der Berliner

Really folks, me, being a foreigner, having seen and listened to probably a hundred+ Old Firm games and many have been similar mayhem-affairs. This is no different.

1 minute ago, Gonzo79 said:

He was a mile onside.

Right, only saw it once. 

That's just kick and rush from both sides, and they've got lucky with that volley that could have gone anywhere. No real game plan, Cantwell is playing rather deep.

Nothing wrong with Roofe's goal, that was an utter shambles from the ref. Their player kicked Dessers ... and we got a penalty for that in another game. Would like to see whether Kyago was actually on-side.

Cantwell got a penalty for us when a defender did the very same a wee while back. That's 180° evaluation of the same incident.

Fast, furious, and utter mayhem (mostly in our box) ...

Can we please start a petition to have linesmen gelded for leaving their flags down at off-side decisions for this late?

Rangers homepage's transfer round-up

I hardly know their team, but it doesn't matter. Just kick them from pillar to post and horse them thoroughly.

Butland

Goldson - Souttar - Balogun

Jack

Sima - Raskin - Cantwell - Lawrence

Roofe - Danilo

Press them into their half, shoot from every angle, both wingers track back. Switch to a more common style later on and hit them on the counter.

... and we will get is Plan A.

Butland

Tavernier - Goldson - Souttar - Barisic

Jack/Lundstram - Raskin/Cifuentes

Sima - Cantwell - Matondo/Lammers

Desser

I have no doubts that Danilo and Lammers will come good eventually, Dessers more like what you expect of a decent striker, but not exactly special. Balogun will be his solid self, if called upon. Cifuentes has been okay, a sort of Stuart McCall midfield dynamo whom you do not exactly expect great things of, but 100 % effort. Dowell and Sterling have quite some work to do, but they need to get up to speed and probably some game time to adjust.

Butland has been the brightest so far, good stops, only the odd unnecessary adventure into a packed area during a corner.

Recruitment was carried out to remove our attacking problems, IF we use more true strikers up front. Last season we de facto continued to try to get past Scottish defences with one central striker and sided-attacker, who usually did not come up with enough goals and/or assists to make this a viable system. We did this a few times over the years and only changed the quality of the players. The results, as you can see in the trophy room, remained the same.

Now, so far this season, Matondo (22) stepped into a more prominent role and has become about as efficient as Kent. Lots of effort and running, little end product. Same with Lammers, who is more of a centre forward though. Sima (22)  has come to the right wing (though he has almost played as often as a centre-forward). Dessers is a straight hardy centre-forward as well, so we replaced Morelos and Colak (whom we could easily have kept, IMHO) with two strikers who should be given time as anyone else. Some hit the ground running, others don't. (That said, the way our front line is changed every other game does not help.) Added to them in the attacking roles we have Danilo and Roofe as strikers, the latter can play on either wing (and, especially when fit, is heavily under-used), plus Lawrence and Wright as wingers. Cantwell has been this season's stand-out so far, the bright spark of our creative play. With Lowry gone, letting Hagi go as well might come back to haunt us. Raskin (22) will play further up field with Jack and/or Lundstram behind him, Cifuentes probably too. These two chaps are relatively new to the Scottish game and our demands, we can but hope that they strike a quick understanding with the other new boys. As you can read above, Bears can become fickle rather quickly. The jury is very much out on Dowell, who has so far not really convinced me ... but I'll give them all some time.

The main spot of bother remains the defence. Ridvan suffered an injury at the most inopportune moment, so we remain with our old warhorses Tavernier and Barisic at fullback, with but Devine as a true back-up. Davies might play left-back, Balogun on the right. They would be rather traditional fullbacks though, which is, pending on the opposition, not a bad thing. I'm not exactly sure what has happened to Davies, who did not perform that badly last season - at least not any worse than the others. For some reason, with some players (e.g. Davies) the support seems to remember their errors more vividly than with others, Goldson attempted an OG last weekend (neat header past the post) and succeeded in midweek, while watching de Jong outjump him and his colleagues to score. IMHO, the only centre-half who clad himself in any glory this season is Souttar, Goldson has one good game in five, the rest hardly plays.

The gaffer has/had his favourites for certain positions (Kent, Tavernier, Goldson) and we'll hardly ever know whether the "second row" players will be better, if given a chance. Unless injured, I doubt that we will see much change with regard to Goldson being a first pick. That said, every now and then, we should try three at the back to avoid another PSV disaster. Here's a list of freebie defenders still out there. Jerome Boateng, anyone?

Butland is an able replacement for McGregor, wonder what will happen to McLaughlin now.

Biggest hope is that we change tactics according to the task at hand with players best suited for the role required.

Here's our team by position.

The Scotsman is in the "know" ...

Beale was speaking ahead of the first Old Firm fixture of the season against Celtic at Ibrox on Sunday and confirmed that Borna Barisic will be fit to play after coming off with an injury during the 5-1 defeat to PSV in the Champions League play-off second leg on Wednesday. However, Kieran Dowell is a doubt due to a know issue.

Cleaned up the OP ahead of the Friday deadline day madness, as most folk linked there went elsewhere or extended their contracts. Going by the rumours, Harry Souttar looks to be the only late arrival, on loan.

After that, it will be freebies, of which there are a few.

5 hours ago, Sutton_blows_goats said:

Filip Helander has signed for Danish side Odense.

... and will go on having a fine season, playing 30+ games. 

13 minutes ago, Rousseau said:

I agree with this, but I don't see how Danilo can be unfit: he was on fire for Feyenoord during their full pre-season. 

Very much so. Might be that Danilo had a minor knock, I would play him and Roofe ahead of Dessers, who, in all fairness, doesn't look that bad either. He was just rather isolated, as most other attackers are too far away from him. 

23 minutes ago, Bluedell said:

I'd say that 60% was the quality of the opposition. Yes, the tactics may not have been great and the players weren't all it but PSV were excellent.

 

I listened to a pre-match review on H&H and they said that PSV wouldn't improve midfield and attack but they did. They win 90% of games against us playing like that IMO, no matter the tactics or performance of our players.

 

Sometimes we need to acknowledge that we were beaten by a better side. That's obviously not to say that we couldn't have improved on several aspects but I still don't see us getting any sort of result if we had.

Oh, I was merely looking at it from our perspective. IMHO, everything they had in front of their defence looked a well-oiled, clicking machine. You saw who was playing where, and they executed their game plan perfectly. What irks is that you saw that in the first game too, and we did not react in a meaningful way. That said, to or three of their goals were rather "defendable".

NB: Butland looks a fine keeper indeed.

7 minutes ago, 26th of foot said:

The collective perceived perception is the Manager must be given time and, I agree with it.

 

I attended all the home pre-season friendlies and did not see any cohesion, a narrow disposition both in possession, even narrower out of possession, forwards not able to hold the ball or win the foul and, really poor set pieces.

 

Last night was more of the same and after a 5-1 thumping where our Keeper was the man of the match, a most sobering experience.

 

The short term future is ra Sellik at Ibrox on Sunday, if Barisic is out who takes over? 

I'd use Balogun, as he is used to these games. Sterling might very well be over-awed, and he's had very little game time. Leon won't go forward as much, but neither expose our defense.

17 minutes ago, Gonzo79 said:

What is going on with Danilo?  Has Beale spent £6m on a player he's not sure how to use?

 

I'm genuinely a bit baffled about what his plan is with Danilo and Dessers. I think they might work well together but not sure what Beale thinks because their usage has been a bit all over the place.

Good question. Dessers is fine for the Scottish game, solid centre forward (we might just as well have kept Colak). In Europe, we need skill alongside that, and Danilo looks quite good. Maybe he's not fully fit, but's what you want to know from the manager. It's also quite easy to forget about Roofe, who, IMHO, would do well alongside Danilo.

As has been said above, yesterday was probably 70 % about wrong tactics, 30 % about players. As with Danilo, unless he was unfit, Jack should have started last night. Our wing-backs were leaving large spaces for their wingers to exploit, and they did time and again - with Raskin and Cifuentes not knowing whether to stick or twist. With effectively 7 defensive players, they still cut us open for fun, how de Jong was allowed to bully his way through our area was astonishing. A "proper" CM like Hurlock would have left a mark or two.

Like it or not, but the defensive issues have not gone away. Goldson these days is Premiership material at best, Davies not really suited and/or trusted. Why we did not rely on the experience of Balogun last night is also baffling - if not from the start, then later on. Those few moments that we pressed them, they looked vulnerable, but instead of building on this, we kept it running till we were out of it - and even then essentially switched like for like.

If MB goes in like that against the Scum on Sunday ...

Well folks, we have barely started the season, we've got 9 players in and chop and change the team around every single or other game. Some sides click faster and better early in the seasons, others do not. Is there anyone in here who doesn't agree that in the here and now, the CL is not exactly our benchmark? First, we need to build a team that can rip Scottish teams apart and get into a certain rhythm. We've not yet there (and many Rangers teams of the past have neither ... and most came good in the end still. It's a long way to go, so please no defeatism at the end of August. 

How many times we sat here and saw gloom and doom reign, yet, after 20odd more games. it looked much bright. Of course, we'd have to block out most of the years since 2012. 😝 I think we are moving in the right direction, and every journey begins with some difficult steps.

NB: I still want Sakala back! 😎

Too high a defeat, we played into their hands for much of the game, hardly put any pressure on their defence, and suffered the consequences. This PSV team are no mugs, yet their offensive department can string some quality stuff together.

We are no CL material in the here and now, and while we might beat the odd "lesser" side, the quality teams would have ripped us apart.

Not much fault on the players, I'd say they gave their all. IMHO, too defensive a line-up. Matondo is a project in the making, but IMHO Beale suffers a little from the "glory" factor. I might be wrong, but he had about 4 or 5 good chances, some were blocked, one off the post, some wayward. Not much help from the midfield either ... but there you go, three attackers simply weren't enough, no rocket science and I said that before KO too.

It is Sunday that counts, so onwards we soldier!

Just now, Gonzo79 said:

Butland is a bloody good keeper.

 

If I was on the pitch, I'd start fouling these Dutch twats.  

100 % ... 

Never knew that the Dutch clone Sutton and named him DeJong. What a freak of a player.

Just now, yuddie said:

They've been no better than they were at Ibrox!

Well, yes. But we've been more defensive and let them play their game. Nigh everything runs through Bakayoko and Veerman, aiming at de Jong. Still only 1-0 and the longer this goes on, the more wary they might get. I'd get Lammers on for Lundstram or Cifuentes, so we have more attacking options.

Just now, Graeme Ro55 said:

Mmmmmmmmm,  a lady-line up ...

 

You will have to sleep under the stairs tonight  with Harry now!