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Our main problem this season - even partly last season too - was that Morelos moved to the wings or deeper (and correctly drawing defenders out of position), yet those who should take his place and run into danger areas either failed to deliver or simply weren`t there*. You hardly know what Arbibo`s best position is, given where he pops up on the park, while Kent is also roving about ... and our midfielders don`t really join the attack, bar Hagi and Arfield perhaps. Likewise, the "roving fullbacks" can cross all day long (and hopefully beyond the first man), if there`s hardly anyone in the box ... Hence I recently said that we went from a 4 attacker line up (2 wingers, 2 strikers) to one with something like 0,5*-3 attackers ... which is essentially the worst way of opening up "low blocks", 5-4-1s and the like. Hence - you may remember - we oftentimes toiled badly unless we scored early.

A Trio of League Fixtures. After qualification for the ECWC quarter-finals, Rangers faced a trio of League fixtures to see out November'71. We had began the league season in appalling fashion, had battled to keep ourselves off the bottom of the table and, then put together a run of five winning games to hoist the club into fourth position. Spirits were high and a decent crowd was expected at Ibrox for the visit of Dundee. The Dens Parkers were a tasty side in those days, passed you off the pitch, with John Duncan, Gordon Wallace and, Jocky Scott all ready to put the ball into the net. My mates and I caught the Tannochside bus and joined another thirty-five and a half thousand on the terraces. Rangers began a contract with StadiaCatering in August'71, the idea was to provide an alternative to pie and bovril, macaroon bars and, Wrigley Chewing gum. A couple of dozen lads circled the track replete in white coats and forage caps. They carried trays loaded with cheese rolls, meat rolls, Chipmunk crisps and, Kia-Ora drink cartons. The mystery was 'the meat' on the meat rolls, my inquiry was answered, "it's meat meat". Even in Ershur, they differentiate between Spam and Corned Beef, don't they? Whatever became of Chipmunk Crisps? Rangers lined up with : McCloy, Jardine, Mathieson, Greig, Jackson, Henderson, Smith, Conn, Stein, Johnston and, MacDonald; whereas Dundee turned out - Donaldson, Wilson, Johnston, Steele, Philip, Ford, Duncan, Kinninmonth, Wallace, Scott and, Wilson. My cheese roll with added crisps had hardly began to digest when Gordon Wallace ran in Dundee's third goal on the 19th minute. He followed up both Kinninmonth on the 5th and Johnston on the 12th minutes. Willie Johnston pulled one back several minutes before half-time and the interval talk was of all out attack in the second period. Bud notched another just after the hour mark and, John Greig was sent up front. The game finished 2-3 and the boos echoed around the Stadium. Next stop was the Tail-of-the-Bank, the tide was out and Cappielow was deemed playable. The 'Ton ran out with : Sorensen, Hayes, Laughton, Lumsden, Anderson, Clark, Smith, Mason, Osborne, Murphy and, Chalmers. Rangers fielded : McCloy, Jardine, Mathieson, Greig, Jackson, Smith, McLean, Conn, Fyfe, Stein, MacDonald and, Johnston. The persistent rain kept the attendance to a manageable 12,500; just as well, the terrace at the corner of East Hamilton Street and the Port Glasgow Road slid towards the pitch pre kick-off. Everything happened in the first half hour, leaving us all an hour and a half of driving rain to be endured. Bud scored on the 6th minute, Morton equalised through Osborne on the 15th and, Ham and Egg knocked in the winner on the 27th. The 'Ton's Anderson was ordered from the field on half hour mark, no doubt grateful for an early, warm bath? The opposition Keeper, Eric Sorensen had been on our books for a season and a half before returning to Greenock and Joe Mason would be a £10,000 Rangers signing the very next year. I remember former Lisbon Lion, Stevie Chalmers took dogs abuse that game before the rain dampened everyones ardour. We ended the month with another seaside trip, this time to Somerset Park. Ally MacLeod was Ayr United's Manager and the former Third Lanark - St Mirren player was best characterised as, 'a character'. He would bang his hands together then gesticulate and, let go with a stream of invective. He could promote a player, the Honest Men won the Reserve League season '71-'72 and the stand out player was right back, Davie Wells. Ally MacLeod stated he had already knocked back a most attractive bid from Bayern Munich! Fifteen thousand squeezed in to see Ayr United : Stewart, Fillipi, Murphy, Fleming, Quinn, Mitchell, Doyle, Graham, Whitehead, McGovern and, Stevenson. Rangers fielded : McCloy, Jardine, Mathieson, Greig, D Johnstone, Smith, Henderson, Conn, Stein, MacDonald and, Johnston. Somerset Park and Ally MacLeod was always a struggle for Rangers. There was a pretty equal split on the three available results over five-six years. Joe Fillipi and Johnny Doyle were always at it and, both earned their respective moves to Sellik in the next couple of seasons. Colin Stein opened the scoring on the 11th minute, Fillipi equalised on the 36th and, Willie Henderson scored the winner on the 39th. Interestingly, this was Willie's 36th and final goal for Rangers in his dozen year spell. MacLeod held the Sunday newspaper headlines, claiming Joe Fillipi was worthy of national consideration reference Scotland traveling to Holland midweek. Scotland went down 2-1 in the Netherlands, Rinus Michels Dutch side included Cruyff, Wim Jansen, Ruud Krol, Johan Neeskens, Israel and, Muhren. Tommy Docherty fielded : Bob Wilson, Eddie Colqhoun, Davie Hay, Sandy Jardine, Billy Bremner, Archie Gemmill, Eddie Gray, Jimmy Johnstone, Pat Stanton, Kenny Dalglish and, George Graham. Cruyff opened the scoring, Graham equalised after half time and the Dutch notched the last minute winner through Hulshoff. Scotland's goal scorer, George Graham came from a Lanarkshire village near my own and I knew the family. George was a huge Bluenose but years after he told me the genuine article in both Arsenal - Scotland team was Bob Wilson. His middle name was Primrose, after Bob's Uncle, James Ure Primrose, Chairman of Rangers for a dozen years after WW1. December beckoned, the Indo-Pakistan War would begin, David Bowie would release Hunky Dory and, Rangers would play on Christmas Day.

All this season I have been saying that Gerard has/had been destroying Morelos by using him as a link man instead of what I call old fashioned centre-forward(striker). Similarly McCoist took Kris Boyd,who scored goals for fun and deployed him in that role as link man.

These are the games where we will see what impact Gio will have on our game. Europe has never been a problem for our tactics and players, it remains to be seen whether Gio changes it against the trench diggers and hammerthrowers. IMHO, we should revert to 3 at the back, make that Tavernier - Goldson - Bassey, with either sided "CH" may every now and then join the attack. Keep Kamara or Jack as the DM who pops up when and where needed. Send Kent to the left wing - with the order to track back when needed, put Patterson on the right flank - same order. Play Aribo as a 10, Arfield LM, Hagi RM ... and Sakala and Morelos up top. And no goalie. Well, okay, its just Morelos up top then.

Morelos needs to be playing a much higher line, and I think we saw that last night, which will down to Gio and Maakay. Morelos was playing too deep last season and this, and it's hindered him - and damaged his confidence. He is performs better as a central striker/poacher, where he can shoot on instinct. Let's hope that's now sorted.

Would be nice if all players took a stand against the upcoming world cup and came out and said to their associations I am not going .

I agree with a back three in principle, but it can't be composed of two attacking full-backs...

Also, what about Morelos' disciplinary record? When he was up top, he got into physical battles, and inevitably got sent off. The majority were calling for his head! 'He's letting the team down...' etc. SG plays him deeper, he doesn't get involved in physical battles (relatively speaking) and doesn't get sent off. But now he doesn't score as many, so he's 'lost his hunger, his nasty streak, his spark'. Now we're wanting it back? Make up your minds! That's my rant for today... 👀

I don't quite understand what you mean? Do you mean Morelos hasn't been playing well in that deeper role? That's patently untrue. He was exceptional last season. Do you mean Morelos is not scoring goals? That's true, yes. But strikers don't have to score goals to be effective (i.e. Firmino at Liverpool). I suppose that does 'destroy' what Morelos was all about (Scoring goals). But, then shouldn't players sacrifice themselves for the team? And, we shouldn't forget, the reason SG played Morelos in that deeper role was because he goes through periods of not scoring, doing nothing otherwise; and if the team is built around a #9 scoring goals, and he doesn't, the whole team is fucked. By playing Morelos deeper, SG gets more out of him as a team player, but is then not dependent on one player. I disagree completely with this narrative that he's been poor because he's playing deeper; it's simply untrue. However, I sympathise with the desire to see Morelos scoring regularly (even if I don't believe he was ever like that; it was always in fits and bursts). I love the guy; I love it when he's torn faced.

I think the problem is more his application and fitness as opposed to his position. He is still carrying too much weight for me and this highlighted in his inability to get away from players.

I agree, but I don't think Simpson is in the European squad?

Are we all just going to gloss over the fact that Morelos was exceptional last season, playing that deeper role? I can't believe how quickly the narrative switches. He's been sh*te this season, but so has everyone else.

Its hard not to over-analyse last night and say that the players looked happier and were much more positive and playing at a higher-tempo etc. I guess we need to give it a few more games to see if that continues. Very promising start though.

Gio got the right reaction from the players last night , defence in particular seemed to show a bit more solidarity, and we're through ,when after the Hibs game ,all seemed a bit beyond us tbh. As nice as it would've been to get into the Lg cup final, the Hibs game was the last remaining part of Gerrard's legacy ,who had no success at all in cups , so we draw a. line under that one , and i'll take European football with Gio next year instead thank you very much. Only disappointment last night was queueing for a pie at half time only for the guy in front of me to get the last one 😀 .

I always wondered what Gary McAllister's role was under Gerrard, other than filling in at pressers and the like. It always looked like the main coaching and tactical support came from elsewhere. Assistant managers seem to be a bit like US vice presidents - they don't actually do anything and are sometimes chosen on the basis of not posing any threat to the incumbent, the difference being that in football the sidekick usually buggers off with the main man when he goes.

Hope he stays and hit's top

Yeah, it was far from what we want but it was decent. I was surprised and increasingly frustrated that the manager seemed to delay much required changes as the game went on. On a positive side, we did create plenty of good chances and, on another day, we win that game 5-0. Instead we're hanging on to a degree and reliant on a great double save from McGregor. The appointment of a new manager was never going to be an instant fix but there were enough signs of improvement to give us some confidence.

I don't know if it's just because my nerves were shot by that second half, backs-to-the-wall performance, but I wasn't too impressed last night. Of course, GvB's only had a couple of days, so we can't expect too much change. I thought it was interesting that we were playing a 4-4-2 in defence, which is a solid set-up. I don't think we pressed high at all, it was more of a mid-block. I did think our defenders were a lot more aggressive, though. And, we did press higher second half. It was a 4-2-3-1 in attack. Kent and Hagi were noticeably wider, with moments where they played it well, then others when they didn't. I expect that to improve, though. Aribo as the #10 was interesting, because it suggests GvB doesn't want a 'creative' #10, but more of a second-striker, someone with energy that can play in tandem with the striker. (Then again, Aribo and Hagi swapped position after a while, so it's fluid.) Generally, I was a wee bit disappointed. I would like to see more controlled possession in my teams. That may come, though, as GvB works with them. The result was all that mattered, at the end of the day. Job done.

Bring on Barca BTW.

I thought there were a lot of good signs last night. we moved the ball faster. We played higher up the park and pressed the ball high up. Got both goals from doing so. we were more aggressive at the back our attitude was much better. We were far less predictable. McGregor made a save or two and what saves they were. Makes you wonder what was going on under Gerrard to be honest. Some of the old habits crept back in at times but that will get better with more coaching time.

Definitely should have scored more, Aribo should have had at least 2, Kent should have had 1, but we got what we needed. The main thing for me was that there was a different attitude out there. An urgency, willingness to fight hard for every ball, closing down players quicker, playing a higher line when needed - which benefited Morelos particularly. So a good start - Gio has had an instant effect in my opinion. Gerrard & co let standards slip, so this could well be the tonic we needed. We'll see but I'm now hopeful based on tonights performance.

That double save, though! Jeez...

Delighted with tonight’s result but I do think some put the tools away towards the end. Did they not realise that a 2 goal victory meant EL knock out stages?

Once again it's left to Rangers to fly the flag in Europe for Scottish football, about time other teams did their part to help the coefficient

Not brilliant by any means and we did lose our shape again in the latter part of the second half but it's very much job done so well done to the manager and his players for a decent reply to the events of Sunday. And a big kudo to the fans who were brilliant!

Not so sure now but maybe yet. Tav perhaps still under pressure.