der Berliner

Just now, PoohBear said:

To be honest I wouldn't say Tav or Barasic are defenders as such, they play with far more of a forward mentality. But I hear what you are saying, this is hard to watch.

 

And we nearly gave away a goal there. Beale is playing with fire, if we lose a goal here I think he's done.

... yes, true enough. But on the face of what we see, Borna only reaches his standards today. Given the defenders we have, we might just as well sent real wingers out there and kept the strikers.

So, nominally, we have 5 defenders on, 2 DMs and 1 CM ... and try to grab another goal. Or rather do the obvious and defend a 1-goal lead at home.

I'm bound to call that pathetic.

Those unique Scottish refs, going from Aussie Rules style refereeing to that of an Iberian Don. Amazing.

Cifuentes needs to be replaced.

5 minutes ago, Rousseau said:

It's a 3-4-3 now, as Matondo is replaced by Souttar. 

... and we need to leave Cifuentes on the bench now. No two CM/DMs needed, with Cifuentes not really coming to terms with people harassing you all the time. I'd throw Sima on to one wing and play Lammers and Wright more through the middle.

What generally bothers me is that in the day and age of 4G and 5G, some of our play is more like telegraph- and carrier pigeon-speed in terms of thinking. Same with expecting a ball.

Like Thursday, identity issues. Matondo shoots and Dessers claims it. Grab it and run!

Not unexpected ... "Making Plan A better, Part 247". So far, failure No 247.

Meanwhile, the ref is a total clown again.

Some additional info via TM:

Steven Davis (Knee) - return October 25

Todd Cantwell (Knee) - return October 2

Kieran Dowell (Knee) - return ... bah, he just simulates!

Danilo Pereira (broken cheekbone) - return October 28

Nico Raskin (calf) - return  October 18

Referee - Alan Muir

Assistants - Daniel McFarlane and Douglas Ross

Fourth Official - Stewart Luke

Video Assistant Referee - Andrew Dallas

Assistant Video Assistant Referee - John McCrossan

Missing - Steven Davis (Knee), Todd Cantwell (Knee), Kieran Dowell (Knee), Danilo Pereira (broken cheekbone), Nico Raskin (calf), Todd Lawrence (calf)

Ridvan and Balogun back from EL exile, Lawrence added to the injured. Motherwell ahead of us by a point, so they seemingly have a decent start to the season (TBH, I don't watch any of the other highlights or read any reports on them these days). Still, I'd through anything including the kitchen sink at them from the off and turn to a more usual pick-them-off counter style later, once they are forced to open up. Thus ...

Butland

Tavernier - Goldson/Davies - Souttar - Ridvan

Lundstram/Jack 

Sima - Lammers - Matondo

Dessers - Roofe

Lammers impact was visible, if anything, he's an all action player who is not hiding. Over the course we deserved the three points, but Betis dropped in quality quite a bit. Still, Butland sure earned his corn tonight and has all that is needed to become another Rangers goalie.

Three points, now we sail out for more ...

I'd get Scott Wright on for the second half. He would at least try to rip himself a new one for the Gersey.

47 mins game time, of which we "played" about 5 mins of football. And that is - just to make sure of that - the fault of the lot out there, not Beale.

It looks like our players are much more intimidated by the occasion than the opposition. Hardly a sign of Lawrence (wait for the 2nd half!), Cifuentes and Lundstram all over the place, Matondo a bag of nerves and Sima has the lead-boots on. Tav caught out about 5 times by now, the rest their usual self. Roofe as isolated as it can be.

I want Hagi and Sakala back, please.

So that is going to be ...

Butland

Tavernier - Goldson - Davies -Barisic

Cifuentes - Lundstram

Sima - Lawrence - Matondo 

Roofe

14 hours ago, PoohBear said:

One of our 15 forwards will have to play in midfield instead.

Forget the midfield, we'll play the Bealenaccio with 6 "forwards". 

"... sporting fairness and the integrity" ... and the Scottish game? When was this last the case. Anyone heard a word from the Compliance Officer of late? Is he still around?

12 hours ago, Franc Ergs said:

Anyway thank fuck we didn't have to play Arsenal tonight, what with our now depleted squad, they'd have absolutely ripped us apart.

Some of these teams are head and shoulders above us, not even contemplating our current form and injuries. Gave a hats off to Union Berlin only getting defeated 1-0 at Real with a 94th minute winner, despite being under the cosh for 94 mins. But they are a settled, defence-minded counter-attacking team. Our defence is mediocre at best, and utterly sub-standard in CL terms. While our atttack needs to find a formula that works, despite weeks of trail and error.

If we start to pick another workers' team against a better side, we will end up like we did against PSV - twice. Three "attackers" are simply not enough for Europe, and if our wingbacks play as "adventurous" as they do in the Premiership, our defence will once again have a tough time on their hands.

Not sure whether Lawrence is fit enough for a starting slot, he only came into the weekend game after half-time. I would assume that we will go with Sima, Matondo/Roofe and Desser up front, and Lammers in behind them. We need to start with a high press and keep them under pressure. Cifuentes and Lundstram/Jack in CM. The defence picks itself, simply because lack of options.

17 hours ago, Malangsob said:

And your point is? 

A few years ago I stopped playing Fantasy League football and thus much interest in the EPL dropped to a minimal level. Now I see Brighton, Luton Town, Wolves and even Brentford and Nottingham Forest in the EPL is like a different planet from back then. Now ... what has it all to do with a Rangers transfer thread, I wonder?

Referee - Lawrence Visser BEL

Assistants - Rien Vanyzere BEL and Thibaud Nijssen BEL

Fourth Official - Kevin Van Damme BEL

Video Assistant Referee - Bram Van Driessche BEL

Assistant Video Assistant Referee - Tiago Martins POR

Missing - Steven Davis (Knee), Todd Cantwell (Knee), Danilo Pereira (broken face bones), Nicolas Raskin (calf); Ridvan Yilmaz, Kieran Dowell, Leon Balogun (not in EL squad ... FFS!!!)

Anyone checked what form Betis is in right now?

Have seen the incident back only now and Maeda shouldered Cantwell aside before even attempting to play the ball, his injured happened in the leg-tangle afterwards. Dunno whether you can watch this snippet in Britain.

If teams open up, we can hurt them. Lawrence's eye for a pass is great, as was Raskin's late on for Sima. Hence I do think that we will have some more joy in the EL. Should have been more from the good chances we had, but we've heard that before.

Roofe's goal being chopped off was another joke from the VAR clan.

Ouch ...

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F6JThTKX0AAAZ4j?format=webp&name=small

We are god-kings of passes between defence and defensive midfield. The time it takes to get the ball into the final third is horrendous, as are most "short" passes into midfield to players covered. At some stage you wonder why the ball isn't played long, to put Saints defenders under pressure. Our front three hardly get anything to work with, the half has virtually bypassed Ridvan and especially Lawrence, as nigh all is done through Tavernier and Raskin on the right.

Lammers the one creative spark so far.

You hope that we snatch a quick second and go on from there. You see why the Scum couldn't beat that lot at home, but likewise, we should not lower ourselves to their* level.

*That includes both them and Saints.

13 minutes ago, lenny3k said:

Makes the Hagi decision look even worse

Shocking, TBH. Even before Cantwell was fouled by Maeda. We had three players of his ilk at the start of the season, Cantwell, Hagi, and Lowry. All three out of the equation now.

Well, we can't change that now, so having a look at the players's positions, it seems that Beale counted on Dowell, Danilo, Raskin, and Cifuentes for the AM slot. Matondo and Lawrence have been used as "shadow strikers" before (if rarely), and I have high hopes of Lawrence making an impact this season. Lammers played in a free-er role too, but no matter what we put out in the coming weeks, we need to get to a settled line-up and people knowing what they are supposed to do, rather than this patchwork-attack work relying on that odd spark of quality and creativity.

Butland

Goldson - Souttar - Balogun

Jack/Lundstram

Sima - Raskin - Danilo - Lawrence

Roofe - Dessers

So it looks that despite all the expectation and clamour for a new head, we will soldier on with Mr. Beale. Truth be told, my gut feeling still says that he will be able to "turn it around" (not that we have lost any competition we were going to have success in this season anyway so far) with the players we have from middle to front, with or without Beale. 4 games in, we/they have not really clicked, and as I noted before, it seems MB has too many toys and doesn't exactly know how to play best with them. So I'll give Beale another 6 match days before I'm going to join the choir of the doomers.