craig

You arse S_A :devil:

How many does Murrayfield hold ?

Game's a bogey after just 11 minutes - WOW !

But at the same time I think Bougherra is the only stand out this time around too. Likewise, not saying last year wasn't a travesty either. What is telling is that on both occasions a Rangers player was so very obviously the best candidate but was overlooked for a Celtic player.

IMO giving it to Brown over Bougherra is possibly even worse - at least on a par

Couldn't agree more. Shocking decision. So Chesney wins it for winning the CIS (AET) and being top of the league (for now) - ohhhhhhh, and for their wonderful run in Europe (automatic entrant and papped oot with no UEFA parachute....). Incredulous decision.

I cant see WS changing a winning formula. To be fair, I reckon that our midfield 4 really should be more than a match for whomever Celtic choose in there. I just hope that Davis & Mendes decide to show up. If they do we could win this at a canter because Celtic aren't a great team. If they don't show up....... I dread to think !

But if Celtic are using 1st teamers or experienced players whilst we use youngsters then you would reasonably expect Celtic to win that league, right ? Given Celtic have won the reserve league 8 years in succession would you actually EXPECT there to be many of our youths to make the 1st team ? OK, these kids can't compete with the Celtic reserves so lets promote them to the 1st team. Doesn't make sense. Maybe I am not explaining myself too well. But if we use the reserve league to give youngsters experience whilst Celtic use it for match sharpness for 1st teamers then we are unlikely to conquer them. But it does give those youngsters decent experience. Maybe we put more emphasis on the U-19's whilst Celtic place more on the reserves. I don't know. Hutton ? McGregor ? Stevie Smith ? They are decent successes, no ? Sadly for us, much of our youth are allowed to leave somewhat prematurely and then go on and do very well for themselcves, such as McCormack.

Is it "8 and counting ?" - is the reserve league not scrapped after this year ? I don't think that our youth dept is an utter shambles - the reserves yes but it all depends on the function of the reserves - if we play a lot of youngsters whilst our opponents play a lot of 1st teamers it is hardly a decent match-up. For our youth dept you should really be looking at the U-19's - and they have done pretty well in recent seasons, admittedly this season they lost the league though.

I agree. I have never really seen the logic behind the "we have won 6 games without him therefore we dont need him" mentality. Have we won 6 games without him ? Yes. Would we have won 6 games WITH him ? Who knows. And just because it hadnt happened all season doesnt mean it is BF's fault. The reality is that Rangers should be going on a run of AT LEAST 10 winning games - the only time our run really should be close to halting should be against Celtic. It could be argued that we are now simply winning games we always should. Is the team better without BF in it ? None of us can say for sure, either way. It could be that Edu+BF would be better than Edu+Mendes (but we know Mendes has been poor for a while, so would Edu+BF be any worse ?????).

I find it amusing on both sides. In the one corner you have the "Barry-haters" and in the other you have the "Barry-lovers". We can talk about BF till we are blue in the face - but when was the last time he actually had a good game against Celtic ? Don't get me wrong, BF is/was a quality player but for too long now he has got by on past reputation. Sure, he may have been as effective as any of our other midfielders this season but that hardly says much does it ? Our midfield has been gash for pretty much the whole season. In fact, the ONLY midfielder who DOESN'T deserve to be dropped is Edu - the one midfielder who WILL be dropped if BF is to play.

So 3.5 million on Lafferty as a squad player ? 2 million on Whittaker as a squad player ? We dont have that type of money to spend on players who are only going to be squad players. I disagree that Edu got "multiple chances" - when ? He played in about 2 games if that - is that enough to determine if a player should be given a chance or not (Amdy Faye excepted.....). I would play Edu before Stephen Thomson but not Kevin Thomson I am not suggesting ANYTHING is Walter's fault - but you started throwing names out there as if they were ALL to Walter's credit. All I did was critique that and suggest that rather than giving WS carte blanche praise there could be other extenuating reasons why some of those players you mentioned got their chance. Similarly I dont think that the lack of youth in the team is WS's fault either - we as fans are very fickle. We scream out for young players in the team and when they get there we laud them - 3 games later we are talking about how crap they are and they should never be in the team. WS has a job to do and that is win football games - he does it with the players he thinks capable - what we do know is he doesnt go out trying to lose games. His teams are often different to what any of us would choose but that is the beauty fof opinions and debating them.

I will take Aberdeen if that is OK. S_A, having done those last two OF games you are officialy BANNED from the Match preview for that one !

Agreed, but chances are that WS will still go out and sign another CB.

Personally I dont see how it is weird that he doesnt get any credit when the only reason he plays these guys is through injuries to others. If not for injuries would they have been given a chance ? Probably not.

Yep, and a well deserved MOTM too. I remember being at the game and he strolled it. Him beside Bougherra would make a very decent backline pairing IMO.

Just two ? Not their next 6 ?

Thomson is still injured - I would have Dailly in for him......

I don't disagree with much of what you write here calscot. Lets look at the players you mention here though : "Hutton, Whittaker, Smith, Davis, Thomson, Edu, Fleck, Boyd and Lafferty." Hutton - I give you that one Whittaker - only got a proper chance when Broadfoot got injured. Played when others were injured. Smith - been injured to be fair - but has been fit for a large part of this season (I think) and has, again, only been given a chance when others were injured or out-of form. Davis -yep, give you him. Thomson - yep, give you him Edu - only got a chance when Ferguson was banned. Fleck - got his chance and then came back out of the team - but only played a handful of games. Boyd - hard to NOT play him to be fair. Lafferty - was used sparingly and out of position for the most part was he not ? Even with some of the above who HAVE been playe and properly been given their chance - some were players who WS purchased (Whittaker, Davis, Thomson, Lafferty) and he woudl therefore feel obliged to play them as they were "his" players. I am not disagreeing with you but merely putting another slant on some of the possible reasons that these players have been given a chance. There are some promising youngsters in the reserves such as Lowing, Wilson, Little, Lennon etc. Wilson, for instance, is very highly thought of but instead of giving him a chance in the 1st team WS opted for Lee McCulloch to play at CB aside Weir. Now, I am not saying that he SHOULD have got playing time as we are in must-win situations but should we be playing a striker/midfielder at CB ? What about Aaron ? Maybe he doesnt deserve his chance.... but from the games I have seen him play in he has looked sharp, tries to beat a man, gets a decent ball in and has created goals - yet he has been fleeting in appearance in a position that has caused us problems all season. WS tries to shoehorn players into his side, mostly determined on whether he bought them or if they have experience, rather than giving some of these kids a chance. There needs to be a balance between youth and experience but if the experienced players arent doing the job then he should have no fears in putting a youngster in there IF they have the talent to thrive. There is no doubting though that WS has stuck to some of the seasoned campaigners when they haven't deserved it. That said, it is hard to disagree as we reached the CIS final, are in the SC final and just a point behind in the league with just 5 games to go. It is a very difficult situation to manage to be fair and not one I envy WS with.

I think Evra is a CLASS player, but will bow to your superior knowledge on Man U players.

Couldnt agree more. Has done better than any of the others at LM this season and more consistent. Deserves to retain his place.

Fair enough my man, all about opinions. I think Stevie Smith is a great wee player and I want him to do well as I still think he could be our long term left back. But yesterday I thought he looked bereft of ideas, offering nothing going forward - and that might be because WS asked him to help Whittaker shackle Dorman. I thought all of his set pieces were terrible. I don't recall him hitting any FK's but his corners were awful (again, to be fair, we havent had anyone who could hit a corner this season, or for the last few seasons !!). Maybe I am expecting too much from him, but I thought he was a bit anonymous throughout the game. Having said that, his sublime cross-field ball to Davis for the build up to the first goal shouldnt go without mention.

I agree with Cammy (sorry gisabeer). I thought Stevie Smith was pretty poor yesterday. He didn't offer himself to Whittaker very often and, more often than not, Whittaker was more of an attacking threat than Smith. He also ball-watched at times, floating inside and leaving his man out wide. His set piece taking was terrible. At one point I actually wondered whether he had the leg strength to get the ball past the first man. He continually hit the first defender. And in open play when he got the ball he also failed to get the ball past the first defender. To be fair to him though, he STILL was no worse than anyone else that has played out on the left this season. Conversely to you saying that you think Cammy might not like the guy because of the rating given him it could be said that you perhaps have rose-tinted specs on when it comes to Smith. Whittaker was far more effective than Stevie Smith yesterday but to be fair to SS I think that when Whittaker got forward he covered for Whittaker well.

So if you know who pays for them why suggest that players who drive 150k cars should afford several pairs of boots ? It is irrelevant what they drive if they arent paying for the boots anyway. :fish: I didn't say refs dont twist and turn, did I ? They certainly dont twist and turn as acutely or swiftly as players do. I agree... today was played at a snails pace but part of that was because we simply were never under any real pressure.

The players dont even pay for their boots, they get them for free. Refs don't have to twist and turn so acutely, hence they are much less likely to slip and slide.