Tannochsidebear

No its about building a sellable brand to a worldwide market. We moan about the tv deals we get in this country, but then are doing everything we can to diminish the one sellable fixture to a worldwide market that we have to promote. I hated them being there, especially when we didnt win, but I can understand that is what makes the game so attractive to an otherwise passive audience. Would it be worth this sacrifice to gain a much bigger tv contract that in turn allows us to be stronger? Maybe so, maybe not, thats why it is a debating forum. Come Sunday I will be much happier for that two hours not having to see and hear the scum at the other end of the stadium, and if we give them a tanking then even better. But without that poisonous atmosphere then it is just another game between two pretty poor football teams for worldwide neutrals.

I wouldn't mind giving them the full Broomie again, as long as we got the same location at their midden, not stuck in the corner with restricted views. The only reason we have a famous fixture (and the worldwide interest) is the atmosphere and rivalry at these fixtures, which has been diluted since the allocations were restricted. The poisonous atmosphere is a sellable asset and while the SPFL couldnt sell water in a desert this is still the best change we have of getting bigger tv deals which is what we all need. On the basis that it seems really unlikely that we will ever return to this, I can definitely see a return to around 1000 tickets each, and for me this has to be up in the rear of the club deck out of sight of the cameras. Police it properly and it should be no problem. Sell the season tickets accordingly like we used to do, which was effectively a ST for all home games apart from the OF games.

cheers @CammyF, i'm still thinking there must have been another successful one in the last 15 years but I'm not coming up with anything!

Was Charlie Adam's loan to St Mirren further back than McGregor? Says a lot if those two were the last successful ones!

Not at all, i'm hoping we win every game, come third in the CL group stages and win the league and domestic cups. But under Beale I am expecting failure, and so I dont want to lose someone I value as one of our better players who is contracted for another 3 years and IMO could do us a very good job because this manager's ego gets in the way when i personally dont believe he will be manager past Xmas. Of course the way Brenda is going across the road may well mean Beale gets more leeway. 2 wins in the next week and I will be having massive amounts of humble pie, with a huge grin on my face!

Went for Roofe, but Tav, Souttar and Borna were all good too. No real 9/10 performances but a lot of 7's in a competant display where at HT I thought we had played well and the second half would be pffft and so it panned out. Under Beale we just dont play a good 90 mins. We may have to do this twice in the next 7 days if our season is to meet its objectives.

As regards Hagi, a 6 month loan will probably be sufficient to see the back of Beale and then a new manager will hopefully see the talent there and not be so pig-headed and egotistical and just use Hagi properly.

McGregor, c2006?

Ross county 0 Rangers 3 fgs Roofe

I dont think it was Richard Wilson, it was a Richard Winton. Havent seen Wilson's name mentioned on BBC for quite some time and thought he had gone. This appears to be a newbie perhaps?

Son of the former SFA president David Taylor, so the rabid will be claiming more ammunition that the SFA are all pure Rainjurs an that. It doesnt actually say anywhere in the lengthy introduction piece that he or his family have ever supported Rangers, which leads me to think he doesnt/didnt. I dont mind that at all as it doesnt prevent him from doing a good job, as long as he is not a bheast because that most certainly would.

Smacks of trying hard to keep the tie alive. 4-3-2-1 formation? The big money striker on the bench?

Rangers 2 PSV 1 fgs Dessers

And yet he still somehow manages to look like an utter carthorse. If he keeps those numbers up throughout then it will speak for itself, but there just doesnt look like a player in there to me at this early stage. Looks like a downgrade on Colak.

Poor Connie was absolutely devastated, and then when Michael Stewart picks us out at home oh how I laughed at the coupon on it. Worth the subscription fee alone.

While Matondo was much improved and looked our main (only?) threat for an hour, his finishing is abysmal and so I’ve gone for Hagi. What a super player he is, and by all accounts a great post match interview as well. If Beale continues to ignore him it will cost us, and maybe him too.

Rangers 3 Morton 0 fgs Dessers

Goldson & Jack will definitely be rested as they cant play 2 a week. Cantwell should be protected, Tav should be rested and Sterling should be given a chance at RB, and not sure which of the options up front will be selected, as all of them (Dessers, Lammers, Danilo, Sima, Roofe, Matondo) need game time and to find form ahead of a massive two weeks with the double header with PSV, a tough trip to Dingwall and then the must-win OF game before the first break.

You’re starting to come round I see! Seriously though I appreciate you taking the time to explain how the xG system works. I don’t buy into it because of the very way it is calculated as the debate in this thread has shown. To calculate a xG for a certain chance on an average of thousands of similar opportunities across hugely varying standards of football doesn’t tell you accurately if a Rangers player should have scored or not. For that to be accurate it would have to be calculated only against similar standards of player, not all-comers. Even then there are too many variables, with key ingredients missing like the importance of the chance in the match context, the importance of the match. If a player smashes the xG based on the above that would be hugely impressive, but if he only gets above xG when his team are winning 4-0 or in friendlies then it’s less impressive . I accept for those who can overlook all these important aspects and just buy into it for what it is, it is a great debating point.

Servette 1 Rangers 2 fgs Danilo

Thanks for that R. The bit I have put in bold, it is based on one game, last Wednesday at Ibrox, and it should have been scored every single time because its a sitter! I dont need Opta to tell me how good a chance it is, I could see it live from the stadium with my own eyes! I dont accept it was tricky (just my opinion), not at this level, he sees it coming and fluffs it past the post. It shouldnt happen but it did. I only used it as an example to ask the question on the stat. If Opta or whoever are saying that chance should only be scored 41 times out of 100, then they are clearly counting girls football, juniors, and the Albanian 9th division in amongst their 1000's of games that make up the data, not professional football at this standard. I know you love your stats and I'm not going to (or trying to ) convince you otherwise, but it makes a mockery of the whole xG business when they say that .99 (i'll concede it's not a 1.0) sitter is a .41 Saying they have taken data from 1000's and 1000's of games is one thing, but there are levels in football, and as I have outlined above, what is a sitter at this level is perhaps not so many levels down, but if Opta are picking all of football to generate their stats then thats not accurately reflecting chances at the level which concerns the viewer.

I agree Goldson will come back in (as always) and it seems Lammers is another MB fav so I would be shocked if he didnt start but I just dont see where he fits into our team, and for what i've seen to date he doesnt really have a precise role, but isnt good enough to be a floater either. Early days I accept. I was really just picking what I think is our best 11 from those available from what i've seen of them so far. I dont think Sima is in our best 11 but for this game we need that pace for an outball so he is the "Kent" replacement role as Lammers doesnt appear to have much pace and I dont see Wright being a starter. Will be really interesting to see the line-up, not long now.

Gone for big soapy for that goal-saving interception alone which had it been Goldson would have been a goal and probably more dropped points. Cantwell again played well, and the cross from Borna for the 2nd was an absolute beauty.

I have absolutely no idea what our best team is, nor what our best formation is, so not going to take a guess at the line up the manager will come up with. For what it’s worth I don’t think MB has a clue what his best team is either, so it will be very interesting to see who he goes for. I know I certainly don’t want to see certain players in the lineup as I believe them to be of insufficient quality but MB likes them (Lundstrum for one!). Our joy in previous Euro away games has come by being quick on the counter, so maybe Sima gets another chance to shine. Thankfully I’m not picking the team, but just for this thread I’ll go for; Butland Tav Balogun Souttar Barasic Jack Cifuentes Sima Raskin Cantwell Danilo

Was all this xG data you have described so well above compiled by one company? If so, why? It must have been an absolutely massive data dump. It clearly isn’t monetised if it’s readily available for all games, and I’m assuming there must be some sort of AI bot keeping track of all games going on at all times in order to produce real time xG updates? Still can’t get my head round it. Take the Lammers absolute sitter v Servette in first half. That should have an xG of 1 because it should be scored every single goddam time, but clearly he didn’t score, so next time a player has the exact same chance the xG will be below 1 because Lammers missed his, so a striker scoring that sitter looks to have outdone his xG but in reality he has just scored an absolute sitter so shouldn’t have his stats enhanced as a result of another player having a howler? Agreed?