Bill

Kinda how it feels tonight.

I see now why Clement brought Cortes and Silva to the team but there's no doubt in my mind the best performance of the evening came from Kris Boyd on Sky Sports. Todd Cantwell was a close second mind you.

We’re still creating too few genuine scoring opportunities 

You don't win titles if you can't rise to challenges like tonight and come out on top. So that's what we'll do.

23 minutes ago, Sutton_blows_goats said:

The injury to Balogun is really leaving us short of CB cover. Ben Davies might be back soon but who knows with him.

Surely this is just another thing in Sterling's broad repertoire? 😉 

I'm hoping Aberdeen will be more progressive than visiting teams usually are. We can still be a bit vulnerable to low block and long ball counter attacks and Miovsky is a potent threat in that respect. The more their midfield can be drawn forward the more I'd fancy us to cut them open.

This is of course an interesting question for idle debate but it's also a pointless one to try to answer in any serious context. It will have been a success if we win the league championship.

43 minutes ago, Bluedell said:

AFTER tackles. He never mentions refs before the game. He puts no pressure on them.

Mr Clement is a shrewd dude. Total focus on our own game, that's what he wants in the players' heads. What it does is to gradually build a sense of superiority and confidence, which we can already see the green shoots of. Fretting about external distractions only undermines confidence.

I hope the manager and players aren't wasting time speculating about title celebrations. If they are then we're fucked.

53 minutes ago, Fa1833 said:

Well supposedly there is a MP who just put it on debate in the House of Commons asking for those who have passed away to have He/She added to their death certificates. What the Actual fudge cake is that all about 

A taste of Labour to come......

Didn't those asswipes in East Germany make an art form out of chemically changing women into men. Their Olympic athletes had everything but beards.

Rangers 2

Aberdeen 0

FGS - Silva

Cantwell for me. 

19 minutes ago, Devil's advocaat said:

Nope, it's completely in our hands. They've lost the belief, so have their orcs, while we slowly build momentum.

 

It's coming.

Oh how I hope it is but I still think humility and focus are our best friends. The only thing that matters right now is the game on Tuesday night. If we’re champions in May we will celebrate in May. 

1 hour ago, Devil's advocaat said:

We're winning this league!!!!

25 minutes ago, CammyF said:

Or not hired him in the 1st place. 

Rangers was his first real management posting, so no one had much to go on. By the time this topic was started it was clear to all but the most myopic among us exactly what kind of imposter we had brought on board.

It’s becoming increasingly difficult to understand why Matondo gets selected. 

2 minutes ago, Thinker said:

😁

I need some JuJu guidance: I'm out with the pram right now, and just before I checked the other score, I distractedly stood on a dog shite. Should I replicate this scenario where possible for the rest of the season / my life?

Think carefully, did you stand on dog shite on helicopter Sunday? If not, I don't think there's any ju ju in this random event. You might want to keep some close though, just in case.

Livi will be organised, totally defensive and dirty as hell. The ref will be typically pathetic. Any lead at HT will be good. The second half is where we have most advantage

Never trust a lefty and if possible don't sit next to one.

1 hour ago, yuddie said:

Broadly speaking, I thought it was a good window with the caveat of the non signing of a striker.

If Clement isn't losing his rag then I don't see the point in me doing so.

I'd give it a 7/10 initially, as ever it can look better or worse in a years time.

The young players we're signing is encouraging though.

👍

Clement has made frequent statements about the need to improve our player trading performance, which is in essence a commitment to a longer term strategy with younger players with potential being developed over a period and moved on for profit. All of which we would agree with but it might not always provide any tangible benefit in the short term ... that is, over the remainder of this season.

A home game against the bottom strugglers has to be the time to find out what Silva can do as a main striker with providers on either side.

Cantwell - Silva - MacCausland

Sterling - Diomande - Lundstram

Yilmaz - Balogun - Goldson - Tavernier

Butland

1 hour ago, JohnMc said:

Are we stronger now the transfer window has closed? The players we've lost are Lammers and Devine. Assuming Tav stays fit Devine leaving doesn't really affect us. Should Tav get injured we're looking at Sterling to fill in. Neither he nor Devine can give us what Tav does, so Devine leaving for the second half of the season isn't much of an issue I don't think. 

Lammers played a lot of games for us, but failed to impress and his move away takes away some competition for places and options but doesn't really weaken us. 

 

Incoming we've Oscar Cortes, he's just turned 20 and has played 24 first team games. He's a punt, he might prove to be very good, he might thrive in Scotland, but it'll take him a while to adapt you have to assume. I'm not sure how good his English is and there's a big cultural adjustment required for him to settle. He might prove to be an inspired signing, but it would be unfair to expect too much from him right away. 

 

Mohamed Diomande is the same age but has nearly 100 first team games under his belt already. Although he's Ivorian he's been living in Denmark for over 3 years so culturally he's got experience of northern Europe, a move to Glasgow shouldn't be a huge shock for him. Like all players he'll need some time but I'd expect him to be challenging for a first team place from pretty much day 1. How good he is, or can become, I've no idea, but surely he can be more effective than Lammers. 

 

Silva, a young player carrying a huge weight of expectation on his shoulders, and, frankly, failing to deliver on it. It's not his fault he's one of the most expensive teenage signings of all time, however, he is and the fact he's ended up in Scottish football tells us his career hasn't gone as hoped. That said he's undoubtedly talented, and like the other January signings has potential. If he can stay fit he'll play a lot, mainly because of our lack of options up front. A run of games and some confidence might be the making of him. 

 

So, on paper our squad is stronger today than in December, however that's not the whole story. The loss of Danilo and Sima change the complexion of the squad. Sima is our most potent forward, and his goals don't look like they've been replaced. Danilo's injury being much worse than first thought suggests we might not see him again this season. We're threadbare upfront. Certainly the loss of Sima in January is a big blow, and one I'm not sure we've dealt with.

The return of Lowry might yet make a difference. He's injured and looks like being out until April, but it's a long season with more than a few twists and turns left in it. Fit and focused, and depending on injuries or form elsewhere, he might still have a roll to play. 

 

 

 

 

 

We were starting to struggle in defence but a sensational new goalkeeper and a bit of perseverance in the back line has finally brought some depth and stability. Bringing back Balogun was surely one of Mick Beale's few good decisions. The return of some key players has midfield looking a little more secure but we all rightly worry about the goalscoring potency of our attacking trio/duo and, now that the opportunity to add a striker has passed, you have to wonder what Clement's intentions are.

Is the manager resigned to making the most of his limited options, hoping Dessers stays fit and Silva 'arrives' at some point. Or could he even be contemplating another Sterling-type conversion of one of his peripheral players, such as Wright or MacCausland, which seems unlikely to me but who saw Sterling as a first choice pick in midfield? Or could a significant reshuffle be on the cards, such as moving Tav into a wide attacking midfield role to add goal threat? Perhaps these are all nonsense but I'd be confident that this manager will be thinking and planning proactively rather than the fatalistic acceptance we've grew accustomed to.

I can't see the recent additions being transformative but, whatever transpires, Clement must be acutely conscious that one more injury could remove most of our goal threat and severely jeopardise title aspirations.

4 minutes ago, Gonzo79 said:

One thing to add about the transfer window, replacing Lammers with Silva will be a huge success.

But I’ve been assured there was a player in there 🙄

2 hours ago, ian1964 said:

We did at one point and I think that was better as I know a lot of folk don't like trawling through pages of ''rumours''.

However I quite like the transfer rumours, it makes me look on youtube at players I don't know 😁.

I like that idea. We could call one "Transfer News" and the other one "Windbags and Tripe".