DMAA

Edmundson's distribution is streets ahead of anything we've seen from a centre back in a long time in my opinion. That is what has really impressed people so far. We've gone from endless sideways passes from guys like Worrall and Katic to this guy pinging them with ease, switching the play really fast and stretching the opposition with pinpoint 30 yard passes. Gerrard wanted urgency last night and I think he really likes this side of Edmundson's game. With regards to his errors, from memory at least a couple of them looked like just complacency due to the low level of opposition, but even then he recovered very impressively with pretty astonishing pace for a centre back. At this stage it is impossible to judge whether these errors will be a problem in more serious games where you would be far more careful and disciplined, but I don't think so and agree with @Gaffer that we may have just struck gold on this one. Don't forget he's English so we can apply the English player surcharge when we sell ?

That's a shame because he had a poor game. His passing was poor, he gave away possession repeatedly and his crosses hit the first defender. I think he did gradually improve as the game wore on though. Genuinely conflicted on what to do in the event of a bid for Morelos, I think Defoe is our best striker right now but what would the Morelos money even buy us? We've already built our squad now, the longer the transfer window goes on the less useful that money becomes.

Well we only have the very basic stats for last night, but a straighforward one for me from last night is that 10 shots on target is not enough when you've had 72% possession. We had a lot of the ball without testing the keeper very much.

He’s ready to be involved in the squad, I’m not suggesting starting

Agree that he disappointed but if it wasn’t for that excellent finish from what was a half chance at best we could be going into the second leg with only a single goal lead. I’ll take a bad performance and a goal over a “good performance” with no end product any day.

It’s not that I’ve got anything against him, just seemed like Barisic was the number 1 again so I was a bit surprised. I thought Halliday was very good but Barisic generally has a better final ball.

It’s ultimately of little consequence but it’s hard to deny that was a bit disappointing. Defoe had an instant impact when he came on, it was night and day, he killed the ball every time with his first touch and then brought others into play with great creativity and pin point passing. Jones looks very sharp but he’s a carbon copy of Kent style wise, always goes for the dribble and always ultimately hoping someone gives him an excuse to go down. Having said that he’s a good impact player. Lots of positives but overall disappointing we couldn’t put more than 2 past a goalie who had several howlers on the night despite not being tested anywhere near enough.

Great to see Ojo finish so nicely on his weaker foot

Oh and we need to shoot more, this keeper is dodgy.

A bit of a strange half, Gerrard is clearly impressing on the players that he wants to see urgency. You can see urgency in the way we’re moving the ball and yet we are struggling to penetrate them. A few observations on some of the players, Edmundson looks brilliant again. He currently looks a first pick to me. Strange to say that but he is aggressive, rapid and passes the ball like his gaffer. It’s not happening for Ojo. I’m not sure if he’s just not totally comfortable with playing centrally yet but he has been ineffectual really. Aribo has been excellent again. Wins the ball back, has great technique carrying the ball and the finish was quality. The behind the goal camera showed how good it was. Morelos is having a poor game. He’s like this a lot though, poor passing and ball retention but then he’ll score. I have to say I much prefer Defoe as a player just now. I’d like to see Defoe, Stewart and Barisic get a game but I think it’s more likely Jones will come on, he seems to be getting more game time.

I think it will be more of a 4-3-2-1 @der Berliner with Aribo on the left side of the 3 and Jack right side. Great opportunity for Morelos to rack up the goals tonight. Would have liked to see Barisic play in this one though practically playing as a winger, I wonder why he’s gone with Halliday.

Exactly what I was thinking

You’re losing it pete ?

Yes fair point. A close second for me but closely linked really to a slight lack of creativity and quality. This is actually one of the reasons I wanted Middleton involved more throughout last season. He might look raw at times during the game but unlike many senior players ahead of him he is a huge goal threat from inside and outside the box even if he performs poorly through the game. I still think it's a mistake to have him so far away from the matchday squad for that reason.

That can't be right ?

I agree but the counter argument would be that the players need to use these games to get used to playing in the formation they'll be playing every week in the league.

Very welcome income for the club

I sympathise with your point of view because the criticism of Candeias was way over the top through the season, especially when all his goal-creating stats were above Kent across the board who wasn't criticised. However in my opinion we lost the league in games where we were found out for lacking creativity/end product when it really mattered. Losses to Livingston, Aberdeen and Kilmarnock and draws to Aberdeen, Kilmarnock, Dundee, Hibs (twice) and St Johnstone. Those games were worth 21 points. We scored 7 goals in those 9 games. Those games don't include the final game of the season loss to Kilmarnock, the 3-3 draw to Motherwell and both losses to Celtic. You could add a few cup games to it though. Just my opinion but I felt we were pretty much fine in defence and midfield last season but the players tasked with creating goals just weren't good enough to turn more of those draws into wins and even losses into draws/wins. Celtic had the same very tough games against packed defences but found a winner time and time again. My takeaway was that we needed to find players better than both Kent and Candeias for our starting 11 this season and that we needed adequate cover for when Arfield is unavailable who is one of our most important players.

I understand the skepticism, but that needn’t be the case. For example if you want your passing accuracy to be high you’ll play safe passes, but the “stats” will show that you’ve only achieved a high pass completion because you’ve barely passed the ball forwards for the whole game, itself a negative stat. In short, the stats are so advanced that there is no way to manipulate them other than to just focus on playing well. Nobody relies purely on stats but they are a very powerful tool to be used to analyse performance.

Simply not true, and virtually no football club believes that, certainly not Rangers. Stats are just facts. The facts need interpreted but to say the facts don’t matter is foolish. And to say they can’t be interpreted in a way which properly accounts for the pitfalls and caveats is not true either and that’s why all top clubs invest money in this area.

Unlike Kent, Candeias’s assist reel is excellent. He really did provide some top quality assists. Have to admit I feel we needed to improve on both though.

Another great article from these guys packed with stats. It gets a bit complicated but this image sums up the findings. Key takeaway is that Arfield’s key passes leads to more shots on target than anyone else in the league (suggesting his passes are good quality and create a real shooting opportunity), and Candeias comes second for key passes that lead to goals (same as above, arguably indicative of the number of the highest quality of pass). A few other Rangers names there; Tav, Morelos, Barisic. Not going to lie I’m a wee bit smug that the stats agree with me again on Kent, he just doesn’t put chances on a plate and that’s why his assists stats were so low. The Candeias fans vindicated a bit by these numbers, we need someone to step up from the new signings. I would expect Defoe to show up too if he keeps his place. https://www.modernfitba.com/blogs/2019/7/22/which-playmakers-actually-make-their-teammates-better-the-2018-19-update

Not even a transfer fee to soften the financial blow. At least this one is probably (surely) at no cost to us and purely to allow his new club to sign him without a fee. Another wage shifted, another good few to go!

Sorry I just realised the numbers mean nothing without an explanation of what they are, taken from this article for anyone bored enough to read https://www.modernfitba.com/blogs/2019/6/1/the-best-shot-suppressing-centre-backs-in-the-scottish-premiership

Correct, but neither Katic nor Goldson do particularly well. Compare to Celtic Stats like this always come with caveats of course but you have to say it stands to reason that their defenders would do better in the stats considering they conceded 7 goals fewer than us in the league. I’m hoping Edmundson and Helander will push both Goldson and Katic this season.