Tannochsidebear

Yes, thats how I saw it also. I agree its unlikely but we are pretty good at throwing away great positions (and being very unlucky with other results) in European groups over the years, including last year.

£8M for a young, full Finnish International with Europa League experience is an absolute steal for an English side in the top 2 tiers where the money spent on total mediocrity is outrageous. The sell-on clause is a given and should be non-negotiable no matter the final fee. He is a far greater player than Armstrong was when he left the bheasts for (ahem, reportedly) £9M,

I tried working out a few permutations and there is no chance us, YB & Porto can all finish on the same points (would need to be 8 points) without us going through. We can finish on 10 points and be eliminated if the scoring in our remaining games goes against us in the head to heads with Feyenoord & YB. All very complicated, but if we get anything from Feyenoord, we will know exactly where we are (possibly qualified, possibly needing a win) going into our final home game. We would all take it when the draw was made i'm sure.

I actually thought he looked quite fast, and certainly much quicker than Goldson! His excellent positioning is key to his overall game, and if Goldson is now taking his position off Helander, then the improvement in Goldson's positioning will also be contributing to us losing less goals.

A first vote of the season from me for big Goldson, I thought he was excellent yesterday and just shaded his centre-back partner, which is the first time this season I thought he was the better of the 2 CB's. I generally think Goldson is the 4th best of our CB's, but more performances like yesterday and that will change quickly. His understanding with the superior Helander is developing very well for us, which is unfortunate for Katic and Edmundson, but great for our club, especially with the games coming up before the end of 2019, as we will need both on top form if we are to achieve what we want to over the next 7 weeks.

Barker made the bench on Sunday, so I guess he is available tonight. I cant see him getting the nod at home, but his inclusion in Porto surprised me also!

Great to see us getting more of our players recognised internationally, but the big worry remains that we have none of them in the first team squad. We cant even put in a full quota for our Europa League squad due to the rules on home-based players which we do not meet. I have said it before and will say it again - the huge squad we have is detrimental to us being able to produce our own players through our very expensive youth setup. Guys like Docherty, Grezda, Polster, Firth, Halliday are taking up spaces that could easily be filled with McCrorie, Middleton, Kelly, Mebude etc, as well as us saving a huge amount on our wage bill to boot. This needs to be addressed in the next couple of windows to allow our youth players the pathway to the first team if they continue to improve.

I dont recall that but I'm happy to trust your memory which very possibly is much better than mine?

By contrast 5 minutes added on at the piggery, but it finished 2-0 there so we got a couple of goals back but still 1 goal behind them on GD

Madden cheating again with just 1 minute added on but we couldn’t find any more goals. 4-0 FT

With the bheasts 2-0 up at home, one more goal to have an identical record as them and 2 more to go top.

Halliday & Murphy on for Borna & Ryan. Murphy with a lovely dummy and great ball across the 6 yard box with no takers.

4-0 Morelos with a rocket strike from a tight angle. Barasic has went off with a knock, Jack taken off to rest him for Sunday and now Alfie just been subbed for Defoe.

HT 3-0 Excellent performance so far

3-0 another belter from Ryan Jack to finish a fantastic counter attack. Superb stuff from us!

2-0 a beauty of a curler from Ryan Jack into the far bottom corner.

1-0 Morelos lovely move with Ojo and a tap in for Alfie!

Started ok, but a fast break saw Ojo played right through on goal and he fluffed his shot which trundled onto the far post and away. A sitter and we should have a perfect start.

I’m definitely worried by the inclusion of Aribo & Ojo, who while they have their talents and positive attributes, have shown a worrying lack of heart and desire to get stuck in when it is a physical, tough game with little space. The omission of Davis who has been our best midfielder by far is also a worry, but if we come out the traps at the right pace and with the right attitude it can be a comfortable victory. Jack’s return should help. Not making the trip to Dingwall means I’m going to be subjected to BT sports awful punditry and commentary, I’ll see how long I last before I turn the volume off! ‘Mon the Gers!

You're right, he was signed as a centre back because the ones he had already signed (Svensson) were rubbish. Ultimately Papac got moved to left back where he made the position his own, but he didnt exactly start poorly at Rangers and then come good, he was fairly solid all the way through his Rangers career. Ricksen was a total bombscare as a full back, absolutely rubbish. Slightly better in midfield for half a season (when in discussions for a new contract) after 4.5 years of utter dross. Dont really see the comparisons to Tav and Barasic myself, but to me while Barasic made a few mistakes and his form wasnt great from the off, I thought there was a player there from the get-go and thought talk of Halliday or Flanagan being a better option was laughable. Tav has steadily improved his defending over his time with us, but there are obviously still improvements to be made on that side of his game.

Laudrup McCoist Albertz McGregor Munro

I'm with @Bill on this one, one of the easiest decisions of the season. Davis was miles ahead of anyone else and was the only one driving us forward. Helander was solid apart from allowing his man to turn and score which was the first bit of poor defending I have seen from him, but it was a costly mistake. Barasic was next best for me but nobody else got to Davis's standard for me.

Well that was a pretty dreadful game of football but we somehow got the win. We are nowhere near good enough to have 5 players have stinkers and still expect to win. Tav, Aribo, Arfield, Stewart & Barker were all well below the standard required and I expect 4 of this 5 to be dropped for Wednesday (obviously Tav never gets dropped). Davis was immense, trying hard to drive us forward, winning tackles, doing the work of 3 in there (just as well as Aribo & Arfield were gash) and even got a rare shot in which led to our equaliser. The easiest of MOTM picks this week. We really need to up our game over the next few games if we are to make progress in the 3 competitions.

Looking forward to the game today, and hope we can continue our dominant home form after last week’s poor performance at Tynecastle saw us give up our points advantage at the first opportunity. With the bheasts having their regular “who hates Rangers the most” contest against their friends from the north, I’m not expecting them to drop any points today, but by the time we kick off we will know what we have to do to go back to the top which will be simply to beat their score, so a 2-0 win for them means a 3 goal victory puts us top, which has to be the target today. As for the line-up, from the clues taken from SG’s presser, I don’t see Kent or Barker starting after a big shift on Thursday, so I can see Ojo & Stewart com8ng back into the side, and with Jack just back from injury it may be Aribo in midfield alongside Davis & probably Kamara although Arfield may fill that deeper role today. I can’t see anything other than Alfie continuing his sensational form up front although nobody would be too concerned if Defoe got the start to give Morelos a breather. A straight forward victory today and back on top by 5pm please!

Don’t remember ever having Remembrance Sunday recognition ahead of Halloween before! Also just noticed that for the first time in over 20 years the bheasts have a home game on Remembrance Sunday, will be interesting to see how that plays out given their recent history.