der Berliner

Let us start this ... Thursday - 26. October 2023 - 17:45 Europa League epet Arena vs Referee - Sascha Stegemann (GER) Assistants - Christian Dietz (GER) und Christoph Günsch (GER) Fourth Official - Florian Badstübner (GER) Video Assistant Referee - Sören Storks (GER) Assistant Video Assistant Referee - Pascal Müller (GER) Missing - Steven Davis (Knee), Rabbi Matondo (Knee), Tom Lawrence (Calf) & Ridvan Yilmaz, Kieran Dowell, Leon Balogun (not in EL-squad) Live on - TNT Sports 3 UK

Who says it was a mix-up? The BBC?

Two Sunday encounters against them on the trott. Let's hope we put them to the sword ... alas, Lowry won't be playing.

Credit where it is due, the BBC has started to give the SWPL more attention and you get line ups and stats for the game nowadays. They make good reading for the Old Firm game, the win means we are topping the table now. Highlights

The only vermouth's drop (as we say over here) was that we know HOW we can play, but so far never really did it often enough. All round super-solid performance, with some sparks of brilliance and quality play on top.

A few times I spotted a neat 4-4-2, BTW.

Circus is missing a clown today ... what a bampot Robertson is.

Some folk are in dire need to collect all the toys around their prams, it seems. They must be empty by now ...

It looks someone is in dire need of a Rangers game ...

The u21s game vs Malta is live on Youtube ...

I am pretty certain that "Auf geht's!" is correct for "Auf geht es!" and "Let's go!" is correct for "Let us go!". But if you would see how people use the English Genitive ' for German abbreviations these days ... 😭 (I blame the schools, TV, internet ... )

Too formal. "Auf geht's!" would be the most direct version of "Let's go!"

Let's put it this way ... if they will really pay that kind of money AND we have no other funds to give Clement a budget, so be it. Alas, I doubt that either will be the case.

Allons-y! 😱

Different times, but most ex-players anywhere had next to no managerial experience before joining a club, be that Souness, or Gerrard, Solksjaer et al. Walter was a good assistant before become a legendary Rangers man. So, I would say that it would be false to set certain preconditions for some people, when we have seen that similar people can do a job. As with players coming to Rangers, only what you do AT the club will mean everything, not what you did before or what you achieve later. While I do not see Davis or McCann as another Souness or Walter, all a Rangers manager has to be capable of (in the here and now) is to win games in the Scottish league and cup, as well as bringing silverware to Ibrox. These people know the club and the Scottish game, they know the current Rangers players and what the club needs. Whether they can achieve that is anyone's guess. We tried various people, and most of them needed time to get used to what the Scottish "game" is like. At the end of the day, most managers, players, and tactics (if any) of the past decade were sussed out by the opposition by Christmas and countered rather effectively. I doubt we can risk* another season that effectively starts by Christmas, while the new manager gets used to Scotland. Then again, there is not much one/we can do about it. *well, we can. All we "risk" is that the Scum snaps up another free title ...

Be that as it may, this no-one-knew-anything-about Ange chap we all laughed about back in the day was good enough to get them silverware on all fronts but Europe. He built a team (with lush CL-millions) that was good enough to hold everything in Scotland well at bay, including us. Whereas we toiled along with "modern football". TBH, I have no clue about most of the guys in the poll these days - their managerial credentials, that is. And I don't mind that, as long as the one who comes in gets this team back on track and we start winning trophies again. Be it Clement, Muscat, or Davis. There won't be any new arrivals (bar freebies) before the turn of the year, so we are stuck with what we have - no matter the manager. I still think that we bought decent quality, even though we made horrible decision along the way (Colak, Sakala, Hagi).

No, you can't do that, it is the international week ahead of us and people need to socialize/talk/you-name-it ...

We all know that you have no clue about line-ups! 😜

I never saw the days of inside lefts and the like in real life, but the 4-4-2 days, or that of the "libero". But to speak in Rangers terms ... 6 = DM - the one and only Hemdani 8 = CM = box to box - McCall, maybe Ian Ferguson 10 = shadow striker - playmaker behind the centre forward - Laudrup; not the cool 2nd centre forward a la Hateley & McCoist 9 = that lone warrior up top - take your pick from Morelos, Colak, or any other hermit (7 &) 11 are usually wingers, but no-one talks about that these days, since we play "modern football" ...

From the highlights it looked as if we had plenty of chances, St. Mirren none. Stats confirmed this. Scoring three goals from 8 shots on target is also an improvement ... if we talk about stats. Dunno about the general state of play though, but given that not many people were back from injury, only the youngsters will probably have brought some spark into proceedings. Raskin looked to have played further forward. As of yesterday, the onus is on Rangers to stay ahead of me in terms of years and titles. Back in the early 2000s, this looked easy enough. But since then ... so better get to work now!

True enough. Bar Butland, our central-defense was the only part of the team that was "okay" by their standards these last few games. As I noted above, I'd rather replace our "wing-backs", at least our right-sided one. But most of the line-ups above with half the team made up of kids are essentially just ironic / cynical banter, i.e. can't be taken seriously. I for one didn't even see McCausland doing anything productive with the ball. That said, neither he nor McKinnon or Rice is in the B-Team against Monaco today. Davis has to deal with what we have available, and that would be the case with any other manager coming in before the January transfer window. I’d be very surprised to see a change in formation tomorrow, though I do expect Ridvan back in the team.

Copied from the reply I just made in the EL "disaster" thread ... Which brings me back to the system. St. Mirren is "flying", yet only faced the rest of the dross in the Premiership so far. They will probably be in our faces on Sunday, hence, I'd go nominally 3-4-3, with Souttar coming in. Lundstram as DM, Raskin as CM, Ridvan filling the left wingback slot, Wright right wing. Sima, Roofe, and Dessers up top. Butland Souttar - Goldson - Davies Wright - Lundstram - Raskin - Ridvan Sima - Dessers - Roofe

Truth be told, we have been in far deeper shyte than this. Davis can't be envied for having to cope with this bunch of players and the injury situation (Danilo, Lawrence, Cantwell). He can't add anyone but youngsters, and it beggars belief that we let Lowry go alongside Hagi. Not least, while those we brought in needed time to adapt. I have no idea who the creative spark amongst the youngsters is. What he can do is change the system. IMHO, the line-up last night was okay, only that the players failed to perform. The front-line lacks much cohesion, and the constant change of positions sure does not help. Wright and Sima mostly sticking to their wing slots was a start. Yet, the middle axis is still a shambles at the best of times. The DMs/CMs do not press or run into spaces (if they see opportunity to do so), the player who should distribute the ball behind the "front three" is not there. Likewise, while Borna is his usual self (either he passes back, or delivers a rasping cross in the danger zone), Tavernier can just as well be converted into a right midfielder, as his defensive work would equal that role, and his attacking display too. You do wonder what his completed cross/freekick ratio is this season, as it looks to be rather poor. You wonder what sort of player Sterling is, his bit-part appearances are sort of disappointing, yet if he doesn't get any game time, how should he sharpen his game to the Scottish demands? If supply from the wings remains as it is, we can just as well keep Tavernier out and play a winger instead (Wright "bites back" equally well). Which brings me back to the system. St. Mirren is "flying", yet only faced the rest of the dross in the Premiership so far. They will probably be in our faces on Sunday, hence, I'd go nominally 3-4-3, with Souttar coming in. Lundstram as DM, Raskin as CM, Ridvan filling the left wingback slot, Wright right wing. Sima, Roofe, and Dessers up top.

Sakala assisted and scored good goals, and, more importantly, was always in the face of the defence, ran into spaces et al. Never understood why we let Moralos play ahead of Colak when fit, nor why we sold him - unless Parma turned his head.

Worst possible time for Europe. Aris scored two good goals and that was all they did. Bang average trash on par with Killie or Hibs. We just don't get our feet on the ground right now, and most players are well below form. Pass marks for Sima and Wright, the rest tried but essentially failed. Whoever decided to get rid of Colak and Sakala needs to get skelped to the Clyde and back.