der Berliner

Sunday - 13. April 2025 - 12.00 Scottish Premiership Pittodrie Stadium v Referee - Steven McLean Assistants - David McGeachie and David Dunne Video Assistant Referee - Andrew Dallas Assistant Video Assistant Referee - Gary Hilland Missing - Neraysho Kasanwirjo (knee), Dujon Sterling (), .... Live on - Sky Sports Football and Rangers TV

Build like an ox, but no durability whatsoever. Did he ever survive three to five games in a row?

Rice could and should have been withdrawn by the time he was fouled. We seriously lacked more pace up front and someone drawing people too him, someone to take the ball away from our half. McCausland, who might not be everyone's cup of tea, is that type of player, tracking back tenaciously, and has the pace to counter-attack. No idea where Cortes was, BTW. Probably sacrificed for Scottish bench-places. Having watched it back, like last night, I have no idea how the VAR and ref came up with the penalty decision. That must have been contact on the molecular layer ... Some highlights ... provided by our German admin.

Dunno how we manage to find people, even build like an ox in Sterling's case, and they don't survive three games on the trot. Great performance, albeit being backs to the walls for most of the 102 mins ...

We essentially switched to a more "normal" 4-4-1 and everyone got stuck in. You wonder whether Bilbao can switch up a gear still. Chances for them and us ... and since we only play with one striker, a time must come when Danilo should be used again. We can't have Dessers missing so many chances per game in ties like these.

What's the news with Lawrence, BTW? Haven't seen him since the Dundee game.

Tavernier again posting missing on the right flank ...

Why would anyone sport French fries on his head, BTW?

Hardline-refereeing ... let's see how it continues.

... my memories of Scum players starts only with the likes of Brian McClair, Anton Rogan, and Frank McAvennie.

So that's ... Kelly Tavernier - Sterling - Pröpper - Balogun - Ridvan Cerny - Raskin - Rice - Hagi Dessers ... or the like. Wonder why never saw much of Price, yet he is ahead of Bajrami, who is actually a playmaker. Aidan McCallion is a 16-year old midfielder ...

It's Thursday, anything can happen. Yet, I started to expect nothing at all, so I can't get disappointed. During the play-off days, I get my mental happiness elsewhere ... e.g. semi-finals of the German ice-hockey championship playoffs. After beating Straubing Tigers 4-1 in the Best of Seven quarter-final play-offs, the Eisbären sweeped the semi-final series against arch enemy Adler (Eagles) Mannheim 4-0, delivering a crushing home defeat to them last Tuesday.

You get 3 Carlsberg Extra Strong and be quiet anyways ...

Colak and Dessers were/are lethal enough, IMHO. What we need is more goals from elsewhere. As we can see this season, if that ain't happening (e.g. last season the captain added another two hatful of goals, not this season though), we toil. Cerny came in and provided hope. We don't learn, though.

Well, we can easily agree to disagree. My humble opinion remains the same ... too much is put under the microscope. There are far more obvious problems.

Thanks for making me watch that scene again ... stop it at 0.06 mins in. As I said in the game-day thread, he had 10 people (9 players and a referee) standing in front of him, blocking the sight. The ball was struck neatly and hard, Butland saw it late and had not much time to react.

Truth be told, he had a couple or so nightmarish games, but those are normal for a goalie. I would like to see more of Kelly, not least in league games. We do have a tendency of playing the blame-game on a high level these days and should refrain to put every goal conceded under the microscope. IMHO, he couldn't do anything more to prevent the goals on Saturday than he did. Nor any other goalie.

Tav's contract runs out in summer 2026. The hard truth is that we have had people playing extremely well for us, Aribo, Morelos, Tavernier, Goldson, Barisic, Kent etc. but no-one came by and wanted them. You can't force teams to sign our staff, after all. We got lucky with Bassey, we may get lucky with Raskin and some others, if they use the shop window called Europe well enough.

He repaid much of that last season (58 games) with 24 goals and 12 assists, this season (45) it has dropped to a more normal (for a RB) 5 goals and 12 assists. Next to no penalties ... and truth be told, there we not that many (i.e. 15+) situations where we were denied one. The lack of his goal contribution (which I do not hold against him, for it is simply not his core competence) underlines the fact that our attack "force" is failing badly. Mainly down to lack of "force" in the final third. It's a broken record, though, and I am sick and tired to repeat it. What we have seen is de facto the same line-up used against anyone no matter the competition, with changes only being made due to injuries, suspension or the odd new player (typically shoe-horned into a role not his). You may do that a year or two, but it has become a chronic disease that put the team into some quarantine away from the support with every passing day. I don't think that an extraordinary amount of money is required to change our fortunes in the league. If Hibs manage to assemble a team able to go 16 games unbeaten these days, including two 2-0 wins against the Old Firm, you see what is needed. Which does not mean that we should downscale our ambitions or players to their level, but get a similar mix with some more quality. Which is essentially what Rangers managers of the past have done. It's not like Laudrup, Gazza, DeBoer, McCoist and Co. were the only players on the park.

.... only a wee reminder of your ailing eye-sight. That is: you missed the anguish about Tav during the match.

Read the game thread up there again. Tav was not helping in any way, but leaving the slot where he does the most damage far too often.

We played a 5 at the back and two DMs away to Dundee. Not Bilbao, Leipzig or some high profile non-stop attacking side. We essentially reduced our "attacking" threat of last Saturday down by another player or two at Dundee, which allowed them to come at us. They wanted to win that game, much like Hibs. We marginally upped that to our usual 4-2-3-1 (if I consider Barron the DM in a 4-3-3), but played a striker out of position, while the wingbacks were not attacking like they meant to be. Tav was somewhere in the middle, Jefte hardly receiving the ball at all. We had plenty of possession because our defenders played triangles with the midfielders and vice versa. There was no pace and hardly any penetration. That is no different from what we have seen for weeks, months, if not years. Just a general observation. After 30 mins, the game backed for a back-3, one DM, 4 midfielders (two wingers included), and a couple of strikers. So we'd have a goal scoring threat. Instead, we were down to the usual hopeful, bit part show that Hibs (like many others) can easily counter.

I don't do it often, probably only a handful of times these last 20 years, but on Saturday, I switched off after their second goal. At the end of the day, you have to give in-form Hibs credit for their game plan and play. Not that it is any great change from how teams usually play at Ibrox. Only that Hibs are curently top of the lot, similarly to St. Mirren not too long ago. The Scum lost also on those two occasions, BTW. We always had the odd reversal at Ibrox, the names Ivan Sproule and Allan Johnston (IIRC) may spring to mind. Only that back in those days, it was an anomaly. Saturday, the interimistas changed that horrible line up from Dundee to a more attacking 4-3-3, but that's still not good if those who are supposedly wingbacks don't make it a 2-5-3. And those three in the middle are essentially a world apart from the "threat" caused occasionally by the likes of Lundstram. But instead of changing it by HT, the interimistas obviously stared at the unfolding events like a hare to a snake. Maybe it was all just a big training session for Thursday and they consider the league gone. (Not far from the truth, obviously, but that's not how Rangers shall approach a game.) I have no idea what Danilo and McCausland have done wrong, so they don't even get half a chance. At least they will be craving action and willing to prove themselves. RANGERS: Butland, Tavernier, Sterling, Souttar, Jefte, Barron, Raskin, Diomande (Danilo, 74), Cerny (Bajrami, 58), Igamane (Hagi, 87), Dessers (Curtis, 87) You have 5 subs possible, replace the only real threat you have (even though Cerny has a tendency to waste more good chances and runs than Dessers every now and then - and that was the case on Saturday), Danilo was probably too late, the 87 min subs are essentially a joke, not least Curtis for Dessers. There was no wide play (again), yet you keep all three wingers on the bench (again) ... Subs not used: Kelly, Propper, Cortes, Balogun, McCausland ... and that IMHO is simply down to poor management and anticipation. Cortes has been on the bench for weeks now, Danilo too. I have no clue what Barry was trying against Dundee, nor what the plan for Saturday was. It backfired miserably, and cost us the chance to close the gap. Like most managers before him, he and his lot are those picking the team and the line-up. Coming out saying it was not good enough from the players is just half the truth. My "fear" is that our next manager will need another 3 month learning period, by which time the Scum is racing away again.

Aren't we "rebuilding" since Caixinha?

After 10 minutes we were playing 3 attackers against a well-organized brickwall, Barry. We had no width, no spark from midfield and a threesome of CMs that don't exactly click against such tactics. Aside from not shooting or running into spaces. Even Jason Holt did it better than our three supporting midfielders ... or however you call them. Jefte is a shadow of his early season form. Ridvan, for all his faults, at least tries something and is demanding the ball (and gets it). Tavernier is far too often not on his usual right wing-back slot, leaving that side open and easily defended. Don't know if you can actually ask for better defending from our centre-halfs. The first goal was IMHO pure luck, the second one caught Souttar out on his left hand side, with Jefte somewhere and no DM in sight for cover. These DMs (name any of the three) are there to spot these runs. In short, why no Hagi? Why no Cortes? Why no Bajrami, or McCausland? E.g. at half-time? We could easily have gone three at the back, get Jefte and Diomande off, and bring attackers on. THAT would have shown a manager's will to change things which ain't work. The moment I posted that 4-3-3 earlier this afternoon, my gut-feeling said that Hibs will have a field day, given their form.