Rousseau

It's a great day! We have quite a few Correct Scores -- and a few that didn't have faith. Rousseau, Yorkie, les186, Dado, BEARGER, Franc, Gribz, Coop, compo, onevision, Gaffer, Bill, FS, gisabeer, Lenny, BSRT, TB, r_s gained 1 point for the Correct Result. Rousseau, Yorkie, Dado, BEARGER, compo, Les186, 26th gained 1 point for the Correct Number of Rangers Goals. No one had Jack as FGS. Rousseau, Yorkie, Dado, BEARGER, compo, and les186 gained 3 points for the Correct Score. New Leader! Latest Standings:

Always goes in stages, doesn't it? Going from 'we've got no chance' at the start of the week to 'get in tae them!' on derby day.

Kieran (?) Dowell has signed for Sheffield Utd on loan.

Yes! Absolutely brilliant club management. I love watching them. (I do note they play 4-4-2... )

Talk about stubborn. They're defensive players, but they're not playing defensive roles. We don't play with three 6s. Matuidi, a defensive midfielder, plays Left Wing for Juventus. Is he a 6? No; he may be defensive but he's playing a wide role. I'm not suggesting they're [our midfield] any good at it, but I'm not sure any of our players get pass marks this month; they look shattered, physically and mentally, and injuries have taken their toll on our options. You're not suggesting we go back to 4-4-2, and getting the 'wee man' to feed off long balls to the 'big man', are you? That's brutal stuff. We'll never make any progress that way. I understand your loyalty to a certain way of playing but the game's moved on. Anyway, I'll leave you to it. I'm bored. We'll just agree to disagree.

It's always wonderful to have a post on the Transfer thread, but when it's Stevie fae 4lads...

Rangers 1 - 0 Celtic FGS Morelos

Grezda was unavailable. Putting Lafferty in is not going to create us more chances. We're desperately short of creative midfield players. (I would've played Lafferty, but not as part of a 4-4-2.) If we play 4-4-2 against Hibs, we are at a serious disadvantage: we're outnumbered at the back and Midfield. The only 4-4-2 I would have played would be the Diamond, but we're short midfielders to utilise that, I think. Gerrard has tried that. Maybe a 4-2-3-1 would have worked, with Lafferty in there, but then again, there's no creative midfielder to make it work. Gerrard has tried that. The 4-3-3, with two roaming 8s, is the most logical system with the type of players we have available. Is it working? No, it's not. Gerrard is trying it. Maybe matching their 3-5-2 would've been better, but we've not drilled that and I'm not sure we had enough defenders either? Gerrard has even tried that, at Motherwell. To be honest, I don't think any formation / system would help because the players just look shattered, both physically and mentally; our small squad doesn't help matters.

Mix-up in the Hibs defense allows Candeias to head through Morelos to finish his one-on-one with the 'keeper. 1-0 to Rangers! We're so sloppy, giving the ball away far too often. That's not tactics.

Who does he bring in? Have you seen the bench? They clearly want the 4-3-3, which I'm fully on board with. It doesn't necessarily need to be defensive; it depends how they play. Jack and Coulibaly will play as 8s, with McCrorie the DM, I presume. If the former burst forward, then it's not that defensive.

Tavernier is a frustrating one. I don't think he's Captain material, and he's been really poor of late -- how many times does he lose the ball when trying to take on his man? He then pops up with a crucial assist -- and I'd always back him to tuck away a penalty.

Happy Christmas to all!

I am disgusted this tripe got published. I couldn't make it past 5 minutes. DIE HARD IS A CHRISTMAS FILM!

The midfield, but also the front line doesn't work yet, but... I agree.

That's not a failure creativity -- although we were short in that area -- that's just a failure of proper offensive structure.

Sure, more strikers on the pitch, more chance of scoring. It's not universal, but yes, I can go along with that. 4-4-2 is not needed for that. Like I said, I felt they were making the runs that they should be making in the 4-3-3. However, we're getting ahead of ourselves; this was game specific. If we can do it from the start, and win, then I'm all for it.

The Irony for me, was that the runs Candeias and Lafferty were making in the 4-4-2 were the same runs they should be making in the 4-3-3, if they're the wide men. I'm not convinced the 4-4-2 is the way to go, but we played it well, and more importantly for me, there was a good positional structure to it. We were susceptible on the counter, but we were pretty gung-ho at that point.

I agree with all of that -- although I'd move Jack up to the 'players I like a lot' section, and move Katic down. I'm surprised I agree with you... I must be maturing. Hopefully this Gif makes up for it:

Just noticed that's us played exactly half the 38 games, picking up 38 points. If we project that forward, it gives 76 points -- more than enough to get second spot over the last few seasons. We've even given away a lot of stupid points too -- that Motherwell slip-up still haunts me.

These are the moments you want Lafferty. Dirty b*stard, but experienced enough to not get in trouble for it.

Defend like hell, now, Rangers. Please...

COOOMMMMMMEEEEEE OOOOOONNNNNNNN!!

Lafferty keeps missing chances. I think I'd be more annoyed if he wasn't getting these chances, but it's still so, so frustrating.

I had wheeled away celebrating the 2nd... how did that not go in?!