der Berliner

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.

After a night`s sleep one might come to the conclusion that we`ve won ugly and had dire games before, during the 9NIAR years, before them and after. Yet, somehow I am still baffled that we kept the same players on and played some stuff that we hadn`t seen since the Championship and earlier days. You hope that Saturday will be different, yet my gut feeling says that we will see the same players in the same positions and the same tactic ...

What for? A Jack was not needed today. Aribo had about 5 mins of good football to show for, Kent was some sort of outlet but gave the ball away needlessly time and again ... or again showed no composure when it mattered. Arfield on the right didn`t know where he was supposed to play, that wing/attack-slot was seriously under-used. Our CMs/DMs entered one heading and flippflopping contest with their players after the other, there was hardly anyone putting a foot on the game. Davis and Ramsey must have watched that in utter disbelief - much like we did. It was obvious after some 30 mins (at the latest) that we hardly had any attacking outlet bar Morelos - even despite Saints played a rather expected open game. That was half a galaxy apart from the game we handed to Dortmund away ... and yet there was no reaction from the bench. Saturday can`t come quickly enough.

You could have had Walker and whoever trolls us next to him though. Alas, my stream talked Russian and he wasn`t that excited either. Let`s hope we hammer Aberdeen on Saturday at Ibrox.

Can`t remember being so fed up after winning three points. That was trying to destroy a shit-team playing football rather than any sort of competent football. from the champions of this country. No subs either ... beyond belief really.

... we actually five sub possibilities. Maybe we keep them till next weekend.

Have that gut feeling that despite playing worse than quite a few games before, the evening might turn out to be a better one than the weekend ...

Very much so. Kamara started high up the park but dropped ever deeper. Aribo was nigh invisible for 30 mins ... instead of being the one behind Morelos pulling the creative strings. Arfield and Kent once more (how many "once mores" can you have?) show that their killer instinct is more that of a fly swat. That could and should have been 2 or 3 goals from them alone. Our right flank attack-wise is virtually non-exisiting, as Arfield is working tirelessly back and thus is missing up top. Bassey doing well again.

We had them 4 mins in at home against Dortmund by thousands ...

Could it be that Gio found something differently in Kamara`s CV and told him to attack, for a change?

These creeps at the micro for Sky love their trolling ...

To be honest, it should be either him or Jack or Lundstram, not two of them. Alas, Lundstram has a better attacking mind. All in all, it looks a hard-work selection, not one to cut them open. You can only hope that a) Arfield and Aribo click from the off, and b) we change things quickly if it doesn`t. "Might" be that we try a 3 at the back with Tav going in RM, with Lundstram stepping back when Bassey roves the left wing. McGregor and Goldson seemingly can`t do anything wrong, which is probably as mindboggling to us as it is to some of those on the bench. Alas, Balogun is back