DMAA

Just to add, my interpretation of 4-4-2 is not old fashioned long ball football. It certainly helps if we’re going to do that anyway as we have done often this season, but in my opinion 4-4-2 doesn’t at all mean abandoning a modern approach to attack.

This is exactly my point! We are asking Mackeleles to be Lampards rather than adapting to the selection crisis and that’s why our attacks keep breaking down. Re your 4-4-2 q, not at all. As I said in another post I’m advocating 4-4-2 with the available players. I’ve also advocated using it when 4-5-1 fails, aka plan b. I’m all for buying the flair players necessary to make 4-5-1/4-3-3 work but as I said at the close of the last transfer window, attacking midfield is the one area Celtic are far superior to us.

I agree with most of that. I’m not saying we should play 4-4-2 all season necessarily, it’s just about looking at the players available and adapting. I don’t think Gerrard can blame his players for Wednesday, he was asking players to play a role they had no business playing.

A very detailed recent article on Andrew Gutman who we’ve apparently offered a deal to. In short, an attack minded left back who is rated as 2nd best in college football and trains with Chicago Fire and has the option to sign for them. I like the sound of him but there’s no question Rangers is a big step up from the level he’s played at. https://www.thehoosiernetwork.com/2018/09/13/andrew-gutman-the-journey-indiana-mens-soccer/

I expect Gerrard to set us up to attack a team like Hibs rather than fearing we need to match their numbers in centre mid. He needs to be far more bold and far less cautious.

Shinnie is easily good enough for our squad, especially for free. He’d be a great rotation player to cover left back and centre mid. Both american boys sound like they’d be good signings too. None of the players we’re linked to are exciting though. If we sign a midfielder he needs to be a goal scorer because we’re currently expecting players with no track record of scoring goals to chip in and it’s no wonder they aren’t doing so.

Take two famous goals at Elland Road. The first a long ball headed on by McCoist for Hateley to half volley in. The second a through ball out wide to Hateley who whipped it in to McCoist who was in his goalscoring position to head it in. The presence of two strikers on the park does create chances and for a Rangers fan to suggest it doesn’t is bizarre to me given our history.

This isn’t true @Rousseau. We had no shots on target after an hour with the 4-5-1 against Saints. After switching to 4-4-2 with Lafferty partnering Morelos we had a flurry of chances, almost all of which Lafferty contributed to directly or indirectly. Morelos was allowed to get into goalscoring positions rather than constantly battling for balls with nobody running beyond him anyway. It is not true that chances only come about from “creative players”. A chance can be “created” from a long ball being headed down by one forward to another. Or from one forward pulling one centre back out wide, giving the other forward the space he needs to get through on goal. All happened in half an hour against Saints and was the way we scored most of our modern history goals pre 2012.

You can’t replace Arfield with McCrorie and expect us to keep creating chances and scoring goals. And we have no right to expect Coulibaly and Jack to play as “no 8s”. We are currently playing with three no 6s (defensive midfielders). I understand the loyalty to Gerrard but I am nothing but angry when I watch attack after attack after attack breaking down because we are playing Mackeleles as Lampards and expecting players who have made a living out of tackling to magically become flair players who can be relied on to open up defences. Coulibaly is getting slaughtered because Gerrard is stubbornly forcing the system on the players available to him rather than adapting and playing a 4-4-2 based formation with Lafferty on.

They’ve had plenty of injuries all season. They had a defensive crisis early in the season that cost them points before Benkovic came in and they’ve had terrible luck with their best goal scorer not himself most of the season and Dembele leaving too late for a replacement to come in. We’ve had more as usual but they’ve had their own problems.

I’m not sure what games you’ve been watching

The players are getting a hammering but the management is primarily to blame. Our tactics are awful, team selections awful. We know how to counter attack and we set up that way whether we’re playing Villarreal or Hamilton. It’s madness and I’m sick of it.

Interesting. Polster certainly looks a player.

Absolutely, it’s so frustrating to keep hearing the same excuses. You get the impression from the way we’ve approached games like Aberdeen, Rapid, Dundee, Saints, Hibs etc that Gerrard is terrified of losing a goal so packs the midfield with defensive players. He somehow hasn’t learnt that we are utterly devoid of attacking talent when we play those players and the strategy normally backfires because the constant breaking down of attacks and loss of possession due to the lack of passing ability in the team is terrible for morale and gives the opposition repeated opportunities to counter attack you. 10-15 years ago if we’d started with a team like this you’d be at Old Trafford in the champions league. These days we start with a counter attacking line up against utterly rubbish sides and it consistently results in a scrappy and terrible to watch game of football because we have “destroyers” and former centre backs playing as our Rakitic and our Iniesta in centre mid.

Not with these selections and formation. We don’t have to play 3 defensive midfielders. We have a striker on the bench who would make us so much more dangerous. There was one lesson against St Johnstone and that was that we should have played 4-4-2 from the start because we created nothing until we switched to it and brought on more attacking players. It’s a self inflicted goal drought.

We’ve been over this. Lafferty instead of Coulibaly or McCrorie in a forward two. And if we must persist with 1 up front where was Grezda? It’s one thing to make a mistake but to repeat it over and over again is inexcusable. Nobody likes a stubborn manager and we’ve been here before and it’s so frustrating to watch. And the football we are playing is dreadful to watch.

Just read my pre match post. How many more chances is this formula going to get ? that performance was disgraceful and we treated Hibs like Real Madrid. Coulibaly and McCrorie are not playmakers, attacks will break down over and over again when we’re relying on players who we already know are not good in the final third. I’m furious because when you saw the starting 11 you knew exactly what was going to happen.

I’m annoyed. A ridiculously defensive midfield with Coulibaly, Jack and McCrorie in the centre. Yet again we are relying on Morelos alone to score goals for us, and he’s going to be isolated again. When will Gerrard learn. Sorry for the rant but how many chances is this formula going to get. Far too much respect shown to these average Joes

I’d be really surprised if McGregor doesn’t start in his place. He’d certainly do a better job of marking Morelos and I think Lennon knows that. I’m hoping for two strikers too. Lafferty is a great partner imo and will give Morelos more space and more freedom to get into goalscoring positions rather than wasting all his energy battling for headers and through balls with nobody to link up with. This Hibs team were shown far too much respect last week. We need to attack them and have a proper go. Livingston created plenty of goalscoring opportunities against them on Saturday (and actually scored one) and I think we gave ourselves too much credit for doing the same because we thought Hibs were better than they were. A good day against Celtic doesn’t change how the rest of the season has been for them.

I’m delighted to have Wallace back, albeit due to damaging losses to injury. He’s easily our 2nd best left back and he needs game time to be ready for Celtic. McCrorie, Halliday & Coulibaly simply isn’t a talented or attacking enough triplet to go 3 in the middle. Where are the goals coming from there? We absolutely need to start games with more attacking players than we have of late. Could do that with Grezda in a CAM position but given his disappointing form Lafferty is the better option for me in a 4-4-2 style formation, whether that’s a traditional 2 strikers up top or with Lafferty dropping back slightly in a 4-2-3-1 style formation. The former my preference because it’s more suited to Lafferty’s strengths.

Game specific formation and tactics is something there hasn’t been enough of since we got promoted and it’s cost us dearly repeatedly. One size doesn’t fit all and a good manager sees that before and/or during a game. I think when everyone is fit we have the players to switch between 4–2-3-1/4-3-3 and 4-4-2 depending on the game. I doubt very much Gerrard is ready to switch from the current set up but I think it’s just not working with the midfielders currently available and Lafferty has far more to offer than some of them.

Pardon my gloating I just had to make the most of it. For me it’s as much about the players at our disposal as the formation per se. We’re more likely to score with Lafferty on the park in Coulibaly’s place. But due to the lack of creativity across the midfield I think we’re also currently more likely to score with two men on the oppositions centre backs than just an outnumbered Morelos.

Well well well, the heresy of orthodoxy is gaining a fooothold as 4-4-2 saves our blushes. Who could have predicted that the purist’s “4-3-3” wouldn’t produce a single shot on goal after an hour’s worth of football again ? Who could have predicted that our three centre midfield magicians would have failed to weave their way through yet another Scottish defence? Well, credit has to go to Gerrard - who clearly does indeed read Gersnet - for reading through the midweek debate on the forum and doing the unthinkable, abandoning plan A and dusting down the old 4-4-2 in order to actually do something in the opposition box. The impact was immediate. Straight away we looked far more attacking. A ball was won by one striker while the other striker looked to get onto it, or get into a goalscoring position. For the first goal Lafferty didn’t even appear to be involved. Yet you watch the replay and that free header is somewhat explained as the centre back was watching Lafferty running in as the ball was crossed rather than the better positioned Morelos. And for the second goal you have 4-4-2 at its best. Long ball is won by the big striker (drawing away a centre back and creating that crucial space in the box) and played out to the wing, while the wee striker gets into a goalscoring position in the box. We know the rest. Gerrard again has trumped his predecessors with a bit of common sense and pragmatism when the game was crying out for it. Time to give that a go from the start. It’s clear as day that there weren’t enough goalscorers in the team that started yesterday and many recents games where we either drew a blank or made very hard work of getting a goal.

All being well Murphy and Dorrans will be returning too. I think it’s inevitable due to the pressure from fans and media to sign a creative midfielder in particular.

Yes but I based my comment on the fact he’s played almost all their games, and by the looks of the videos been a good performer.