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It would appear that although Gerrard is interested in trying other formations (including a back 3), his preferred setup is 4-3-2-1. We are all broadly in agreement about the defence and striker, but the midfield is so tough to call. We will face three types of teams: 1) Those that sit in and invite us to attack them (most of the SPFL and early Europa league stages) 2) Those that will attack us but where we expect to be attacking more than defending (Celtic at Ibrox and probably away too) 3) Those that will attack us and where we are likely to spend more time defending (later stages of the Europa league) This is where I think our recruitment really makes sense because we now have the right players for each of these occasions. For type (1), Jack is ideal because as well as being able to attack, he is one of our best tacticians and is reliable at filling in for Tav or Barisic when they push forward. It means we can commit players forward with confidence that we won't leak at the back. Equally, the likes of Aribo and Ojo will create the opportunities. So for me it would be Jack, Kamara and Aribo as the three behind Ojo and Jones. For type (2), we will use Kamara, Aribo and Davis in the three, given their ability to play more direct balls to exploit the spaces, and then Ojo and Arfield and Morelos will benefit. Jones and Candeias will then be used later in the game when their pace will be more effective. For type (3), I'd expect Jack, Davis and Kamara to be in the 3 with Aribo and Arfield in the advanced roles, mainly because I'd expect them to sit deeper than usual. We've not had these options before and it'll be interesting to see how we use our players depending on the opposition we are up against. I'm also interested to see under what circumstances Gerrard tries the back 3. Although we didn't get the result in that setup last season, if you remember we actually played really well so I think it will be used more often this season.

Must you always be so damned vague?

Just been looking at Bert Kassies site to see how the seedlings are working out for us and it makes depressing reading. The list of seeds for R3 is daunting and we have to be as lucky as last year to get a hopeful draw. We were the last of the seeds for R2, and we are 2nd bottom of the unseeded teams for R3. The list of seeds for R4 is even more impossible, and, like last year, we only have a chance of drawing a 50/50 winnable tie if we actually draw one of the top 13 seeds in R3, which means we would be seeded for the R4 draw as this takes place before R3 is completed. This is what happened last year when we got Maribor in R3 who were one of the top seeds, and therefore we were actually the seeded team when we drew Ufa in R4. The 13 sides we have to hope for are 2 from the CL dropouts plus Sparta Prague, Braga, Legia Warsaw, Eintracht, Steaua, Feyenoord, Espanyol, Malmo, Partizan Belgrade, Standard Liège & Wolves. How many of them would you think we could reasonably hope to beat? It looks very difficult indeed, not impossible but very difficult. Should we not not draw one of those sides, we will be unseeded for R4, which means we get drawn against one of the above, but when they are more up to speed and into their season which seems more dangerous again. Of course we have to get our co-efficient up in order to get better seedings in the process, but you need to beat a lot of good teams to get the points to get you up there. It’s a real double edged sword. Our achievement to reach the group stages last season was the real highlight of the season and a magnificent accomplishment given just how difficult it is, but we must acknowledge we got really lucky with the draw in that we were actually seeded for R4 due only to the timings of the draw, and we got Osijek who were 5th bottom of the seeds when we could have got Sevilla or Besiktas amongst many others, Maribor who were probably not as good as they had been in building their coefficient instead of Olympiakos, Bordeaux, Feyenoord or Copenhagen who were the other 4 seeds in our mini group, and Ufa who were about the poorest R4team we could have got when Leipzig & Atalanta were in our mini group. It was nothing short of a miracle to get so lucky, can we get just as lucky again?

It seems to be a feature of his game,...even when taking shots on goal. Last season, I remarked on how he tends to carefully pass the ball towards goal when shooting in what looks like studied care to hit the target. His goal against St.Josephs was a side foot volley that guided the ball towards goal rather than the more conventional whack. I'm not one for stats but his ratio of shots on target to shots must be very high.

Funny how I remember Willoughby well, but from all the players in this team he is probably the one I would forget to mention. Martin, Johansen, Mathieson, Greig, McKinnon, D.Smith, Willoughby, MacDonald, Stein, Johnston, Persson.

What the hell is thread and Pod prefixes?

I pray before bed every night for @pete to work out how to use the thread prefixes for pods and articles, and for @BEARGER how to embed a tweet.

Even @BEARGER knows that one!

Seriously? All that's asked is that you do your fucking job and don't obstruct or cover up decades of child abuse and misery at a prominent football club in your jurisdiction. That's what a real justice minister would do. That fact that you refuse to meet the victims and act like nothing is happening is why you get criticized. Don't try and pretend otherwise.

Not necessarily @Gonzo79, Dudelange have dropped down into Europa and will play in R2 next week, and as the higher ranked side they get to choose which night they want to play. As they have been playing Tuesdays they may want to continue with Tuesday for their next home game, or they can pull rank and play Thursday, which would mean Progrès would have to move to Tuesday (can’t be Wednesday as visiting team need pitch available at kick off time the day before to train on). Its a wait and see job for everyone involved, and I’m guessing the earliest an announcement will be made will be Friday once Progrès have officially qualified for R2, and confirmed the date change with UEFA.

Oh it did Bill, I seen the tweet with this story in it, and the replies were virtually all from bheasts foaming at the mouth!

Clearly an important result. Although it’s quite meaningless in itself, the extent to which it will piss off the riffraff cannot be underestimated ?

Oi Oi

Chelsea: How about Next ?

Love the analogy. In that vein who would Chelsea be? I'm having Tottenham as CurrysPCWorld - Quality white goods, but always fuck up the delivery and West Ham as Poundland.

Line up: ... who might be the trialists? Looks a young line-up. Rangers Twitter https://twitter.com/RangersFC Cambridge Twitter https://twitter.com/CambridgeUtdFC

The Ryan Jack pass through to DC was a thing of beauty, and very unlike him. I am hoping he has been working on this part of his game, and being coached on this part of his game, as if he can add a good forward pass or spot an runner like in that move, he improves his game hugely. Last season he was too safe, with the easy option of square and backward passes taken all too frequently, and was by far the weakest part of his game.

Rangers Youth Academy 3 Min. 58’ GOAL: Jamie Barjonas doubles the lead as he finds the bottom corner with a shot from the edge of the box. 2-0 ... but good to see that we have our own eyes there.

Would have been better slipping on a pile of shite as you were arriving at Ayr. Have to laugh at your summing up but an injured hip can be a bastard, god knows what description it merits when it comes with a pile of shite.

He was a player we wasted by not making him a regular beside his cousin Jim Forrest the managers ideas back then were dated I know he won a lot at Rangers but it was the start of the tracksuit managers/coaches and we had Symon standing with a three piece suit coat and hat watching Davie Kinnear putting the lads through their paces I often think if we had played Forrest and dandy against Munich we would have made Glasgow a European capital of football that year .

I remember being at Brockville when Rangers took the field and Willoughby had a fag in hand. He continued to smoke during the pre game kickabout. Aye we had athletes in them days ?.

Ah! You can sleep easy tonight.

Perhaps a candlelit vigil is in order?

I love stats, but that's nonsense.

Club's will look at our situation and try and take advantage whilst we will be looking to get as good a deal as possible. A lot of the time, the difference will be too big to find an immediate compromise and things won't start really moving until needs must or transfer window approaches it's end. It reflects badly on our player trading/contract management business in the last few seasons. This has to improve (or rather we need to improve players and add value) or we will always be playing catch-up.

I will go for a near sell out. People can't wait to see the team in action.

July 12th last year saw SG manage his first competitive match against Shkupi with 49,309 in attendance. The game against St.Josephs is competitive but the tie is already done and there isn't the spice of SG's first game in charge. However, there is a current feel-good factor and the side are scoring goals. I'll go for 39, 862

Type in a... @ followed by first character of username you want and predictive text gives you options to click on @p @pete

There's lies, damned lies and statistics. But I'll take these. Cue howls of masonic conspiracy from the unwashed.

There should be a Rangers Museum for this soort of thing. You can't put every players medal into a Museum but these ones were special.