Rousseau

Rangers 1 - 0 St Mirren FGS Morelos.

'02 Scottish Cup Final. Magic.

If he's good enough, get him on the pitch!

I've not seen enough of him, to be honest. He did well enough when he started the Old Firm game a couple of years ago. But he's not played since, so it appears he's not good enough - certainly not to start ahead of McGregor and McLaughlin. Now we're giving him a new deal, which suggests he's got something about him. So, is he good enough or not? (Or, is he just a permanent back-up? That would be a waste of the lad's career.)

Topic split off. I'll make a poll of the options, if there's interest.

Hull have reached an agreement with Olympiacos manager Pedro Martins to become their new manager. He's won three titles on the bounce. Why can't we target someone like that? I wonder how much Hull are offering him?

Rangers 1 - 0 St Mirren FGS Colak

Rangers vs St Mirren

It does highlight how big our squad is (joint most in the CL), and yet we're always light because of all the injuries!

Club Squad ø-Age Market Value ø-Market Value Manchester City 23 27.2 £949.77m £41.29m Liverpool FC 27 26.7 £832.50m £30.83m Paris Saint-Germain 28 25.3 £801.32m £28.62m Bayern Munich 24 25.5 £790.83m £32.95m Chelsea FC 25 26.6 £775.35m £31.01m Real Madrid 23 27.4 £753.75m £32.77m FC Barcelona 25 25.4 £732.33m £29.29m Tottenham Hotspur 25 26.2 £616.77m £24.67m Atlético de Madrid 22 27.8 £550.35m £25.02m Inter Milan 28 27.5 £533.66m £19.06m AC Milan 31 26.1 £495.50m £15.98m Juventus FC 27 26.7 £452.16m £16.75m RB Leipzig 25 24.8 £436.03m £17.44m Borussia Dortmund 31 24.4 £434.70m £14.02m SSC Napoli 27 25.6 £432.50m £16.02m Bayer 04 Leverkusen 28 24.4 £422.87m £15.10m Ajax Amsterdam 27 24.7 £266.22m £9.86m Sevilla FC 25 28.4 £248.85m £9.95m SL Benfica 30 25.5 £234.27m £7.81m FC Porto 28 26.0 £231.30m £8.26m Olympique Marseille 27 24.6 £229.50m £8.50m Sporting CP 28 24.4 £206.82m £7.39m Eintracht Frankfurt 30 24.7 £204.80m £6.83m Red Bull Salzburg 32 22.1 £183.53m £5.74m Club Brugge KV 31 24.2 £144.95m £4.68m Rangers FC 32 26.2 £114.59m £3.58m Celtic FC 27 25.8 £97.11m £3.60m GNK Dinamo Zagreb 29 25.4 £86.36m £2.98m Shakhtar Donetsk 29 24.7 £72.27m £2.49m FC Copenhagen 29 24.8 £61.47m £2.12m FC Viktoria Plzen 27 27.8 £25.65m £950Th. Maccabi Haifa 27 27.4 £18.54m £687Th.

Transfermrkt... Average of £3.5m per player, which I don't think is too far off. (Celtic are valued at £97m, but with 5 fewer players, which works out roughly the same average per player.) There was another value placed on our side prior to the CL, which was similar, I think?

Don't get me wrong: I'm not expecting us to beat Liverpool - they've reached 3 CL finals in the last 6 years (I think?). But I am expecting us to come up with a tactical plan and execute it properly. At the moment we're just... blah.

And Atletico have way way more cash than Brugge. Money is only part of the equation. (Actually, their squad value is £144m compared to our £114m, which is not a huge difference.)

What about the save from Jota in the second half?

I suspect foul play...

Boo! The record is gone.

A Guardiola-Klopp double act in charge would not work. One or the other would get infinitely more out of this team than GvB. The first thing a decent manager would do would be to get more out of this team. Did you see Klopp's first Liverpool team?! 10th to 4th and a CL spot.

I see what you mean. I always think evolution is best. A rebuild, to me, sounds like all the players are rubbish, which I disagree with. I would be taking up the options on Sands and Tillman. McGregor, Davis and Arfield should not have been resigned last summer. McGregor will be a big loss, but we do need to move on to a more modern 'keeper. That should have been done in the summer. Davis and Arfield are just squad player, to me. McCann should be ahead of them, IMO. I feel like Kent and Morelos will sign new deals. I would like to keep Morelos, but wouldn't mind seeing the back of Kent. I like Kamara, and he's got several years left on his contract. Helander and Roofe and go. They never play. It's not a loss. Jack should re-sign too. He's a good player, good presence around the place, albeit injury prone. I do think he plays enough - he certainly plays more than Helander and Roofe, for example. I don't think we need 5 first-team players. Three certainly: GK, #8 and a RW. Maybe a CB, but I'm happy with King and Sands, to be honest.

I agree: We're p*sh. I've been saying it for ages. I don't think we need a rebuild, though, but you know that...

Napoli are very good. However, we actually held our ground until the penalty debacle and subsequent red card.

What are your thoughts, folks? I'm hoping for a new record!

One last point: Brugge had Mignolet in goal. Mignolet.

Moreover, Liverpool are rubbish this year. They've conceded against every side, except Bournemouth and a 0-0 Merseyside derby. Just ping the ball over Trent and it's a free shot on goal! I'm exaggerating, but still...

I don't agree with this 'we're outmatched financially, so that's that' stance. Club Brugge beat Atletico 2-0 last night, to record their third straight win in the CL (Leverkusen and Porto are the others in their group). They are not on a level financial playing field. Brugge sold £50m worth of talent (three star players) in the summer, and replaced them with 4-5 players for £4-5m each. We're not far off that. Going by the rumours, we were in the market for the same player (Skov Olsen). (They did spend £13m on one player, who didn't play last night.) Brugge didn't go into the game against Atletico thinking, 'oh - Atletico have several £50m+ players, so we've got no chance'. No. They did the basics right, they set up to nullify Atletico's strengths, and, crucially, had a tactical plan to actually cause problems and score a goal. I would - and do - blame the manager for the majority of it. However, we did beat Dortmund and Leipzig last season. They are CL teams. Frankfurt held Tottenham last night in the CL. Again, Frankfurt are not so much better than us, and have taken a point from a side with vastly more financial resources than them.