Super_Ally

Are you really watching the same Miller. His control is every bit as bad as Boyd's if not worse. The last 2 games are evidence of this. The touches against Forfar were far far worse than i've ever seen from Boyd.

:devil: I do understand Cammy's frustration. My own is that we have debated Boyd to death. We know what he does. We know what he doesn't do. I no longer wish to flog that dead horse. When I see another Boyd "debate", there is no debate merely two groups shouting their own views louder and louder, I do not question his strengths or weaknesses. There is little to be gained by doing that. Not many disagree on these, but on whether or not he deserves to play, for me it's a given. Anyway, my own reasons for entering these debates are to try and understand the motivations for those who seekto blame him for all the ills of the team on the field ahead of a vast number of more deserving players. Whilst those who are against Boyd's inclusion like to patronise his "supporters" with the argument that it is a team game, they may wish to consider that point when accusing Boyd for us not having won an SPL title during his time here and a vast other number of their arguments.

Because they play the same position and my arguement is that he gets far, far more criticism than is justified. The comaparative easy ride of another player severely lacking in ability and goalscoring talent who plays the same position effectively highlights my point. Miller was the obvious choice to illustrate my arguement. Boyd makes a great contribution to the team. Boyd gets more criticism, mor absue and more negative threads started in his honour than: a) He deserves. b) Players more deserving; Ferguson, Miller, McCulloch and most the players who have failed at left midfield this season. Why a player who we only paid �£400k for, and who does his job and does it well, gets more criticism than anyone else in the squad is frankly baffling. You might criticise them equally. Doesn't mean the online community as a whole give them their fair share of grief and I use predominantly this site to air my views.

Can they at least get promoted to first division? If not I see little point, would be better loaning players to div1. I didn't think they'd be allowed to get into the top flight. Too open to abuse then isn't it with the first team squad. I was aware Barca had a 2nd string in Spain, but not entirely aware how it works? THe idea of "transfers" between the squads muddies the waters somewhat too and may not make it such a wise idea. What if we'd used all our "transfers" for our players.

Referring to the points in bold. All players in our squad have their strengths and their weaknesses. In picking your best XI you try and put together a team where the players strengths combine to improve the team and their attributes mask each others deficiencies to create the strongest XI. Who goes into the XI. You take an individual player, you look at what he brings to the game and the results and maasure it agaisnt where he is lacking. You compare him with the players competing for his place. Does player x's attributes and weaknesses combine to give a greater contribution to the team than player y's? If so he starts. Boyd, as stated is not the only one who could improve. But he makes a great contribution to the team. The reason I appear in the numerous threads defending him is that it is for me, an inarguable fact, that the criticism he receives is not a fair reflection of his contribution and his cost (always taken into consideration). Cost �£400k, goals galore, top scorer every year he's been here. Questionable work rate at times, needs to improve all round game. Then we have, say, Miller. Cost in excess of �£2mil, more than 5 times Boyd's price. No doubt on vastly greater wages. Questionable goalscoring, dry spells aplenty, inconsistent form. Wasn't even bringing work rate for a long spell in the last couple of months. But tries hard and runs about a lot. Yet Boyd gets about 100x the criticism and negativity. Does that seem like a fair way to treat their contributions to the club. Clearly it is not and that is why I get exasperated with many fans.

Whislt it is hard to replicate the unbridled joy of those victories, it does leave open the possibility of losing in such a manner (despite the SPL websites "Helicopter Sunday" they have not shared the euphoria of such an occassion, nor have we felt the pain). As such I too would prefer to already have the trophy with games to spare.

Was in the tennents on occasion when living in Glasgow. Never saw him, fortuantely. :box:

Could they gain promotion? And eventually end up in the top flight?

Cheers for the links MF, will have a think about what to say later on when I have more time to write something.

Never heard of Smithies? Anyone familiar with him? Do we need to be bringing a teenage keeper? How are Vaiculis and Grant Adam rated?

:cheers: Even like the wee-tims getting beat.

Agree with Pete and Cal. We should look at this as starting from an (almost) equal footing or from scratch. A mini 12 game season. Take 1 more point than them and the title will be ours. Hope I didn't go off the deep end Pete. The euphoria (if you like) was more about being right back in it, not needing favours. As has been said, we've not won anything yet, not dealt their title ambitions a mortal wound. But as we storm to the top of the league with a pretty impressive run of form (since 27th Dec), Celtic have faltered badly. If we keep up the pressure with a winning run, Celtic may find it impossible to halt their slide.

Excellent post TB. As Frankie points out, the goals he scores are often the important ones. Take this weekend. If Boyd hadn't grabbed a quick equaliser, might Killie have gained in confidence, would Miller's double have been created and scored. Would the fans get wrestless, the players nervous. Of course we don't know for definite. What we do know is Boyd scored, brought us back level and we quickly raced away with the 3 points and topped the league. Interesting post from MF and a point easily made and defended. As he said, with Goram playing you were confident of clean sheets and knew if you score at least one you were likely to win. Works the other way. With Boyd in the team you're likely to get goals and hence confidence grows even if you concede.

Aberdeen being at home is probably a bonus. Any of those will be difficult away with our form. Though when fighting for the title after the split, if you cant win at these places, you don't deserve to be Champions. Are yous ure about this part: That was the only part that was news to me.

Absolutely brilliant Norris. I love it when they're in "mmmmmmmeeeeeeeelllllllltttttttddddddooooooowwwwwwnnnnn".

Missed most the first half so was wondering where he was. He has been awesome this year. Huge miss for Everton.

Aye cheers guys, see that now with the link on 101great goals. :cheers:

Their game not on BBC yet, but goals here: EDIT - Craig - please no posting of links which could breach copyright. For info please see Frankie's post on the Rangers chat section.

Pretty much every season since the latter years of Big Eck's tenure our squads bottle has been called into question. Time and again, the manegement and the players have shown it to be lacking. Granted last year, whilst Celtic showed the bottle to win it from behind, we were hampered by our member clubs the SFA and the SPL. Having fallen what looked a massive 7 points behind after defeat in the second Old Firm at Ibrox, our championship credentials were again being questioned. We were written off by Hogmanay. Fairly solid form by ourselves and a woeful run by Celtic saw their lead cut to a mere 2 points heading into the 3rd Old Firm tussle at Parkhead. Smiths negative tactics, perhaps further excacerbated by a lone front man, left many of us frustrated at not attacking a wounded Celtic who had been stumbling from poor result to poor result between the top of the table clashes. Despite our dominance, we only left Parkhead with a point and again many where wondering had we failed to capitalise on a chance to put the pressure on Celtic as we have done so often the last 3 seasons. Virtually gift wrapping titles to the dark side. It was not so much the bottle of the players that was under scrutiny, but that of the management team. Whilst the draw at Parkhead will still be looked upon as opportunity lost Smiths frugal approach, whilst being highly frustrating, ensured we did not fall 5 points behind again leaving us needing a favour from another SPL side. Going into yesterday's home encounter there was a weight of expectation from the fans. Win that game and we were back top for the first time in 3 months and finally putting pressure on Celtic. Asking questions of their bottle. 20 minutes into what should be a routine home victory and we were staring back into the abyss. Were the fans to be disappointed again. How could Scotland's greatest team regain it's fear factor and its ruthless winning streak. Questions were asked. And at last the Rangers are answering them. A 6 minute goalscoring spell effected by Miller and Boyd, orchestrated by Mendes, turned a potential upset into a 3-1 half time lead. The players played out the victory and attention turned to Sunday afternoon encounter. At long last a serious title challenge from Rangers when not distracted by the greater glory of European football and an unprecedented fixture backlog. The media, the fans, the players would be looking to Celtic to affirm their title challenge. Ask real questions of their bottle. Are they up to the task. On a treacherous Fir Park surface, Celtic did not produce the goods. A Motherwell equaliser costing Celtic a precious two points and allowing us to retain top spot. We're back on terms, albeit with a superior goal difference. But nothing has been achieved yet. We've merely put ourselves back in the race. Now to put the title out of their reach. Celtic are in terrible form for SPL title pretenders. 8 points from 16 since the Ibrox Old Firm Clash. With Celtic running through a poor run of form a winning run from Rangers would really turn the heat up on the Parkhead side. Those who argued a draw suited us more than Celtic last weekend pointed to an easier run in for us, a greater chance of Celtic dropping points. So this weekend's results could scarcely have worked out better. If we are really to ask questions of Celtic then we need to put together a strong winning sequence. No disrespect to our forthcoming opponents, but with mostly "bottom 6" sides to play, with the hardest games at home, we have a real opportunity to test their mettle. Leading into the split our upcoming fixtures read: Sat 28th Feb Hamilton (A) Wed 4th Mar ICT (H) Sat 14th Mar St. Mirren (A) (to be re-arranged Co-op Cup Final) Sat 21st Mar Hearts (H) Sun 5th Apr Falkirk (A) Sat 11th Apr Motherwell (H) Sat 18th Apr Hibs (A) If we have serious title aspirations only the visit of Hearts and the trip to Easter Road should give us any casue for concern. That is not to dismiss the other sides. It is merely a statement of fact. If we match their endeavour our superior quality should see us emerge victorious against these sides. Over the next 6 fixtures only Hearts and Motherwell occupy top 6 places, and both travel to Ibrox. Taking maximum points before our trip to Edinbrugh in mid-April could put serious heat on our title rivals and see them wilt. Given we play before them on 2 out of the next 3 fixtures to be completed (ignoring St Mirren) we have extra incentive to put pressure on them before they take to the field. Many will point to the old adage of "one game at a time". But if we can put together a run of consecutive victories befitting a league winning squad Celtic will struggle to cope with the onslaught of our title juggernaut.

Was that how well score? Brilliant.

:cheers: Excellent first post. Did I hear yesterday that 5 of our next 6 games are against current bottom 6 sides? Before anyone starts, I know that doesn't guarantee us wins, but it gives us a better chacne to have a winning run.

Two of the best posts in here are from MF and ascender. Wasn't going to get involved in this thread. Another Boyd debate was hardly necessary. Gribz was being a bit reactionary, but I understand it. We all get passionate when debating the club and what we believe is best. MF makes one of the best points. Whether you like him or not, rate him compared to past players or Europe's elite is largely irrelevant. What is relevant is whether or not he is the best choice for the first XI. Most of the time that, for me, is not in doubt. Sure you could have a guy who does twice the work of Boyd, but if we cant take chances and ultiamtely lose 1-0 or draw 0-0, then your better off with the guy who does less running but more of the important stuff. Does Boyd's "lower work rate" and goals contribute more than what the other striekrs bring to the table in terms of achieving a succesful league campaign. IMO.... Yes. And that's why he should start when fit and scoring.

My understanding is that we will definitely ahve 3 home games as every team must play 19 home, 19 away. The SPL try and predict who will finish in the top 6 and bottom 6 so that when the fixtures are produced by the computer, no team will end up playing 3 times away to another post split. However when a team breaks into the top half, or unexpectedly falls into the bottom half it cocks everything up and you may end being home or away 3 times to one side. The total numebr of home/away games however does not change. That is my understandint, but it may not be compeltely correct.

That's where all our teams should be.

Is this sour grapes from Caldwell?