bmck

great rant cammy. the one thing that worries me is that, at the moment, we have a settled european/of philosophy that cant organically adapt into a spl formation/philosophy. that is, we cant seem to field the same 11 and comfortably adopt to an attacking mode to win games. in an ideal world, i would like there to be a Rangers Way. a philosophy thats installed from the ground up that we perfect. kind of like in mixed martial art fighting - its not necessarily who is stronger, or whose martial art is better, but a mix of who is most proficient in their chosen skill, *all the time*. that is the core nucleus of our footballing philosophy. we integrate this with a cutting incisive forward thinking philosophy - ie: when we have the ball we're a movement-running-into-short-pass-out-down-the-channels type team. these are just examples, but i think we need to have this core idea down - when we dont have the ball we are like X, and when we do have the ball we're like Y. the only thing that changes, then, is whether the onus is going to be on X (as in the champions league) or Y (as in the spl). we seem to have a solid behind-the-ball philosophy for europe, but not a solid with-the-ball one for the spl. but they should be really two edges of the same sword - if we're going to play the way we do in europe with those players, we need to see how having those same players would work in an attacking sense when we have the ball. that is, instead of hemdani/thomson/ferguson sitting in on front of the back four as in europe, where should they be? i reckon even the 11 we put out midweek with one up front could work for us against any spl side if the players understand what they're meant to be doing when they're going forward - that they have some clearly defined plan like they do for sitting back in europe. our going forward plan seems to consist of give-the-ball-to-barry and hope-we-nick-something-up-front. this makes our european defensive outlook seem much more sophisticated. for instance, we could keep the same midfield trio and make them expert triangle passers, for instance. drum it into them how to use three midfielders in close quarters to turn a siutation to our advantage, and how then to use our other players best given this. i dont know the details, but it seems obvious to me that any 11 we put out should be better than most other spl teams, so why not keep the same team home and away, and in europe, with the same philosophy drummed into them - its just sometimes they'll need to have more of a balance towards defending, and sometimes towards attacking. as it stands, we've only got a smart defensive policy - we only know how to use our packed midfield in a defensive way. there are teams who play with a lone striker and play lovely attacking football (roma, say), we just need to be confident enough about how we play going forward.

what everyone seems to be presupposing is that walter does want to employ a rotation system. but he's not really said that - other than once saying hemdani was better suited to certain types of game. maybe he genuinly doesn't know who his best team is yet, and is still experimenting. not saying thats the case - but its a possibility. i think the main problem is his experimentation seems limited to shuffling a few players about - certain players do not get dropped, so its not much of a rotation system. i think you can over-analyse over a one or two game stretch - manager's tend to work in times: its either a time of struggling or a time of increasing hope, and i think this is a few poor results in a general trend towards more hopeful times than we've been used to. all my analysis, as with all of us probably, is a bit of a fun exercise, but i do trust smith to fundamentally look at these things and address them.

Hemdani accepts rotation policy Hemdani says he does not have a problem with the rotation policy Rangers midfielder Brahim Hemdani says he accepts manager Walter Smith's squad rotation policy - despite making only two SPL appearances this season. Hemdani, who has been superb for Rangers in the Champions League, said: "I accept the choices of the manager and I've said it many times." The midfielder was linked with a move away from Ibrox earlier in the season. "It was only speculation. There were many noises at this time, I don't know why," he told the club's website. Hemdani said he was happy at Ibrox and that he was aiming to play as many games as possible. Regarding Smith's squad rotation policy, Hemdani said: "This is how it is at the moment. "If you are playing in the Champions League it is not easy for everybody. But if you play at Rangers you know the situation. "It's always important to have the support of the fans, and I carry on and try to give me best for the team and the club." Hemdani said he believed Rangers could win the SPL title this season, despite losing 1-0 to Hibs at Ibrox on Saturday. "We are here to do it," he said. "I think we have a big chance to win the league. If we have consistency - which we didn't have last year - then I think we can do well." ---- you've got to wonder how much you read is pure speculation and nothing more. in the world of the modern media the 'no smoke without fire' maxim cant be as generally accepted. if we are really to believe hemdani in this interview then he's willing just to do what smith says for the benefit of the team. anything else is just mischief-making. but what to believe?

aye, everyone here has been slagging walter for weeks for not playing hemdani, and now he has, there's a new 'obvious' thing to moan about.

totally agree.

i think thats why they call it 'addicted', mate.

i dont smoke and it doesnt bother me. i've actually never seen someone choke to death from tobacco smoke anywhere. do you think its ok for 50% of the ground who pay for the stadium and everything in it not to have an area where they can smoke? eta: oh right, read again, you do think there should be a smoking area. nice one. on yersel. dont mind people moaning about it. better than apathy!

hear man. just dont get caught the next time. you do nothing worse to those around you than waiting at a bustop will. fuck them.

how good is that word? do you know its only really a scottish word? mental. i wouldn't get by without it.

for me, if you're going to do something irrational as supporting a football team, you can't become all rational after-the-fact. i would have dearly loved it if celtic & aberdeen got royally humped. but they didn't, which means my mrs' dad will be happy, and thats fine because he's great. but all this mutual back-patting's horrid.

you've got to love the irony in them appointing, bar a few tories, the most right wing politician in britain (outwith the loony fringes).

you need to win the spl to get into decent european competition though.

as bazzaboy says, all the pressure's now on barcelona. i was thinking, if we made a sneaky wee deal with barca to draw both games, would be both be guarenteed to go through? no, that wouldnt work. anyway, bring on the spaniards!

thought we were talking about papac.

he's left footed, is he not?

because plg would still be here, and the chances are we'd still be as pish?

yeah, i could honestly get addicted to anything dionysian though. i hate when you dont do things just because silly logic dictates. yes, betting is the new drugs.

the more i read all this the more i'm glad i just dont understand betting or odds. i've said it before, but all this you put in Xquid and could theoretically get more than Xquid back has a sort of charm i could see myself getting addicted to.

stewarty, you're ill man.

echo frankie's sentiments btw cammy. great to see the rant returned. i think it was via a cammy rant that i found this site - whether tis a blessing or a curse for y'all i shant venture to say.

well said!

i'm off ill man. this is the first smile i've cracked in a few days

why would you want to call yourself nothing more than a feeder club for another club since its inception? it would have been beyond ridiculous for the hibs fans to hold it.

i think its because he'd need to be something really special to walk into the squad ahead of the players he is walking in ahead of. and he hasnt really done much at any club, afaik, to warrant it.

i think there's a much better hemdani/thomson argument to be had than hemdani/whittaker. i like hemdani as much as the next guy, he was a standout in one of our poorest seasons ever, but walter smith is going to be very hard to criticse while his decisions are vindicated. dont understand why faye's anywhere near anything though when we have so many better options, but in walter we trust. till he fooks up.