JFK-1

Exactly why I think VAR would be beneficial to us.

That red was coming. Wouldn't be surprised if they lose another then any win will be put down to playing against 9 men despite the dominance and lead while they had 11.

https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/49223754

I'm seeing 4 yellows for them 2 for us on BBC.

It's been a dominant performance with massive pressure being exerted and many chances created. I expect the second half to be much of the same with at least a couple more scored. Be interesting to see what changes are made when they come. Difficult to hook Defoe after a brace though perhaps if we restore the 2 goal lead before the hour mark Morelos may replace him.

Jones needed to get away from Kilmarnock to fully express himself in an attacking side.

It's pretty much a siege. Something has to give.

Could be a rout. I think our team is simply a lot better than even many of us believe it is.

Not Susan Boyle.

I think it would benefit us more often than not.

So gratifying to see Killie get a taste of their own medicine at Hamilton. Killie dominated the play with 62% of the possession and 17 shots at goal to 4 for Hamilton as Accies dug in just as Killie like to do. And again I think it proves it's hard for a team like them to switch from that park the bus strategy to playing attacking football. Both Connah's Quay and Accies have shown them up for what they are. Good at wall building but nothing else.

Midtjylland have to go for it so there will be spaces opening up. I feel we will again score more than once to put it far beyond their reach.

It's a must win game and not because it's Hibs, they're not a competitor who could make this a 6 pointer. Must win simply because they're all must win prior to turning over the yahoos at Ibrox which is a 6 pointer. We have to be sitting top of the pile with 12 points the night of September 1st. Hibs will be lucky to get 4th or 5th at the end of the season.

Not a bad appraisal of the game from the Evening Times. https://www.eveningtimes.co.uk/sport/17825691.midtjylland-2-rangers-4-five-talking-points-impressive-rangers-showing/?ref=ar

SG recently mentioned being focused on issues of breaking down low lying blocks in the final third. Presumably Barker is one more potential solution. I and many of us would have liked to see another striker but despite there being a little over 3 weeks of the window left it doesn't look as if that will happen.

Yeah Katic is developing into a nightmare no player either forward or defender wants to see on his shoulder. Gerrard is constructing a side liberally sprinkled with big strong athletes who wont be intimidated or out muscled by any opposition. Morelos is a dwarf in comparison to many of our side yet even he terrifies the wits out of opponents. McKenna is demanding a transfer to get away from him. Preferred destination anywhere that wee bauchle Morelos isn't.

Number 1 would have to be Alex Ferguson given his feats at Aberdeen then phenomenal success with a team that hadn't won a title in a quarter of a century. Outside that I have difficulty choosing any more because the more I have in mind come from a different era. It's harder to compete and be dominant in the post Bosman era and Ferguson had to compete and did in that era of clubs being bankrolled by billionaires.

I don't see the result getting the praise it deserves nor Gerrard getting the praise he deserves. All three Scottish teams playing away and we were the only team to win and not just nick a win. We won handsomely against a side we all agreed beforehand were far and away the toughest test yet and arguably the best side any of the Scottish Scottish teams were playing. Personally I can't offhand remember a Scottish team scoring 4 goals away at this advanced stage of qualification. As for the manager he inherited a side that had fallen at QR1 the year before and now looks well capable of taking us to the groups two out of two. He has a remarkable record in Europe that can't have been bettered so quickly by too many 'rookie' managers. And perhaps none who came into the situation he did with just weeks to build a side that got to the groups at his first attempt. And I agree with something Gerrard said afterwards tonight. He said "I'm not sure we had this performance in us last year but I think we've gone up a level" and I think there has been ample evidence of that since the beginning of pre season. So far I haven't seen much media or otherwise credit for this stunning result but one way to put another hole in their silence bubble would be to carry this type of form on to Sunday. With it being the first home game of the domestic season and following such a fabulous Euro result Gerrards appeal in the post match interview for Ibrox to be rocking on Sunday is highly likely to be fulfilled. He said there would be a 'few changes to freshen it up' On the evidence to date Hibs don't stand a chance given that this is our first home domestic game and we're on a roll. They're nowhere near as good Midtjylland and no matter what the 'few' changes will be we have extreme danger in more than one configuration. If Hibs end up pinned back and making it difficult I just don't see them holding back the tide indefinitely. Keep in mind that the strongest feature of Midtjylland was their defence particularly at home and we put 4 past them. Much the same is a realistic possibility against Hibs. Hibs on their own ground last week laboured to beat relegation candidate St Mirren and took until the 85th minute to get the goal for a 1-0 win. A win in which St Mirren recorded 14 shots at goal to 13 for Hibs with both recording 5 shots on target. I have to conclude that Rangers at Ibrox will be a level too far for Hibs. Now if that did indeed come to pass with us recording an impressive performance and a handsome win: then within the space of a few days it would have become ever harder for them to not give some credit even if it were only grudgingly. I'm hoping one of the 'few changes' isn't Aribo. He can battle for a ball with the best plus make long runs at speed into danger areas and I don't want his run of starts broken. He might get even better with consistent starts.

The typical anti McInnes sheep fan has various facets, this one is on a sheep forum right now post Rijeka. One facet is that he's a 'hun' often tacked on to claims that he's overcautious and that they only need to 'have a go' to be more successful. I disagree, I think that Europa QR3 is the sheep wall they can't get past. Most of them thought before this tie that they would go through comfortably and I don't know why. On transfermarkt the sheep have a total market value of £11.54 million which is eclipsed by the Rijeka total market value of £19 million. They have 7 players rated by transfermarkt as worth a million pounds or more to 2 for the sheep and such teams of that market value aren't rare in the Europa QR3. And judging from reports this team totally dominated them from start to finish and could very well beat them away too. In the second leg the sheep can't adopt such a defensive strategy because they need to get at least 3 goals to progress from this point. Rijeka found ways through them in even in their well known to us park the bus strategy and I feel they have the talent to score again when the sheep leave opportunities for them to do so as they will. I could be proven wrong but I don't see the sheep getting through QR3 either this year or having a much better chance in future years. That's their limit. They're not going to be much of a help on the co-efficient. And alongside them there's Killie proving even more inept but can still be a pain in the arse against us. Both these sides are noted for playing a park the bust strategy and both have been found wanting in Europe especially if an alien attacking philosophy is required which was the case for Killie who apparently struggled to make the transition in a failure that put Progres in the shade. I would prefer Hearts or even Hibs to get a spot ahead of both sheep and killie because this is McInnes 6th attempt to get beyond QR3 with still no sign of ever doing it. Hearts and Hibs I feel would be more likely to at least try some more attractive football which yes may end up in the same result but if they got 6 consecutive tries at it as the sheep have who knows. It couldn't be much worse could it?

That was a great piece of fast counter attacking play that could happen to any team who try to push forward against us. There is a possibility that by the end of this season Aribo can be as valuable an asset as Morelos price tag wise. If we make the groups there will be better quality opposition there who will indeed open up and come at us giving Aribo the opportunity to pull off runs like that again. He was about 70 yards from goal when the move began and he simply motored past almost their entire team before executing a tricky but still perfect finish with the composure you might expect of a veteran.

It didn't actually come as a great surprise to me that we ended up scoring 4 even against what was rated to be a very useful outfit whose greatest strength was reputedly in defence. During pre-season I formed an opinion that this was the makings of a very good side in SPL terms and a decent enough side in Euro terms. I was more surprised at conceding 2 than I was at scoring 4. Hopefully the defence improves but still, I will take it every week if we continue scoring more than we concede.

I'm hoping they drop out of the Euro spots at the end of this season. The bleating hammer throwers are killing our Euro co-efficiency. Horsed again by a team who have a ground capacity of 8,279. And in fact double fucked it up by losing to a small Croatian side while I believe Croatia are the nation now just ahead of us in the rankings. Seeing reports that our win pushed Scotland ahead of Serbia into 18th on the co-efficiency table. Just ahead of Scotland in 17th is Croatia who the sheep just allowed to consolidate there. Give us anybody but the sheep in that Euro draw next season.

He may have just tacked another couple of million or so on to his price tag while showing no signs of his disciplinary issues against a team who were dishing it out liberally.

Sheep beaten 2-0 at Rijeka by a side who aren't a patch on the one we just put to the sword at their own ground. Maybe that's an indication of where we are in SPL terms.