T-1000

We are not moving the ball quick enough and trying to play in small areas whereas we should be looking to spread the play and stretch the St Johnstone defence. I also felt the passing today was poor with too many balls in the air making control more difficult in what was a poor pitch.

St Johnstone 1 Rangers 2 FGS: Morelos

I feel Barisic carries a threat offensively because he provides an out ball which makes the pitch larger and because of his delivery of the ball into the area. Defensively, he is competent without excelling and his positioning can at times be questioned. Overall, however he is our best left back.

Rangers 1 Braga 1 FGS: Morelos

Rangers 3 Livingstone 1 FGS: Morelos

In the first half Kent had two Killie players in front of him and what he needed was Halliday going on the overlap as Borna does. The result being that Kent was largely ineffective and too often cut inside and ran into a congested area. I felt Hagi was fine in the first half but fell out of the game in the second half. He looks a skilful player but we shouldn't expect too much from him but more from others round him. Tavenier got himself into good positions offensively but his crossing was very poor. He needs to try and play in an earlier ball behind the defence for forwards to run onto. Morelos simply looks off form. I also think that defenders have wised up to the fact that he likes to roll them and now position themselves to avoid this. In the early part of the season Jack used to run games but lately he has not been quite as influential. Finally the substitutions came too late.

Kilmarnock 1 Rangers 2 FGS: Morelos

I felt there was a bit of similarity with the first team. The passing game in the midfield and retention of possession was good (especially given the state of the pitch) but we lacked that cutting edge in the final third. No one seemed capable of getting on the ball and playing that incisive pass to runners but instead we tended to be slow in moving the ball forward and gave the Atletico defence time to regroup and crowd us out. I also thought the Rangers defence did not seem that strong with a number of poor or hurried clearances.

Hamilton 1 Rangers 3 FGS: Morelos

Is that you Kevin? ?

She may have been but the current directors are his two sons.

His two sons seem to be the ones in charge in what is not a very profitable business. The partnership does, however, generate publicity, good and bad depending on your perspective.

I am less sure that bringing Kent onto the middle would be successful. Most of the teams we play are loaded in the middle and I am not sure that there would be the space for Kent to excel. Instead, I think he is more likely to be caught in possession and thus our attack will be stopped. On a number of occasions Kent does come in off the side to the centre but I tend to feel when he does this he is dribbling across the field and there is a lack of penetration. Where I do agree, is that later in games when teams are becoming stretched Kent has more space in the middle and can then run at defenders with more chance of going past them and not being stopped by another defender immediately behind the first defender. I think we can have some success if Kent is to the left of centre as long as he works in tandem with Barisic. I would like to see Barisic on occasion playing balls into the left channel for Kent to capitalise on.

Rangers 3 Hibs 1 FGS: Morelos

Rangers 2 Aberdeen 1 FGS: Morelos

Rangers 3 Ross County 1 FGS: Defoe

Although we played poorly I think some credit has to be given to how Hearts played. Unlike most teams we come against they did not use a defensive block. Against these sorts of teams we can dictate the tempo, establish some rhythm and have the bulk of possession. Hearts did not do that but instead they hassled our midfield and ensured they had little time on the ball. We thus got sucked into a scrappy game with the ball in the air a lot which does not suit our style. In addition, they had Clare playing down the wing which restricted Barisic (an exception was our goal) thus negating one of our strengths. On the other side Flanagan is not noted for his offensive qualities and thus the combination of these meant we were forced into a more restricted game. Upfront we missed Morelos who can occupy the centre backs much more than Defoe who doesn't have the same physicality and who is now lacking a bit of pace and therefore is not able to outrun defenders. As others have also noted hitting long balls into the box is not playing to Defoe's strength which is being a penalty box predator. Picking up on a point may much earlier by Rousseau our lack of movement at throw-ins is dire making it difficult for players to have the time to make a telling pass and spread the play. Instead, we tend to become hemmed into a small area and it needs some bit of skill or ingenuity to make something happen.

Hearts 1 Rangers 3 FGS: Defoe

Rangers 2 St. Mirren 0 FGS: Defoe

Rangers 4 Stranraer 0 FGS: Defoe

Celtic 2 Rangers 2 FGS: Morelos

Rangers 3 Kilmarnock 1 FGS: Defoe

I would hope that all of them are fit.

There has been quite a bit of information on the official website. We picked up a goalkeeper from Hibernian who seem to be imploding at the moment and have lost a number of players which is a cause for complaint on their forums. As Celtic are also gearing up it looks as though there might be some competition in the new season, between ourselves, Glasgow City and Celtic.

Hibs 1 Rangers 2 FGS: Arfield