Tannochsidebear

Bears should re-read the sentence above over and over and over until it sinks in. Then discuss.

It is your defence of a tactical system that is so obviously flawed that grates, Rousseau. If our team defended the ball as well as you defend this system, we would still have our 100% record intact, not 2 wins from our last 6 league games. Our philosophy is not better than our recent opponents, because our tactics are easy to quash, while we continue to allow our opponents tactics to bear fruit. That proves the opposite is true. I have some major gripes about our side and management. While I initially enjoyed the fast paced passing and triangular movement, cutting defences open, getting in behind, counter-attacking at pace, those tactics have not been seen at a Rangers match since well before the clocks changed. Instead we have tippy-tappy, one-dimensional, slow paced, trying to thread passes through non-existent spaces, refusal to shoot, boring football. And all the while the early defensive bomb scares have not been corrected. I said after the first couple of games that you have to give a new defence time to gel, but the more time they get the worse they look. After initial bursts of form that made us all lick our lips, Tav, Waggy, Oduwa, Zalalem all look miles out of their depth at our very demanding, high-pressure club. Stories linking us to similar level players has me very worried indeed. If Warbs insists he only needs one or two additions in January, then he will be seriously questioned as it is clear we need a lot of changes to this side now that our opponents have worked us out, and are getting success. Warbs either needs to change his formation, tactics and philosophy, or he needs to bring in 8 players to play how he wants to. He must learn that substitutes are for changing the game, not for squad rotation, and that this is no ordinary club that will accept mediocrity.

Ive rarely read such utter drivel on this site. Your continued blinkered defence of a system that DOESNT WORK is becoming ridiculous Rousseau, with due respect to your entitled opinion. Highly superior technical what? Playing square passes. Ignoring runners, on the rare occasion there may actually be a runner to find. Substitutions that are set in stop for the 60 minute mark no matter the score or state of play. This manager has only a plan A, which might work with quality players, but not with bargain basement lower league journeymen. That we have been amateurish in defence since July and not done a damn thing about it is either arrogance or lack of coaching skills. By all means you can argue we had more possession, more attempts etc but never in a million years can you get away with saying we would have won if our opponent didn't work as hard as they did, and bemoan it as a problem in our game. Yes, let's all slow the game down to a snails pace and make 500 ineffective passes per game, look how pretty it looks on a tactics board. Utter drivel man.

Easily the most impressive interview with Paul Murray I have ever read. I'm not a fan of his, but I think he is spot on the money with this.

I would say he is one of the worst culprits, but that would be trying to say his performance level was ever higher in this third spell at the club. Please stop your empty promises Kenny, we heard them all last season too and you didn't improve one jot. A couple of goals off the bench when Hibs were chasing the game back during the Glasgow Fair still remains your best performance of the season, so enough of your bull and just leave.

My guess is that the RST will collate this money together with the money from their own DD scheme and either give the club a loan to be converted to shares, or wait until the share issue then buy them. Either way the benefits are two-fold; Profits from merchandise goes straight to the club in a far greater proportion than our current merchandise deal with SD, and RST also get to increase their shareholding on behalf of members/fans which while not required just now as the club is in Bears hands, may be important someway down the line if a hostile takeover is attempted. I dont see any negatives.

Superb work by all involved. Not wanting to bring politics into it, but when we have so many homeless needing help, why are we even considering bringing in more refugees from other countries? We clearly are letting down our own, most of whom will have contributed to our society in better times, and at the same time welcoming others from Syria etc who have contributed nothing. Really angers me. Glad our club have done something to help this very deserving cause.

So sad with a young family left behind.

Due to my 20 year and counting ban on all Daily Rhebel products, I refuse to click through any links to this rag. Is it possible for a cut/paste for threads of this nature to enable us to review content without feeling all dirty by being on their website?

A more unprofessional leader I have never come across. A clear patsy for others.

This will prevent us getting some good pre-season friendlies under our belts against superior opposition to ready ourselves for the tilt at 55, albeit for one season only. I like the idea of summer football, i like the idea of the league cup being regionalised and seeded, but you just knew that put all that together by the ones running our game and it would come out an abhorrent mess that this sounds like. It takes only a few minutes to realise this will be used as pre-season friendlies by most clubs, or are we to believe they will all come back for pre-season earlier to ensure they are all ready at top level for mid-July? Also, In most years the teams with a bye will be the only teams that can summon a tv audience, so it wont take BT long to see there is no demand for watching Scottish second tier teams playing pre-season friendlies.

You can tell how some people are by the stories about them you hear. I hear nothing but good things about Colin, so he must be doing a good job, and be a good Bear to boot. Good article that. Compare & contrast to the other thread.

Sums up Jig for me, giving an interview to that scumbag. The worst technically performing captain our club has ever had. Only wish he took Miller with him to Killie.

A model professional he may be, but a terrible football player he is also. His passing, movement, reading of the game, and of course most importantly finishing, are all of a standard that falls far far short of what I want at our club. Jig was also a model professional, as was Neil Alexander and a whole host of others. It doesnt mean we should have them in the team. His place/wages should be better utilised.

The first half started at 7.45 on the clock inside the ground. The second half started at 8.55 due to the 10 minute delay to move fans to another part of the ground.

They give us 8000 and we give them 7500. Police enforce this as the only way they can police and segregate fans properly. If we got to the stage we gave them the 800-1000 in the corner, it would encourage some of their die-hards to go into the Rangers end and this is why the allocations are high. To be honest what makes the OF game such a world-wide hit is the noise generated by two large supports playing off against each other, which then creates a playing environment that players thrive on. I would love to give them nothing at all, and we do not go to the piggery ever again, but it would completely wipe out the atmosphere that makes this game such an attraction to non-OF fans. Like it or not, we are going to be stuck with giving our whole Broomie to them, and getting our 8000 allocation at the piggery as we have had since it was rebuilt. And despite protestations and much online mumping of gums, both sides will sell out their allocations in quick time.

I agree with BH. Sending Bomber on a AEP junket reeks of cronyism. It is not as if he is the most eloquent of speakers. I know the '72 team are all getting on a bit now, but I would have thought that would be far more appropriate, and if nobody was available, a Director.

Nowhere have I mentioned that it is all about effort, fitness or work-rate. I think our current side has all of those three in abundance. My issue with Zelalem is that for all his quality at retaining possession, there is no end product. That pivotal role in the side HAS to be a creator of chances. He should also be chipping in with goals. Our inability to score in recent weeks (Alloa aside) I believe I covered in an earlier post, and it is about the pace we move the ball from side to side at, and the angles of triangular passing into areas that cant be defended easily. We are making it to easy for opponents and I would suggest (unscientifically of course!) that Zelalem is quite happy to keep the ball moving without ever looking for the killer pass, or if he has a chance to shoot. If that is all he is going to bring to the side, he should be the link up man to the defence, not the link up man to the attack. He may have a bright future in the game and he is here to learn and I hope he does, but I believe he needs to add a more cutting edge to his game before he can ever think about playing at a decent level regularly. Again, you put words into my mouth when saying I prefer clueless running-about, but slow getting nowhere possession football is not what brings punters through the turnstiles. Barca-Bayern do not play the same football as us, so the comparison is nonsensical. The pace they move the ball at, and in fact move themselves without the ball, is light years away from what we are doing. Would I like us to play like that, absolutely. Would Zelalem get anywhere near either of them, never. I think it was mentioned by another poster, but Zelalem reminds me of the last couple of years of Barry Ferguson's career, where he made 100 passes a game and none of them hurt the opponent. If that is truly what you want to cheer, fair enough. We most certainly do have differing opinions on the game, and that is what these discussion forums are all about. I enjoy reading your interpretations, I just don't agree with them, but I respect that you take the time to give it such detail and thought and share it and defend it on here.

And I think your infatuation with a "metronome" is totally irrelevant in our game. Give me a proper box to box midfielder who can create goal scoring chances as opposed to a 10 yard square pass specialist all day every day and watch the goals scored increase, and to hell with the pass completion rate and the possession stats when very little, if any, of it creates goals. I know which one is better to watch and is more valuable to a winning team.

There might be the odd diamond in the rough at that level (Jamie Vardy!), but I am concerned that we continue to go after young inexperienced low level operators. It is real quality additions we need to bring in, match-winners, not even more 6 or 7 out of 10 performers. We have a lot of 7/10 players, we dont have anyone who has that bit of quality to win you a game on their own. While I would be happy with the continual addition of younger hungrier players who we can potentially develop and sell on for a good profit, we must add proven quality as well. Fishing about the lower English leagues for bargains is only a part of the story. I personally think the English leagues are vastly over-rated. I have just watched (while working so not so closely) Burnley v Brighton from the second tier. Two of the top sides in that league. The game was rotten and there was a real lack of quality players on show. Go further down the pyramid and the quality gets even more diluted.

He is also a light-weight, goes missing for large chunks of the game, doesn't tackle anybody when we do not have possession, and dances about (like an Arsenal player) with airy-fairy 10 yard passes that hurt nobody. His last good game was at Airdrie, which was also one of his first games. Since then it has been downward in terms of contribution. I will ask this, for someone so good at passing, how many assists has he had? For someone so good with the ball, he has not scored and has probably had about 3 attempts at goal since he arrived. His only significant contribution is in moving the ball 10 yards in either direction. A complete luxury.

To blindly follow or lavish praise just because it is mostly going right would be wrong. My strong opinion is that Kenny Miller is a terrible football player that I think is holding the team back. Unlike the last three managers, I won't lose my job by being right on this. It is only my opinion and I have total respect for the opposite view that Miller is worthy of his new contract if some fellow Bears believe it to be the case. It's not my fault they are wrong! Forums are exactly for this type of thing, and I enjoy the debate and friendly banter. Long may it continue.

Even a broken clock is right twice a day! The magic hat must have slipped over his eyes if he thinks Miller is a good footballer.

i'll pass thanks!!

I agree with most of that BH, apart from the bit where you believe Miller has positional sense. Laugh out loud moment for me there. Think back (or watch for yourself next time) to how many times he gets caught offside, or doesn't make a run into space when a ream-mate has the ball and is looking towards him. His positional sense is like the rest of his game, rubbish! I agree that if the younger players cant get all they need from a gentleman and experienced pro like Davie Weir, then they are not asking the right questions. Miller's role, like McCulloch before him, is purely a waste of money and a shirt that could be used for developing a young prospect.