der Berliner

Too bad that we don't have a Ridvan for the right hand side too ... what a silly pass from the Captain.

Well, they play a gear or two down now, but at least we press them up the park.

What did he whistle against Tillman? Surely not handball after the push?

Thing is, he's a player that is not needed right now. Which might have been clear last summer, but hindsight is a wonderful thing.

No matter the opposition, you want to see these players give 100 %. Even though they know the cause is lost, it is what you expect of professionals and Rangers players at that. It doesn't look like everyone is on that wavelength though. Davis and Arfield surely would.

We could just as well chuck Kent and bring Borna in, so Ridvan, who looked the best of our chaps in the pitch - alongside Tillman - can go further forward. We need to keep them off the ball and give their back-line some pressure, else it will be wave after wave. If these guys getting in the mood, we look like them proverbial rabbits.

Some "strike" by Alfredo ...

Kent jogs about and others watch the game like rabbits in the headlights. Heck, at least do your duty!

We play a top class Cl team which is on fire right now. We have - by our standards - been struggling for form all season. This goes just according to the form-book, even though the first goal was IMHO a hit'n hope shot while the second was truly bad defending. If we'd scored them, they would obviously be world-class finishes. Can't understand why we preferred Morelos to Colak when the latter is clearly more mobile, in form and pressing the defenders hard. EDIT ... then again, Colak needs to be fit for Aberdeen and Morelos needs to get up to speed an his act together (or we use it as a shop window ... )

We might keep the score down if we use six substitutes ...

Well, one does hope that watching all three strikers and a couple of wingers pounding the opposition will have given Gio a wake-up call. Yet, I reckon that will not come on Wednesday, unless we want to see a double-figure reverse. But against Aberdeen, I do expect a couple of strikers and wingers from the off. Good to see Roofe back.

So can we play football, IF we player 2 wingers AND 2 strikers, at the end even 3. Not that shitty working midfield. Bury that 4-2-3-1 trash against rabble like Livy.

Get Sakala on straight away, so we get our wing-play going on the right. Either remove Lundstram or Davis. I'd also remove Kent and send Roofe out there, Borna can deliver the crosses, we need finishers in the middle. Tavernier's been woeful again, always moves inside and leave the right wing empty, when Arfield is already in there.

How we manage to get 30 mins or even a full half playing utter crap like that week in and week out and still always revert to these very same tactics and players. Doesn`t matter whether its SG or Gio, it is abysmal.

This is A,B,C,D - football Abysmal Bad Chaotic Diabolical ... 😱

And then you have Gordon Smith in the Co-Commentator slot telling us our line-up is attacking and Livingston`s 3-5-2 is defensive. How view-points can differ ...

Oh look, Plan A, Pt. 2,376. A team of workers and grafters and one striker against a brick-wall. That will be a fascinating watch again.

Only knew him from the song linked above, a couple of books and some video clips. A legend of the past in our shrine of football. Rest easy, Jimmy!

A thing that baffles me with both SG and Gio: they have brought along a staff of assistants, fitness and tactic guys, even a striker of the caliber of Makaay. Yet, we hardly see any sort of influx of their work or ideas - if any. You would have assumed that by now Gio and Co. e.g. would have noted the way how Scottish teams line up against us, yet we see the same tactics time and again, with hardly any deviation from the failed system. Granted, we have injury issues, with Lawrence, Roofe, Hagi, Helander and Morelos being the most significant. But despite all the talent still at his hands, Gios sides often are blunt weapons against brick walls. Even a blind guy on a dead horse would have spotted that by now. Yet, we do nothing. EDIT: Gio won't go because of an early European exit. Every sane mind will see the gulf in class between the CL teams and us, and I mean the real CL teams like in our group, not the Bobo, Zagreb or Kopenhagen teams in weaker groups. We accomplished our monetary mission for this season and getting more freedom for the cups and the leagues may still lead to 56 come May.

My vote went to Davis. He actually played more like a 10 than a DM and was probably given license to do so. The amount of work the Old Fox put into the game was tremendous and put the likes of Tavernier and Lundstram to shame. Wright and Sakala were trying all night, yet had little help from the rest of midfield, and while Tillman was trying, I was sort of annoyed how little cohesion there was. I could not work out what role Lundstram was playing, as he left any DM and thus creative-from-the-back duties to our centre-halfs, who, as the game wore on, were pressed by the Dundee forwards and it all became ever more erratic. Davis stepped back on occasion, but the distribution from the back was dire and the passing - even by our veterans - was next to shocking. I'll never understand why a) you have to run 5 yards in one direction before playing a (by then telegraphed) ball to another player or b) receive a ball and treat it like a hot coal and send it to another player with one or two opponents on his back, who will only play it back to you. As if you win games by completed passes ... Ridvan looked quite good (no matter the opposition) and tried to overlap with Wright or having a pop himself. I wouldn't mind testing him as a real wingback, even with Borna behind him in a more defensive line-up. He looks quite capable of beating players and delivering passes and shots. King is a solid defender. For the time being, I don't see much more though. Lundstram seemingly never got out of second gear and as I said, I couldn't work out his role last night. I would have chucked him for McCann at half-time, who was at least trying and harrying people all over the pitch. Morelos looked every inch the out of favour and out of form striker. Against Dundee at home I would have thrown on a second striker and the two wingers from the start. Given that the midfield behind Morelos was all over the place, he had no real partner to play with, which hardly helped his course. Roofe ... is a penalty box player and showed that. I long for the day that we play him and Colak, Wright and Sakala on the wings and see what happens. Tillman tried his best and I hope we don't shovel him about the pitch like we did with Aribo.

Well, TBH, Sakala wasn`t that dire either. Usually up against two chaps he kept trying and trying till the end and his double-pass play with Roofe near the end was quite good. Tav behind him though ...

We started reasonable and it went downhill ever after. As if we wanted to emulate the weekend's dross and get down to their level. And much of that is down to our regulars who hardly ever showed up, be it Lundstram or Tavernier, who looked quite disinterested. Play like that next week and we'll get horsed. Bright notes: Ridvan did well enough, but wasn't picked out often enough. Wright and Sakala did their winger's job, and Roofe showed more in his few mins than Alfredo in his 73.

You see the enthusiasm of Davis (of all people), the willingness of Wright, Sakala and Ridvan, but much of the play is slowed down by regulars like Lundstram and Tavernier being either sluggish in mind or pass. Morelos looks every inch out of touch and sync too, but he hasn't played that much. Still annoying. Too bad we sent Zukowski away, as I doubt Devine is first team stuff just yet. Then again, much like Ridvan, he wouldn't feature that much.

In the here and now, we require the Scum to drop points every now and then. We'll see how their (new) players cope with the Scottish climate/pitches around and post the turn of the year. And we sure need our best players back from injury and/or playing at the top of their game. By the turn of the year, we'll be out of Europe and don't have that double strain of European football as some sort of excuse. Likewise, Gio finally needs to get his act together about tactics and drops players who do not perform.

I am now certain that we signed some unique contract with Kent that he gets bonuses for minutes which he doesn't play. Utterly ridiculous that people can have so little impact on a game time and again and never get subbed or replaced. Only highlight of the game that one solo run by Tillman, who looked much better being played more centrally. He, Davis and Wright showed the bite we were lacking. You would hope we "test" other players against Dundee on Wednesday.