der Berliner

I, for one, wouldn't have used Lawrence from the start, he's sort of a Rolls-Royce of a player, but on this pitch his talents are wasted (and in danger). This is made for Sterling and Wright, not so much fancy footwork.

I have never seen Beale playing out there? We play the same style as before, under Clement, Beale, Gio, SG, MW ... That said, Clement wasn't here before, was he? Neither Cortes or Diomande.

Shocking pitch, shocking style by McInnes, dire dire display from us ...

Commendable knowledge in niche-history. BTW, looks like no Roofe tonight, as he did not travel along. No rehab on plastic turf is probably a wise choice.

Rugby Park usually invokes memories of a blistering start, being 3-0 up in 15odd minutes. 😎

Clement has got the lads together, washed some heads, brought in new faces, and they are clicking right now. Today was certainly the icing on the cake so far. We have the momentum, let's keep it going over at Rugby Park.

What a game. Stunning goals, and Ridvan sensational.

Maybe if we play two strikers and don't hope that every attacker who is not the "lone striker" is a Sima, we might get more goals. We have always created enough chances, but rarely played and play more than one finisher. Even if we had them in the squad.

When at his peak. His last year was 1 goal in 5 chances, if not more. He will remain our European top goalscorer, but "let's keep the church in the village". Dessers gets really good assists and scores some fine goals now. Colak would have loved this environment too. Same as Roofe. Maybe we leave the "better than" debate on strikers, as it is all about opinions and preferences.

43-5 shots 23-1 on target 20-3 corners ... unbelievable, truly unbelievable.

21-3 shots at goal, 10-1 on target. The rot in terms of chance-conversion continues, even though luck is with the Stags tonight. Typical Tavernier game. Two perfect crosses, one decent shot, but then fills spaces that should be used by attackers. Maybe he just stays near the HW-line and doesn't occupy spaces near the box where we seem to have too many players, and they hinder one another. We'll probably score four or five more, but sometimes you wonder ...

Regarding Lammers, we could go back a few months and people on here were saying that e.g. Dessers is "no footballer". Like many players before him. Dessers and Lammers obviously are footballers, for they make lots of money in that job, only that football is a team game and if things click, all is fine. It appears that the Utrecht side and Lammers click. Or the style of football they play, the style of the teams of this league play. It didn't click for him with us in a time of transition, squad- and management-wise. It's hard to say it ever will click with us - and our soothsayers are, on hindsight, usually way off the mark, but rarely admit to it later. As long as he's our player and does well, fine. Some guys need their confidence boost to get back on track, and it remains to be seen what Clement makes of this.

He did so a few games back and essentially did not do much worse than others (namely Goldson & Tavernier) today either. I'd rather have him in these kind of games than McCausland or Cantwell getting an injury. Decent enough squad player. Should have been more goals, would love to see Silva and Dessers alongside one another, the former likes to drop deep and his all action style (like Cantwell) may earn him a few cards (IMHO, he rode his luck with Collum today). Decent workout for Cortes, Diomande, Raskin, and Jack.

Aside from sending Cortes away to supply Barisic? He's not much worse than others, maybe we should stop looking for faults where there are none or very few (not least compared to other players). 😎

Main thing of the first half: Jack is back to his best and looks fit. With so many changes and new players, it's all a bit disjointed, but we still roll wave after wave of attack over them. 1-0 in the Cup is always perilous, yet, we should have been far and away by now and most likely will at the end.

Aberdeen bought Miovski 1.5 years ago for 650k. He's contracted till 2026. Guess what will be their asking price ...

So true. For decades we, managers and most fans alike, treated 20-22-year olds as youngsters, which most likely saw much talent being shuttled out of Rangers, remaining unexposed and held back by their new clubs, mainly low(er) key Scottish or English sides. Lowry showed up as a great prospect, yet we used him only sporadically, and his stint at Hearts obviously went sour. You wonder whether Clement and his staff can revitalize Lowry's talent like they have done with McCausland, who has been smashing for a player of his age (and under the scrutiny of 50odd thousand hypercritical fans). As Davis hanged up his boots with Rangers and Northern Ireland, we see another star rise, thankfully at our club. Such talent needs to be found, reared, and given the chance. More often than not, we only did the first part.

I'd have kept Dessers on, we put them under so much pressure at times, but missed a finisher in the box. Obviously, Lawrence (the one I would have subbed ahead of Dessers) lashed one at their goal for Cantwell to finish it off. Karma 😱 But all we need to add to our game now is putting the chances away (nothing new) and keeping them stray runners out.

Daylight robbery goal ... and the old saying echoes round again and again. If you don't take your chances, you will get punished. Aberdeen deserve nothing from this half, but claw themselves back as Goldson can't handle his opponent ion the one moment where he had to. Let's hope we hammer them now.

Ain't he on his way to Cruzeiros on loan already or soonish? Their transfer window is still open. Looks like a 4-1-4-1 ... Butland Tavernier - Goldson - Souttar - Ridvan Lundstram McCausland - Cantwell - Lawrence - Matondo Dessers ... unless you make it a 4-4-2 with Matondo as second striker 😱

Much of our dealings with regard to the players we have - aside from any other targets - will depend on snatching 56 and essentially making sure of getting the CL group entrance fee. IMHO, we are not worse off than before the window, with some players hopefully coming back sooner rather than later. A strike force of Sima, Dessers, Silva and Danilo would sure be much better than what we have in seasons before, at least on paper. Sima's played his part, Dessers' come good and Silva is sure making an impact. You would hope that even when all are fit, Clement utilizes not only one of them, but 2 or 3. Goldson, Balogun and Souttar are a decent backbone in defence, with Davies and King standing ready, possibly even Lundstram or Sterling. Defensive midfield looks okay, with Raskin and Diomande (from the videos) being creative too. The "support department" does its job admirably of late, Matondo, Cantwell, Wright, and McCausland all prominent, Cortes to come. As I said, right now, we're looking good. And Clement has them all focussed, which is probably the most important part.

Referee - Don Robertson Assistants - David McGeachie and Daniel McFarlane Fourth Official - Colin Steven Video Assistant Referee - Greg Aitken Assistant Video Assistant Referee - Alan Mulvanny Missing - Zak Lovelace (muscle - back late February), Danilo Pereira (knee - back April), Kemar Roofe (calf- back April), Kieran Dowell (foot - back March), Ben Davies (thigh - back early February), Abdallah Sima (foot- back April), Alex Lowry (foot- back March), Dujon Sterling (muscle - back early February), Leon Balogun (head - back late February), Ryan Jack (whatever) Live on: Sky Sports Football and Rangers TV Some referee selection ... again.

SPFL highlights ...

We may very well hammer them, but it is once more a far too defensive line-up. Jack and Lundstram can play the ball, but all along the area instead of shooting or filling the spaces. If a cross comes in, time and again the one striker is being swamped and the danger cleared. Another non-look at VAR for that rather obvious handball. Well, well ...