der Berliner

SPFL Highlights Still unconvinced that it was intentional or unintentional "serious foul play" by Cifuentes.

Games like today's remind me of a commentary I heard in the mid-1990s, when we beat Dundee United 3-0 (HT 3-0) away and co-commentator Simon Stainrod said at the end: "Well, Rangers' defenders played as admirably in the second half as their attackers did in the first."

No sleep lost on players not coming or being signed. Bologna paid Aberdeen Euro 2m for Ferguson, but make that 4m if we had tried to sign him. He's away, so that's that.

Kirkland at the screen called it a possible serious foul play. Heck, Maeda wrecked Cantwell and it wasn't even a foul, never mind a penalty. But truth be told, going by the circus that is called Scottish refereeing, you have to be content that not more is being fiddled in the games ...

As I wrote in the transfer thread, I doubt he will fare much better as previous strikers, if we play him alone up front. Hearts usually do not face brickwall-style football.

All quiet right now, only Leon King's exit on loan seems on the cards. Saw people swoon over Shankland, but truth be told, if he's asked to play for Rangers in the lone-striker rule, he'll be as ineffective as many before him. Danilo out again, so maybe a return of Roofe in games to come. I'd put him alongside Dessers, as Roofe is more a predator type of striker. Dundee might be a perfect game to try that.

Thank the heavens for Butland, who essentially kept us getting these three points (again). Can't, for the love of the game, understand, why we keep to this lone striker thing that failed us time and again. Saviour this season so far is Sima, but what happens if he's injured ... Difficult ground, three points, clean sheet, grab and run!

Tonight will be the return of Roofe, no doubt! (No laughing at the back!) We need a goalscorer up there. Is Lawrence our midfield version of Roofe? Lawrence's last 5 years with Derby has seen him play 39, 33, 37, 23, and 38 games respectively. And we replace him today with Cifuentes? How's that supposed to work out? Ach well ...

See, that's how you bait people to do your job 😜

You missed Cyrell though, hence, just 2 out of 3.

The Winter 2023/24 Rangers Transfer Window Rumours and Deals - Thread LINK to a rumour source TM is the TransferMarkt stats side for that player SIGNED in Winter 2023/24: Fabio Silva (21) - ST, Wolverhampton Wanderers, contract till 2026 - LINK - TM - DONE DEAL loan till summer 2024 (29/12/2023) Mohamed Diomande (22) - CM, Ivory Coast, FC Nordsjaelland, contract till 12/2024 - TM - TM stats - LINK - DONE LOAN till end of season with obligation to buy GONE in Winter 2023/24 Sam Lammers - on-loan to Utrecht till end of season - LINK RETURN in Winter 2023/24 RUMOURS: IN – Ben Godfrey (25) - CH, Everton, contract till 2025 – LINK - TM IN - Connor Barron (21) - CM, Aberdeen, contract till 2024 - TM - LINK IN - Lennon Miller (17) - MF, Motherwell, contract till 2025 - TM - LINK IN - Noah Mbamba (18) - DM, Belgium, Bayer Leverkusen, contract till 2028 - TM - LINK (NB: signed for them for 100k, Jan 2023) IN - Frederik Oppgard (21) - LB, Norway, PSV Eindhoven, contract till 6/2025 - TM - LINK (see Wagner above) IN - Million Manhoef (21) - RW (LM/LB), Netherlands, Vitesse Arnhem, contract till 2025 - TM - LINK (various) IN - Emmanuel Dennis (24) -ST, Nigeria, Nottingham Forest, contract till 2025 - TM - TMstats - LINK IN - Scott McKenna (27) - CB, Scotland, Nottingham Forest, contract till 2024 - TM - TMstats - LINK (see Dennis above) IN - Gijs Smal (26) - LB, Netherlands, Twente Enschede, contract till 2024 - TM - TM-stats - LINK IN - Jefte (20) - LB, Brazil, Fluminense - on loan at APOEL Nicosia, contract till 2026 - TM - TM stats - LINK Oscar Cortes (21) - AM, RC Lens, Colombia, contract till 2028 - TM - TM Stats - LINK OUT - Ridvan Yilmaz - LINK - though Clement said that no decision has been taken on any player right now OUT - Cyrill Dessers - see Ridvan OUT - Kieran Dowell - see Ridvan OUT - Leon King - loan move in January - LINK OUT - Ridvan Yilmaz - Hellas Verona - LINK (see Smal above) Loan deal to permanent deal - Abdallah Sima - LINK CONTRACT EXTENSIONS NON-STARTERS: IN - Bojan Miovski (Aberdeen) IN - Kai Wagner (26) - LB, German, Philadelphia Union, contract till 12/2023 - TM - LINK - signed new deal in USAland OUT - SQUAD as of 24 / 05 / 2023 Squad listed in order of remaining length of contract & primary position Full squad list at Transfermarkt Squad by primary and optional position at Transfermarkt Goal: Robby McCrorie (25) - contract 6/2025 Jon McLaughlin (36) - contract 6/2024 Kieran Wright (23) – contract till 6/2023 Jack Butland (30) - contract till 2027 Defence James Tavernier (31) – RB - contract 6/2024 Borna Barisic (31) - LB - contract 6/2024 Leon Balogun (35) - CH - contract 6/2024 Leon King (19) - CH - contract 6/2024 Adam Devine (20) RB – contract 6/2025 Connor Goldson (30) - CH - contract 6/2026 John Souttar (27) - CH - contract 6/2026 Ben Davies (28) - CH - contract 6/2026 Ridvan Yilmaz (22) - LB - contract 6/2027 Dujon Sterling (24) - CB - contract till 2027 Midfield Steven Davis (38) – CM - contract 6/2023 - retired 25/01/2024 Mohamed Diomande (22) - contract till 2024+ Ryan Jack (31) – CM - contract 6/2024 John Lundstram (29) - CM - contract 6/2024 Abdallah Sima (22) - RW/ST - contract till 2024 (season long loan) Tom Lawrence (28) - LW - contract 2025 Thompson Ishaka (18) - LW - contract till 202x Scott Wright (26) - LW/AM - contract 6/2025 Alex Lowry (19) - AM - contract 6/2025 Rabbi Matondo (23) - RW - contract 2025 Nicolas Raskin (22) – CM – contract 202x Todd Cantwell (25) – AM – contract 6/202x Kieran Dowell (26) - AM - contract till 2027 Jose Cifuentes (24) - CM - contract till 6/2027 Ross McCausland (20) – RW – contract till 2027 Strikers Fabio Silva (21) - ST - contract till 2024 Kemar Roofe (30) - ST - contract 6/2024 Cyriel Dessers (28) - ST - contract till 2027 Danilo Pereira da Silva (24) - ST - contract till 2027 Coaching Staff Check out the club's home page Academy / B Side -> https://www.Rangers.co.uk/article/academy-restructure/4skGYIfqugwK1CvGZUHFH0 GONE - ... Women's Side -> https://rangers.co.uk/teams/ladies-senior/ OUT ON LOAN Sam Lammers (26) - ST - contract till 2027 -> Utrecht till end of season Alex Lowry () - AM - Hearts till end of season - loan cancelled January 2024 Iannis Hagi () - AM - Alaves till end of season (no January option)

Stop keeping me away from the upcoming transfer rumours thread! (Nope, I saw that they kept Bayern at bay last week, having more shot on target in Munich. There must be some potential over there.)

... well, a pre-arranged friendly to ease the way of a promising Kopenhagen player's move to Ibrox in January? Always the optimist!

Due to lack of a match thread ... Referee - William Collum Assistants - Calum Spence and Jonathan Bell Fourth Official - Euan Anderson Video Assistant Referee - Steven McLean Assistant Video Assistant Referee - Gary Hilland Missing - Steven Davis (knee), Zak Lovelace (muscle), Nicolas Raskin (ankle), Ryan Jack (muscle) Live on - Sports Football and Rangers TV

He was not alone that day ... and we've seen others doing the same. Still remember that blind backpass of our captain in the OF game that lead to a goal and killed any of our slim hopes that season. I'd take Sakala over Lammers every day of the week. (And I hope this means that Lammers will score a hatful in December now ... )

Trial and error, Part 34: Sima. Our problem for the best part of a decade has been trying to play through a packed defence with a single striker, hoping that the attacking midfield would join in with 10-15 goals per player. Plus the odd from the wing-back. Year after year, season after season, we've seen that the simple adaptation of the rest of the teams in Scotland (bar one) to that system has effectively nullified the one striker and stopped the wing-attackers too. Even Ribery - Madzukic - Robben would have struggled with that 7 to 8 men defence trash. We clock up 15 to 30 shot in nearly every game, but score on average 1 or 2, sometimes but rarely 4. Usually when the opposition tires late on and/or gives away penalties. It is clear as day that this current system only works if you a) have the players who succeed in it and b) play an opposition that is not out to stop you from playing any football or simply swamps your three attackers. Beale tried to load the attacking third this season, but instead of setting up a 4-5 player attack block, we dabbled on, tested this or that combination and failed. It simply cannot be that we toil on for half a decade or more against the same style of players and tactics and don't change it. So ... no Sima as the lone striker, but keep him on the wing, McCausland/Wright on the other, and put Danilo and Dessers/Roofe through the middle. Cantwell or Lawrence behind them.

IMHO, we are still somewhat shell-shocked from that Champions League disaster of last season, alongside with the ails of the last few seasons: players who are at best average Rangers standard or simply cannot show a consistency required; players who live on a diet of glories past and odd successes now (namely our captain), a tactic that simply does not fit with the players we have ... and the games we play in Scotland. Added to that are coaches and managers who simply won't change things even if you can clearly see that things aren't working. The system simply isn't running, so change it! While Beale looked very much out of his depth (and on hindsight, not really unexpected for me), but at times you do wonder how little those decision centers at the top know about football. Kent had run his race for us. A penalty assist merchant for Europe, that was a good left-winger, but not the goal-threat required for a 4-3-3. That he left for free was essentially just the icing on the cake. Truth be told, none of the players we have signed since the advent of Gerrard have been. After a certainly bright start, Morelos went steadily down the hill and remained there. Bad management and/or tactics? Who knows? Letting Colak leave - who, bar the injury period, remained a goal threat and pest to defenders throughout - was (no hindsight argument here) criminal. You simply can't rely on two newcomers with a half decent record and "potential" to step in and produce. Has that really ever worked with foreigners? Next stop Sakala. He had many critics, but was at long last a striker-come winger who started to assist and score when and where it matters. Winger-like scoring perhaps, but he was always there, always willing, always threatening. Now, we got Sima, who, very winger-like, blows hot and cold. Again a chap who had to get used to the game in Scotland ... and while at times you wonder whether we could afford this quality man, the next game you know why Brighton sent him on loan. As with any of our new attackers, people certainly need time to adapt - the cardinal sin of this season might well be that we essentially replaced the whole attacking department (aside from Wright and the ghost which goes by the name of Roofe) with new players. Might have worked out, but everyone knew from the off that when it comes to Rangers this decade, "might" usually backfires. Similarly criminal was sending Hagi and Lowry out on loan for no reason whatsoever. It left us with only Cantwell (of the same "spark quality") and he promptly got injured. McCausland is a winger, not a replacement for Cantwell. Cantwell ... is a flair player who does things which are unexpected, sees passes that others don't (which may be too much for some of his fellow players on the park these days) and shoots himself as well. Yet, we play him out of position and wonder that he does what he does best elsewhere. If we have creative "gems" like him, why waste them on the wing? And get angry about it? IMHO, even an off-form Cantwell shows more creativity than Lammers, Lundstram, Cifuentes and Co. combined. He is not THE answer, but part of an answer. Raskin and him in the creative slots, a DM (Lundstram or Jack) behind them, should work most of the time. Final nail in Beale's coffin for me was leaving Ridvan and Balogun out of the EL squad. He left us with a top-heavy team that has no real cohesion, too many people that are more like hopefuls than tried players, and a makeshift defense of veterans past their sell-by date (Goldson, Tavernier, Barisic). The latter can do their job at Premiership level most of the time, but as the last couple of seasons have shown, are hardly the standard we require. Souttar is the only brighter spark there, Davies a bit of a conundrum, and Balogun solid, reliable, but getting on too. Ridvan is more of a wing-back than a fullback, well made for a 3-4-3 where his defensive duties are lesser than normal. Still, we demand our fullbacks to go forward and deliver, as it is the trademark of a 4-2-3-1, and neither side's veterans are doing the wing-role to this standard. Or one we require now. It is still howling at a high level. These players are not bad, our centre-halfs are not dross every other week because they get caught in a couple of games. It happens all the times elsewhere too. Sometimes it is necessary to take a step back from the weekly hysteria about the odd goal lost and take the whole picture in. That said, we are toiling on ever since Warburton, essentially papering over cracks in the system by testing better players there with some degree of success. Our benchmark are the Yahoos, who, thanks to our failures, bask in CL money season after season and spent money on enough quality to keep us and the rest at bay. Add to that a rather serious sequence of injuries to lots of our best players (no excuse, just a fact) through the years. So ... up comes the festive period with a host of games and a new manager who has to figure out how to get this side going. One just hopes that his trial-and-error period in Scotland is the shortest ever. The pessimist in me has locked up the optimist in the basement, for the latter's own health.

Mostly sub-standard, some willing but unable, and a tactic (once more) for the drain. Subs? Well, Lammers was at his ineffectual best, yet we hook Cantwell, who wasn't playing where he should be. Two strikers on the bench, Cifuentes effectively doing nothing, and we just soldier on. Tavernier at his average best, no assist or penalty to paper over another mediocre performance. Looking at the fixture and injury list, December could become a dire month indeed.

Referee - Rohit Saggi (NOR) Assistants - Morgen Jensen (NOR) and Anders Olav Dale (NOR) Fourth Official - Kai Erik Steen (NOR) Video Assistant Referee - Dennis Higler (NED) Assistant Video Assistant Referee - Pol van Boekel (NED) Missing - Steven Davis (knee), Zak Lovelace (muscle), Nicolas Raskin (ankle), Connor Goldson (suspended), Ryan Jack (muscle), Scott Wright (muscle); Ridvan Yilmaz, Kieran Dowell, Leon Balogun (not in EL-squad) Live on - TNT Sports 3 UK

Only 5 weeks till the transfer window opens ...

Since Borna played ahead of him, and injuries of various degrees can happen to any player at any time, that's not really an argument against Ridvan as a player? You can have luck with people like Kent or Tavernier, who virtually don't receive an injury for half a decade, while others like Helander (with no real great injury background) or Hagi get their knees etc. done and miss lots of game time. Sometimes you wonder what would have happened to Devine or Zukowksi et al, had Tavernier wrecked his cruciate knee ligaments. Some striker would have taken the penalties and increased his value, no doubt. It is rather interesting to see some injured players getting worse over time, while certain never-injured ones get some sort of irreplaceable value. So far, e.g. I haven't missed Kent.

What do we need instead of Ridvan then?

Could have been more, should have been, but three points in the bag and that pitch behind us for a few months. Nothing against Livingston, but that pitch and those players do not belong into our league. That angle of the sun in the second half was pretty aweful.

Said that when he signed. Got a bit of a nasty streak in him and is prone to a yellow card. Only 7 in 16 games this season ...

What sort of dross do they breed nowadays in Scotland? 6 ft 6, 90 kilo and falls like a "wet bag"? A touch on the neck, and you'd think a pole-axe had struck?