DMAA

He'd walk into our defence right now and it looks like he's already valued at twice what any of our centre back are worth. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-5575461/Dundee-reject-unbelievable-1-8m-bid-Steven-Caulker-Rosenborg.html?ITO=1490

The position Rangers are in just now is nothing short of a disgrace. When games in hand are likely won we'll be 3 behind Aberdeen and only 1 ahead of Hibs. And that's without even playing our hardest second away games (Celtic, Aberdeen, Kilmarnock, Hibs), only 3 of which we'll have to play due to luck. The sides competing with us right now; Aberdeen, Hibs, Killie and Motherwell, have spent a fraction of what we've spent not only this season but last too. These are seriously embarrassing times for Rangers. Even the whole debate of losing the midfield battle because the opposition have 3 in centre mid. You are in a very poor position if you have to worry about your opposition putting 3 in centre mid. Rangers should be exploiting that big time down the wings and making them regret leaving their wing backs exposed. The buck stops with Murty sadly. It's getting harder and harder to see him salvaging even 2nd place now which is extraordinary.

I think I'd like to see this formation tried out. As you say unlikely so many will be dropped. Candeias has featured on the right side of the diamond before so probably would again, Murphy could feature at the tip of the diamond behind the striker and Windass could play as a striker, though tbh I'd prefer to see Cummings and Morelos given a chance starting with Windass coming on early second half either behind them or in place of Cummings if he doesn't turn up.

And that's not even to mention Niko's long history of injuries and seasons with very few appearances. Again compared to an outstanding record with Davis who's played more than 30 games every season since he signed for Rangers.

I think that's the key. I think it's short sighted to say we should never sign a player in their thirties because of Kranjcar. Kranjcar had barely played at a competitive level in a 2 years when we signed him. That is completely incomparable to Steven Davis's record who seems to be miles fitter naturally and by training. I'm not necessarily saying we should sign him but it shouldn't be off the table because we played russian roulette with Niko.

My point was that at 600k he’s a bargain. Imagine we’d signed him straight from Hibs for that, you’d never have believed it. We know he’s good enough to play for Rangers, he’s just had the misfortune of having Morelos ahead of him and having a manager who only wants to play 1 up front.

I don't get the negativity towards him. He proved at Motherwell that Motherwell was not his level. Motherwell were a force in the first half of the season and struggled since he left. Struggling at Preston isn't a good sign, granted. But there are endless reasons why a player doesn't make an impact at a club in his first 3 months. The best bargains are often when a player simply doesn't fit into a manager's style and appears worse than he really is. There are countless examples but how about Mourinho selling De Bruyne, who appeared just not to be Chelsea standard, or even Cummings who couldn't even make a subs appearance for Nottingham Forest? With Miller and Herrera out the door in the summer (hopefully), Moult would be a great signing if we're talking the low hundreds of thousands as a back up striker. That would potentially leave us with Morelos, Cummings and Moult. Sounds good to me.

I was paraphrasing from memory but I've just found the article and he did describe him as "old fashioned" and "old school". If you're as consistently "lucky" as they've been you have a right to be desribed as something better He's really achieved the impossible there and if it's not down to players it's down to tactics. True. I think it's a tough job because you need to be able to put out very different teams with very different tactics depending on who you're playing. You could be playing a France or an England or it could be Belarus or Cyprus. I trust McLeish to make us hard to beat but he definitely has a lot to prove in terms offensive tactics against the teams we should be beating. Incidentally, Iceland's mastermind Lars Lagerback recently became Norway's new manager and lost his first game 2-0 to his rival mastermind..............................Michael O'Neill.

I'm not sure. Steve Clarke has been lauded by Kris Boyd for doing things the simple old fashioned way. Kilmarnock are a team who generally have inferior players to their oponents so their tactics reflect that. The same could be said of Scotland for probably more than half of their games. If we've learned anything from the past few years in international football it's that we have no excuse for being so poor; Wales, Northern Ireland and Iceland have put us to shame. I haven't looked at the way those teams play but I don't think any of them are particularly modern in their style? Wales maybe more so but still.

And are you not a McLeish fan?

Wales are a better side, they’re 20th in the world and we’re 32nd. He played the whole game which is great for him and great for Rangers. Exactly the kind of publicity we need for our players.

No that doesn't account for the difference. If they win their game in hand at home vs St Johnstone they will have achieved 11 points more than us against the 4th-12th teams and 6 points more than Celtic. Excuses can't cover that fact up, McInnes is clearly doing something right consistently. He's even maintained it after having his squad dismantled at the end of last season losing 5 starting players in Jack, McGinn, Hayes, Maddison and Ash Taylor.

And one from the left field, Which Aberdeen players would make it into our team? As I've shown in another post, Aberdeen are the best in the league at beating the 4th-12th teams. They would be top of the league if games vs the old firm were discounted. And they'd be about 12 points clear of Rangers. So if we have better players, why do their players consistently get better results against the rest of the league? Would Graeme Shinnie be a good signing? Big old fashioned Scott McKenna? This question leads in to whether McInnes should be out of the question as an option for the summer when he clearly has a winning formula in our league. Should the board swallow their pride and try again with him, fixing whatever was the cause of his refusal? For all we know it was our board's fault and not McInnes's.

Off the top of my head; Is it time to give 2 up front a real chance? (Morelos, Cummings and Windass rotating as out and out strikers) Who is a creative player we should aim to sign in the summer to help us break down tight defences at home? (No 10 role) Do we need one with Dorrans returning? Where does McCrorie fit in to the starting 11 when he’s back, defence or midfield? Can we sign better than Bates in the summer or is giving him a contract a no brainer?

I agree it's not a good model in general, but I think it's harsh to hold it against him At Kilmarnock (I haven't looked at his other clubs). Firstly he'd been in the job for only 2-3 months before the transfer window. Secondly I doubt Kilmarnock spend much on scouting. Thirdly and most importantly he appears to have got far better quality players than would have been possible without the personal connection with Mulumbu and Tshibola. He's one I was very impressed with. The advantage with him is that the job would be very similar to what he's used to, managing a team at the top of the table who need to know how break teams down and score goals. His experience and skills should be instantly transferable to the Rangers job. My main concern with Clarke is that he probably has less experience managing a team who wins most games so has probably spent more of his career focusing on underdog tactics.

I still think it has to be case by case because there will always be 1 or 2 who are worth it. Brimingham signed Barry Ferguson aged 31 and a half and he went on to have two oustanding seasons in the best league in the world. Followed by a 3rd with Blackpool in the championship (finishing 5th and reaching the play off final). Playing more than 40 games each of those 3 seasons. Steven Davis is a current example who has fans more divided than MacGregor. He's 33 but has played almost every game for a strong side (finishing 6th-8th in 4 out of 5 of his seasons with them) in the best league in the world up until the last 2-3 months. Most of our signings need to appreciate in value but not all.

Macgregor probably a better all round keeper but it's a no for me, we can't afford not to treat the vast majority of our signings as investments. There will be the one off player who won't be an investment but is still worth signing (Dorrans and Murphy). But not the likes of Naismith, Lafferty, MacGregor. Every penny counts at Rangers just now.

I think Allan is an excellent player. Sadly Lennon is a good manager and is getting the best out of him. Yes that was a game where Windass's qualities were really utilised.

I agree with all of that. The only reason I mention 4-4-2 is that I think it would be interesting to see both Morelos and Cummings causing havoc by making sideways runs along the back line. Until Dorrans comes in I just don't think we have anyone creative enough for that central attacking midfielder position. The other thing with two strikers is that it's two players up top for Murphy and Candeias to play one-twos with. Murphy's one-two would bring him inside and Candeias's one-two would get him in behind the full back. With one striker coming short for the one-two the second striker could focus on getting in a goalscoring position.

I think it's mainly because he doesn't have a natural position. He clearly has a lot of ability. He's very fast, is very good at making runs and is an outstanding finisher. The problem is that those are striker's qualities but he's played in a creative midfieler's role. The kind of player who would excel in that position is Scott Allan. Brilliant touch, has a centre of gravitity that allows him to change direction very quickly with the ball glued to his feet and slices defences open with an incisive pass at ease, and can score long shots occasionally. Windass doesn't have those qualities, I think he should be played as a striker with Dorrans coming in in his position. We have 3 good strikers in Morelos, Cummings and Windass so I'd like to see how we do with a front 2.

I agree with that And I agree with this. I think with both Cummings and Morelos making runs and pulling the centre backs places they don't want to go and offering through ball options for our midfielders we'd suddenly see space opening up for everyone. I think there's a false notion that the more creative midfielders that are on the pitch the more clear cut chances a team will create, whereas I think this undermines the role of the striker's runs. I've got nothing against 4-2-3-1, I just think we have two very good strikers after a number of failures (at home) it's time to see if we create more chances with both of them on. I doubt we'd have put 4 past Falkirk with a 4-2-3-1.

A switch to 4-4-2 at home is a switch away from trying to play through defences (which we routinely fail abjectly at in homes games) to a more direct style of play with Morelos and Cummings giving the midfield options for through balls and crosses etc.

I don't think Jason Cummings could be described as someone who "gets stuck in" All I've said is this formation hasn't worked at home and I think it's time to try something different. Windass hasn't performed at home and is the obvious candidate to drop out with a switch to 4-4-2. His style of play suits away games far more.

Surely our board will be shooting for Clarke this summer now. At the very least, for the first time in a while nobody could blame them if it didn't work out. There would be articles waxing lyrical about their achievement in getting him. They're not going to roll the dice again. The only worry will be whether Clarke will fancy it because he'll likely have other options.

This particular home loss is in many ways the worst. Traditionally the losing Old Firm side bounce back and the winning side slip up. The winning side slipped up but we didn't bounce back. We didn't even score. Personally I think it's time to drop the fashionable 4-2-3-1 and go 4-4-2. At least at home. Cummings and Morelos are a complimentary partnership. Difficult to know who to drop but for me it's Windass. He doesn't offer enough aside from scoring.