der Berliner

This is a penalty and a red cards ...

After the last few fiascos with Madden and us and the Scum, we should lay siege to the SFA HQ and ask for better referees. He`s clearly inept enough to wreck a few games more this season ... and to the benefit of but one team.

As should always be the case, names of all referees, linesman, VAR ref and his assistant should be public knowledge.

And that Old Fox between the sticks sure the man of this round. Who would have thought ...

Indeed. Only that as soon as we near the pnealty area, our passing is mediocre at best. Alfredo needs to get his passing / shooting act together ... they are not that great at defending, as we have free people ... only don`t find them. Kent should probably try a trick less and go more direct or pass the ball. Their attackers are a fine unit and it took us too many scary minutes to get our DMs and CHs onto the same wave-length.

For the time being, I assume that - if at all - we just send a Rangers XI, not the first team ... which will be made public knowledge on the day we board the plane 🤪

... and Helander ain`t in the EL squad. I reckon we will have Goldson and Balogun flanked by Tav and Bassey. Probably Jack and Kamara, both with a license to join the attack. Morelos and Kent go without saying, plus hopefully Ramsey. Wouldn`t mind Lundstram doubling up as DM/CH.

By the looks of it, we have a near 14-day break before the semi-final. You wonder whether it would be reasonable to start pestering the SPFL to re-arrange games in mid-May, since there is no feasible reason not to play games after the cup final. Unless someone has a tour to Japan pencilled in again - though even that wouldn`t matter if said team is not involved in those games.

We never let them breathe and closed them down at the earliest opportunity. So far, Dundee couldn`t handle it, yet we should be 2 or more up by now. Good work out so far.

If that`s a test for Red Star, fair enough. For a game against one of the worst sides in the league, a Cup game that we should win, it`s downright shocking. Three DMs in midfield, a misfiring attacker on the left and a "let`s test and see how it goes Ramsey" one the right and all attacking threat resting on a single striker (who will see a fair amount of attention by their 2-3 CHs. Maybe Kamara will be thrown into the attack again, but heck, how shocking this must be for those four attackers on the bench. Gionaccio was not what I expected when he arrived.

Maybe we wait till the season comes to an end? As for Kent ... he`d be awesome if he was used as a winger and not a left-sided attacker meant to be contributing goals. Jack ... has hardly played all season, Tavernier nowadays starting to get to a level we all know he can play (at the back as well as the top), but which he does not reproduce on a regular basis over the course of the season. At the end of the day, it will probably down to Morelos and Tavernier, with the dark horse being Bassey.

Referee – Steven McLean Assistants – Alan Mulvanny (he is rather suspect and a Yahoo) and Andy Milne Fourth Offical - Alan Muir Missing - Ianis Hagi (knee, summer), Nnamdi Ofoborh (heart, unknown), Steven Davis (thigh), Scott Arfield (knock) Doubtful - John Lundstram (ankle), Joe Aribo Live on RTV & Premier Sports 1

Must be the longest running game thread in a wee while ... 😉

We should have registered it as the 3rd kit of the season, instead of that eye-cancer-inducing one. 😝

Aberdeen have been rank for weeks, even with Brown. We once more put out a team that has effectively one striker, another sent to the wing and lots of working/passing people with no end product. For weeks Aribo and Kamara have been back to the short-pass, needless pass, back-pass routine in midfield that will have greatly improved our completed-passes column, but the area where we needed people most, i.e. the finishing one, has been left unpopulated. I`ll - on hindsight - gave it to Gio that Perth was a dire game to play and one to win ugly. Today, there was all to play for, with the crowd behind from the off and Aberdeen not really the power of old. Yet we gave them everything they needed to play us rather them the other way round. Start to the second half was better, but after 20 mins we toiled on again. Sakala got some flak from the commentators, but Aribo and Kent produced next to nothing either ... Morelos went to the wing and flanked a fine ball ... and no-one of our supposed attacking midfield was there or arriving late. But that`s not something new and we saw it time and again under SG. if that`s modern football, I want a stone-aged 4-4-2 back.

Grab them 3 points and run ... ... onwards we "soldier".

Tyldesley: "Are Rangers sufficiently in control to bring on another forward" ... says it all. Utter and pure madness to think that a second forward would hamper us in any way or depends on our "dominance".

Not that SG`s Rangers would have played any different. You want the players playing like they did against Dortmund at Rangers. If people can`t keep up their own high standards, they should be replaced. We haven`t really done that to the starting line-ups for ages. Again far too sluggish in defence and DM, where we play so long that Aberdeen start pressing and we play reckless stuff. In midfield too many short and needless passes when then players themselves have lots of free yards in front of them ... trying tricks and countless short passes in a packed area ... how often have we seen this before. Take Kamara off, send Roofe through the middle and maybe even Wright on for Barisic.

The level slowly dropped from mediocre to appaling ...

I fear I`ll have a vitamine-shock before the game`s out.

First, I hope we give our founding fathers a fine salute by horsing the Dons 5-0 and send Brown home weeping. Second ... WTF. Bassey back as CH ahead of Balogun and Helander? We could have 5 subs in case of someone pulling up, yet we slot our brightest attacking spark on the left in recent weeks back into the defence? And Lundstram, who stood in as DM/CH all the while on the bench ahead of Kamara? Maybe Glen is earmarked for another 5 mins attacking role, but honestly, WTF? Good to see Sakala back. Just in case, got myself half a handful of Braeburn apples, so the fingernails get some respite in the later stages. (NB: I`ll eat them even if we win 5-0 ... vitamines and all.)

Dunno whether you do the line-up on a smart phone, but if you use a PC, you find small icons above the text field, the three next to A align the text where you want it. I reckon Aberdeen will want to spoil the party and make a fist of it, not least with the Legoeater in there and Ferguson, Bates and McCrorie willing to break their necks. Anyways, my line-up wouldn`t be too many miles off the above, since we need some grit midfield and pace up front. I doubt we will see Ramsey from the off, but likewise hope we won`t have Kamara in some make-shift attacking slot. Both Jack and Lundstram can find players, so just go for it ... McLaughlin Tavernier - Goldson - Balogun - Bassey Sakala - Jack - Lundstram - Kent Morelos - Roofe I would actually put Helander and Balogun into the CH positions, but I doubt Goldson will be dropped unless he`s injured ...

Pointed out above too. If you play a attacking 4-3-3, the top 3 shall be able to create and score goals. For months if not years we have played people there who create, but don`t score (enough to validate a automatic starting slot). One the bench were Roofe and Sakala, who can play right, left or centrally in a top-3. Play them all and see whether they succeed where the others have failed. Or, play Kent and Sakala on either wing and put Roofe and Morelos through the middle. You know it makes sense AND whatever has been said about this not being a viable option (is not modern etc.pp.) has since been disproven by three years of attacking toil against the brickwall-gang. Chances created have never won us a single game. Only goals do that ... and if anything, we need find solutions.

... yet we persist playing with but one striker and half-a-ahndful of attack-minded players who can create chances but don`t put them away. Whilst having 2 strikers on the bench who are deadly (compared to Kent, Aribo and Co.) in front of goals and can play on either side of a central striker. The system of 1 striker and 3 "attackers" behind him never really worked against the low-block teams, as we simply have too few able people in the box to score, and generally too few attackers anyways.

Your remark re Jack goes without question. But why would we have needed another DM/CM when the game cried out for someone replacing Aribo, Kent and Arfield, or even one of our CM/DMs? We lacked any sort of cutting edge, pace and relief in the final third, but had Wright, Sakala, Roofe and Lowry on the bench.