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Showing content with the highest reputation on 07/03/20 in all areas

  1. It should be noted we’ve only conceded 19 goals in the league this season - same as the yahoos- although they’ve played a game more. However they’ve scored 20more than us & that’s where our problems lie. If Morelos isn’t scoring then who is ? We’d two central MF players on Wednesday night (Davis & Kamara) who haven’t got a league goal between them this season. We need to hope Morelos returns to form & hope he’ll still be here next season because if he isn’t... what’s disappointing too is I hear there are all sorts of fall-outs amongst the yahoos squad. Many can’t stand Lennon who praises players in public & slaughters them at lennoxtown. And bolingoli is AWOL. Lennon doesn’t rate the Polish striker signed in January and so on...
    3 points
  2. This is great news for the club. One of the best in many a year. Elfideldo will have seen more of him than I but I have seen Leon off and on since he was about 8 when my own kid played against him just prior to him signing for the club (was previously at Barrhead BC). Very humble young man with great desire, great physique and has a very bright future in the game in my opinion. Kevin Thomson told me last year that Leon "has everything to make it to the top of the game". Had the pleasure to speak to him for a few minutes when he trained with Kevin in January along with my son. I also heard, from a very good source, that Man U said Leon was "the best of his age group in the whole of Europe". Here's hoping we see him continue to be involved around the senior team and, hopefully, make an appearance or two before the season is out. Signed till 2022
    2 points
  3. Whats the odds on King not making one single appearance in the Rangers first team?
    2 points
  4. 2 points
  5. I agree with you on Edmundson, because he's not been given enough of a chance. Goldson however has had much more than "one brain fart". He's been really poor since the start of this year (except for against Braga for 135 minutes). I like Goldson and I'm not suggesting we get rid of him. However he does need to realise that he too will suffer consequences for these poor performances. This will help him and the team longer term. We've got too many players who know they will continue to be selected regardless of their performance. That's not good for our team to see or feel that. It has disastrous consequences for a team if they don't trust one another or don't trust the manager. He needs to be dropped for his own good.
    2 points
  6. Wednesday night at Ibrox was a complete nightmare. To the goal we lost, to the chances we missed, to the final result, to Celtic dropping points, to the traffic afterwards; what could go wrong, did go wrong and I have to admit it took me until this morning to update our main with the match highlights. Then, for some reason, despite being unable to sleep after that result the other night, I decided to watch the bulk of the game, as sometimes it's worth doing so on TV as you can miss some stuff actually being there. At Ibrox, I thought we did OK up until Hamilton scored, then lost confidence as the crowd lost their patience. Yet, without playing well per se, we actually didn't do as bad as I thought later in the match and how we didn't score at least once in the 90mins was quite incredible. Of course the reaction to the result has been that of outrage, quickly followed by resentment. And, given recent events and performances, that's understandable. Petty it might be but it's also easy to appreciate supporter indignation when under-fire players feel sorry for themselves in press interviews, whilst driving away from stadiums in six figure super cars. Quite simply complaining about struggling with the pressure won't wash with fans expectant of success - or at the very least a goal or two across two matches against the Premiership's bottom two teams. Let's be honest; when players sign for Rangers, they should be made for life; most will earn thousands per week and the opportunity of millions over their career. The same can't be said for the lads Hamilton play. Often moving from club-to-club for the chance to impress for a small capped wage is more likely and when they do retire from the sport, they won't have pension investments and property portfolios to rely on. That's a pressure more in line with supporters, who often struggle to make ends meet following their club. Nevertheless, we can't have it both ways. When Rangers were winning title after title or, in this era, erm, doing well in European games, we didn't ask what kind of car our captain was driving or how well paid they were. Nor did we complain about how much it cost us. Football is football and, as much as the money floating about - even at SPFL level - can be eye-watering and impossible to relate to for most of us, players deserve to be paid, even when they play badly. C'est la vie. For Rangers fans, as much as we demand success, we also expect effort and application to be just as prevalent. Similarly, as much as we can forgive the occasional mistake, not learning from them must be one of our biggest frustrations. That's why James Tavernier and Connor Goldson have been the focus of so much scorn this week. Our captain and vice-captain respectively, both have sold the jerseys in our last two games and it really is impossible to explain their mindset. Was it over-confidence or a lack of ability? It can't be the latter as both have shown they are good players when focused so it has to be the former which is misplaced when the team is struggling so badly. It's with merit then that supporters expect both to be dropped for our next game. After all, other players have suffered from such: be it Niko Katic, Ryan Kent, Glen Kamara or various others for their poor form. If the manager wants to retain the respect of those players and other fringe lads, who still can't get into what is now a losing team, then surely he can't favour player A over player B when they cost us points? Unfortunately, football isn't quite as simple as that. First and foremost, whilst Ross County (a team who have never beaten us...yet) may not represent the kind of challenge that shouldn't allow us to 'rotate' our side and 'rest' a few struggling players - even key ones - we've all seen how much we've laboured against other clubs in the bottom half of the Premiership of late. More importantly though, it's the games following that one that are of more interest, being them against Bayer Leverkusen in the last 16 of the Europa League and those either side of the third Old Firm league match of the campaign. Any title aspirations may be all but gone and our chances of beating the Germans 50/50 at best but these are vital matches nonetheless and perhaps not the time for an erratic Jon Flanagan or the inexperience of Nathan Patterson at right back. And can we really rely on an untested partnership of Katic and Edmundson centrally? Sure, someone like Patterson or a Matt Polster (if properly fit) should arguably be playing in Dingwall and why not test out a new centre-back pairing while we're at it? And don't forget to chuck in Halliday at left-back since Borna Barisic has reverted to his fickle form of last season. Are you more or less confident of European progression and another win over Celtic? The fact is, as much as key players like Tav and Goldson have let us down badly (and I mean really badly) of late, I'm not quite ready to give up on them yet and I also don't feel offering up one or two scapegoats works either. It's like saying we can't play Morelos again for missing chances or that Kent will never pay back his inflated transfer fee. At 23, those two lads are still fairly young and still learning. They need our support, as difficult as that may seem when they spurn a chance or pass it out the park. With all the above in mind then, how do we approach Sunday and the subsequent run of three very tough fixtures? Do we drop Goldson, Tav, Davis and the rest of the players letting us down? Or do we show our supposed insanity by sticking with those failing us? Well, it's my preview, and as much as I completely understand and share the calls for changes to the team, I'm disinclined to do so right now. At the start of the year no-one could have seen this 2020 collapse coming (sic) but collapse it has. I won't pretend to know how so many key players have been so bad. And, for what it's worth, I don't think it was Dubai's training camp, a dressing room fall-out, a broken system or any other daft rumour. I believe it's just been the perfect storm of key player form, suspension and injury. Occam's razor, m'lud. If we consider Tav, Barisic, Jack, Davis, Kent and Morelos to be our key players (and they are) then none have shown any sort of good form this year. That's also more than half our team. I'd fancy if Foster, Julien, McGregor, Brown, Christie, Forrest and Edouard stopped doing the business for Celtic, they'd also struggle. Only twice have our six key players played in the same starting XI this year and it's no coincidence we won both matches (v Hibs and Braga). However, that's not an excuse and that's where criticism of the manager comes in for not being able to adapt: either in terms of ensuring we have the squad able to cope and/or changing the system to suit. Consequently, it's no surprise to see the manager's position being questioned as well. Criticism has been increasing - from his tactics to his (over)-reliance and protection of some players. How can younger lads like Katic be thrown under buses for costing goals whilst their supposed peers are excused for same? That puzzles fans and it's something the manager could do with explaining. As should his apparent inability to address his squad's keenness to prefer an underdog status at a club that has historically been the favourite. Ultimately, there are more questions than answers for this Rangers team. For every win over Celtic, there's a loss to Hearts. For every European tactical master plan there's a struggle to deal with even the most basic of Scottish football presses. It seems for every step forward, there's the inevitable step back. But, surely, even after the events of Wednesday night we can't throw the baby out with the bathwater? And we certainly cannot afford another change of management and other 15+ player rebuild in the summer. Yes, it seems a cheap and increasingly irrelevant claim right now but we have made progress. As a departure from the norm, I'm now going to post two possible teams for Sunday. OK, it's taking it to extremes a wee bit, but one will offer all the changes many fans seem desperate to see. The other will offer something that may seen even more silly and go against every emotion we felt leaving Glasgow the other night: in other words one or two enforced changes but effectively a defence for an XI that (all merited criticism aside) were actually a wee bit unlucky the other night and an XI we know are a good team capable of winning big games. When you see the two XIs together, you'll soon realise it's not really a choice and, as much as I'm still raging with several players, I still believe good players don't turn wholly bad overnight and our team's form will only return by playing our best players and supporting them through bad times. That may go against the current mood but I don't see many credible alternatives. Be gentle, please! Possible XI (a) Possible XI (b)
    1 point
  7. At this juncture, I'm not sure about the manager situation. If SG can't turn things round in the coming weeks, I think we might need to look at alternatives, which is extremely disappointing. Leverkusen beat Eintracht Frankfurt 4-0 today. I'm worried about Thursday (and the league is finished).
    1 point
  8. I'd go for a diamond in midfield, Patterson at RB and Kamberi and Morelos up front. Jack Aribo Kamara Hagi Morelos Kamberi If Gerrard continues to play Hagi wide, I'll be thinking his time is coming to an end.
    1 point
  9. If we can get over £25m for Morelos and Barasic, we could bring in 5 or 6 very good players and become a league winning team. Morelos is unique and on his day, unplayable but he's not a top quality finisher by any means. Barisic, again, is terrific on his day but not irreplaceable. We've been far too reliant on two or three players these past two seasons and when they're off form, we struggle to break teams down. We need a better team and we need a spine with a winning mentality. Goldson, Tav, Jack, Davis and Kamara don't provide that - replace them with winners.
    1 point
  10. He will be playing in the EUROS for Croatia, if he has a good tournament his price would increase!
    1 point
  11. Two bits of shoddy defending cost Bournemouth a shock result
    1 point
  12. I'd play ... McGregor Polster - Goldson/Edmundson - Katic Jack Stewart - Hagi - Aribo - Jones Morelos - Kamberi ... with Jack sweeping before the defence, who should more or less stay back. Hagi the creative force, Aribo both enforcer and creator, Stewart and Jones roving the wings and the strikers doing what strikers do.
    1 point
  13. Liverpool, lacking tempo, were struggling to break down 10 men behind the ball, then conceded, poorly, from one counter-attack, exacerbated by terrible refereeing. They've also got a player playing out of position at Left-back because they've got no strength in depth at Full-back. Sound familiar? The difference? They're continuously moving and rotating positions up front and in midfield, and have quality up front. It's now 2-1 to Liverpool.
    1 point
  14. With Collum in charge I think I will take the 9/1for County before the price collapses ??
    1 point
  15. A terrible line of events and - essentially - non-action. SG has assembled a team full of tacticians and former players ... and yet we continue with Plan A time and again with minimal changes to personnell when the wheels come off.
    1 point
  16. That's a very good point. There's been a lot of talk about our system of playing but, barring the last Hearts game where we were second best and maybe the first game against Celtic , we should have won all of the domestic games based on the amount of possession, chances and openings we have created. The players have just not done the business where it matters; our finishing has been poor and our crossing /final ball have been well below par.
    1 point
  17. I would opt for this one. We'll need to stick with Goldson until the end of the season. If he doesn't recover form then I hope we get a replacement.
    1 point
  18. I disagree - he's won several of our MotM polls since the start of the year. I'm not suggesting he's not made other mistakes, I just think we're jumping on the bandwagon after that mistake against Hamilton. I don't think he deserves to be dropped. Katic was much worse and Helander is still out. I do agree we need to draft in players for under-performing ones. I would actually prefer youngster drafted in.
    1 point
  19. These conferences are mostly irrelevant, other than for team news etc. We hear what we want to hear. If we're winning he's 'refreshingly honest and candid; he speaks well'; if we're losing he's 'spouting the same meaningless soundbites; he's lost' etc.
    1 point
  20. No doubt Goldson made a massive blunder against Accies, but in true team spirit ,that should've at least been the catalyst for his team mates to dig him out of a hole. Of course Goldson took all the flack ,but it says as much about the rest of the team as it does Goldson.
    1 point
  21. Rangers are underdogs for this match so the team can relax and probably win.
    1 point
  22. Goldson is consistently one of our best performers. One brain fart doesn't mean he should be dropped. Likewise with Edmundson; a couple of "mistakes" is not enough to suggest he should be dropped, especially when Katic was only dropped after he went through a prolonged period of poor form. Edmundson has not had a decent run of games yet. Tavernier has been consistently poor for a while, so a spell on the injury list could be a blessing in disguise for both him and the team.
    1 point
  23. I thought Morelos worked hard and was unlucky. Actually, I rewatched much of the game last night and it's incredible we didn't get at least one goal.
    1 point
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