother listening to or watching their crap.

Methinks Sol is out of contract next summer, so the fee might not be that high. Yesterday showed that we still need a penalty box predator a la Boyd. Not of that much use in Europe, but knows the bread and butter stuff. I don't mind who he is and still think Cummings would be perfect for that role - and would break his gut every time he walks onto the field.Hardie too, perhaps. We need people who know their trade and do it well, "experiments" like a Sol or Solanke are nice to have, but to me are somewhat of a luxury right now.

....and movement. Let’s not forget that we are building from nothing. The scum have good movement because they’ve been together for years. Barca players have played together since they were about 10 years old. We’ve cobbled together a team in 6 months with mixed success of loan players and they’ve performed well at times. The last month it has dried up and a lot of that is to do with chopping and changing for whatever reasons. This is of course an argument for having a good youth set up. SG will know that. In the short term to win this league we’re going to have to scrap and fight our way over the line and use what ever tactics suit on the day whilst also try and develop a style of play. Not easy.

With regards to the Fran Sol rumour, I'm not sure tbh. We would be looking at £2million plus but what does it do to actually address our problems? Our main problem is not scoring goals IMO, our problem is actually creating goal clear cut scoring chances. It would be a different story if we were peppering the opponents goal and our striker couldn't hit the target but that's not the case. In the last handful of games, we have simply struggled to create any chances at all. When I mean chances, I mean 100% chances (too quote wee Dick Adcocaat). If we create chances Morelos will score. If we do have money to spend, I'd rather spend £400k on Shankland as a back up and then look to get creativity in the team. Not another midfielder that will pass sideways but someone who can see a forward pass and play with their head up. I don't think we need any more wingers as Barasic/Middleton/Grezda and Tav/Candias/Kent can more than play provide width.

It wasn't the system that messed up the final ball, or missed the number of chances we have in the last few games particularly. It comes down to execution and taking chances. A bit of extra composure and quality in the final third is needed, so that we can unpick the tight defensive blocks most teams put up against us.

If you mean I'm trying to find a system to suit the way we play when we play poorly then no. I think a 4-4-2 suits the style we've had all season quite well and the players we have and would have helped in games like Livingston, Dundee, Kilmarnock, Hamilton.

We had an International centre-half who could do his thing up front and score 20 before Santa even thought about getting out of his scratcher.

That's an oversimplification of what a 4-3-3 needs. 90% of teams play it; not every one of those has superbly technical players. We're nothing like Man City (most obvious example of a 4-3-3), but the principle is similar: wing play to get crosses into the box. Like I said, it's failure of execution. Yes, our crosses are too deep; we should be hitting the byline more. I think you're seeing how we're playing and trying to fit a system to suit; which is valid. But, I think it's a poor way of playing. I'm seeing that way of playing as a pale imitation of how it should be; we should be doing it much, much better -- I don't want to see us take advantage of a poor way of playing. I think he's more flexible than you give him credit. We've had 4-3-3, 4-1-4-1, 4-5-1 (variants of the same, granted, but there is a difference), 4-2-3-1, 4-4-2, and even 3 at the back a couple of times. That's dependant on the players we have: loads of central midfielders, loads of wingers, and very few strikers.

Even better, Willie Thornton, Lawrie Reilly and Willie Bauld.

It appears moreso that over at PQ, they decided a few weeks ago that it's time to rip the Colin Nish on a more consistent basis.

We've reached a stage of the season where for various reasons we're suffering a blip wrt scoring goals. Suspensions Fatigue Unhappiness for some individuals Injuries Lack of options Highlight a lack of creativity etc = No Champagne football or goalfests and the increased probability of dropped points. I predicted 1-0 yesterday for a reason but the only thing that is important from yesterday is the 3 points and we got them. We need to get to the end of this month with as little damage as possible, then regroup. We need players in the team who will battle for the cause becuase there won't be much in the way of fancy football. McAuley before Worral McCrorie before Coulibaly Had Kent been fit, I'd have him in the team.

A very well respected and liked poster from FF who has since passed on, 'Number_Eight', used to tell a good story about ball boys. He used to be a ball boy at Ibrox of occasion in the 60's and in one European game against Borussia Dortmund on the run to an eventual Final appearence in 66/67, he considered himself to have been partly responsible for an assist. A ball was launched high into the sky and Number_Eight ran, got under it and caught it and quickly threw it direct to a Rangers player, who took a quick throw that led to a goal.

Ineptitude on an epic scale? Or a cabal of Rangers-hating staff who think they can get away with anything? I know what I'm thinking. Behind the smoke and mirrors, the facts still stand. Rangers are top of the league and Celtic looked fucking awful yesterday. If we end up on top in May then no amount of whitewash, "genuine mistakes" or sticking their heads in the sand at the BBC will save them for looking like the utter clowns everyone knows they are.

I will write one for the Hibs game.

Three words. Big Jock Knew.

Funny I seen him back tackling, running the wings,hitting the post with a header and also congratulating the Hamilton goalkeeper on a magnificent(McGregor style) save. Maybe I was at wrong game!!!!

I won't hold my breath for Humza tweeting about this issue. He does, after all, frequent yahoo slophouses when he's on the campaign trail. He is Celtc-Minded, so will prioritise Celtc's reputation over justice for sexually abused children.