DMAA

Not convinced we wouldn’t be better with 2 strikers in games like this

We have a pretty poor record against on form sides. We struggled against Motherwell when they were on for, Hibs and obviously Killie themselves. Hopefully tomorrow we can take the game to them and put away some early chances. I'd like to see Cummings starting (not ahead of Morelos), we need his goals I think.

Is tomorrow Steve Clarke's interview?

I would say one is required. McCrorie, Bates and Alves should compete for a spot next season imo. Cardoso dispensable and Martin not worth keeping. I'd much rather quality than quantity. Put the money into one quality addition.

Another shocking article. Just because he made sure the ref heard him he’s accused of being biased. And Morelos accuses of being a bit of a cheat. None of us know how sore it was. I’ve been caught by an elbow in the face and people didn’t think much of it but it doesn’t change how sore it was!

Incredible the way that's been reported. Insinuate one thing and then sneak in that most pundits believed it was the right decision. I don't see the big deal, there was a lot of noise and not much time for the ref to hear him and make a decision, he just wanted to make sure the ref made the right decision.

Good for him to get up close with Ben Davies too and possibly learn a bit from him. Not to mention Giggs himself. Good news all round.

I'm not convinced we have a standout Barry Fergusion type captain. Someone who is always on his game and takes the responsibility on himself to organise the rest of the team and keep them in order throughout the game. Rossiter looked like he did that at his level at England and Liverpool so it's disappointing he hasn't stayed fit in order for him to eventually do it here.

I think it's unfair to judge Murty on whether he can beat Celtic. I don't think it's unfair to judge him on whether he can beat Hibs, Aberdeen, Killie etc. None of us like it but it's just a fact that Celtic have a squad with far more quality throughout, which cost about 5 times what ours cost to assemble. I do think the bigger difference is in now depth and we have a starting 11 who are capable of beating them. But for us to be beating them at this stage would still be to be punching above our weight. Their revenue still stands at something like 4 times ours. Money talks in football and any Rangers manager is going to be performing miracles to make us no 1 in Scotland again until the club manages to close that turnover gap. On Murty specifically. He seems to me to have a good tactical brain on him and we might have caught a very good manager at the start of a long career. If he finishes a strong second, the only man who can stop him getting the job is Steve Clarke.

Very good player and great attitude. Only complaint is I wish he would vary his style of cross. I really like his low crosses, they are different and suit the likes of Windass. But as we saw against Celtic when they aren't getting past the first man he needs to know when it's time to scoop it to the back post.

Looks like the youth team's impressive run has been blown by a bunch of senior players.

I’m surprised this makes the news. I’d be amazed if this doesn’t happen all the time. There are morons like this all over this city. It’s even more incredible given he’s such an uncontroversial guy. Only played a handful of games for us and has had nothing to do with them.

What if someone in a Celtic top crossed paths with this group? A thuggish "ultras" group like this creates the toxic atmosphere where unprovoked violent attacks can easily occur and have often in the past.

I should have said he might become one, but that's not the player he is just now. McCoist didn't do better than 1 goal every second game until he was 23. Boyd was doing it at 21 at Killie though. Morelos is an all round forward who offers a lot to the team and chips in with goals, but so far he's doesn't appear to be a natural finisher like those two were.

Morelos is a great forward and has to start but he's our third best finisher after Windass and Cummings. I'd like to see Cummings get a run in the team but I'm not sure how to fit him in. I do think too much is made of his scoring record though and the constant reference to him being the top scorer in the league. He only has 13 from 27 league games and isn't even top scorer anymore, a 34 year old Kris Boyd is. Morelos is a great player but lets drop the pretence that he's a goalscorer like McCoist and Boyd were.

A number of things were at play but for me first and foremost it's poor defending. And this was to be expected with a 4th choice centre back playing who isn't known for his defensive ability. I don't think Bates would have be so easily outmuscled for that goal. The first was pure class from Rogic, credit to him. The third it was Goss who let him turn inside, juvenile defending. Goss should have been removed for Holt long before then. However as others have pointed out we have McCorie coming back who solves some of these problems either at centre back or defensive centre mid like at Parkhead. That's not to mention Jack, another centre mid who can defend a lot better. If we don't lose that poor goal before half time I don't think we lose the game. And if we don't lose that poor 3rd goal I think we definitely go on to win. Of course there's a gap in quality between the sides, but not so much that we shouldn't be beating them a couple of times a season anymore.

Oops, got me Goss should have been subbed much earlier and Cumming should have been on much earlier.

You've hit the nail on the head. I can't believe Goss played the 90 minutes. I think he's a bit of a luxury player, great for those games against your Hamiltons and St Johnstones but there's too much required of our midfield defensively against Celtic. If we had two Docherty's we wouldn't have lost imo. It wasn't just the Edouard goal it was time and time again he wasn't at it defensively. Holt was great at Parkhead and would have been far better and getting close to his man and winning the ball back by pressurising them. The counter argument would be that we needed Goss's creativity when they went down to 10 men, but he was exhausted by then. We needed Holt's energy in the middle with the creativity coming from elsewhere.

A comparison of transfer fees paid put into perspective how how big the gap should be. Foderingham - Free De Vries - £0.4m Tavernier - £0.2m Gamboa - £1m Bates - £0-0.2m? Boyata - £1.5m Alves - Free Ajer - £0.5m John - £0.3m? Tierney - Free Goss - Loan Brown - £4.4m Docherty - £0.67m Ntcham - £4.5m Candeias - £0.7m Forrest - Free Windass - £0.06m Armstrong - £1.8m Murphy - £1m-1.4m Sinclair - £3.6-£4.5m Morelos - £1m Dembele - £0.5m Alnwick - £0.25m Bain - Loan Martin - Loan Commper - £1m Wallace - £1.5m Hendry - £1m Halliday - Free Kouassi - £3m Holt - £0.06m Macgregor - Free Miller - Free Musonda - £5.5m Loan apparently Cummings - £0.65m Edouard - Loan (reasonable fee is likely) That's just roughly but the total amount we've spent on this squad is a fraction of what they have so if we can compete with them it's a big achievement. The one blot for us is the failure of the youth system. They've got three valuable players in there who've come through the youth team and we've got none.

A watched pot never boils

5 goals scored more this time round over the 7 games. However until the last 3 games we'd actually scored 2 less. The gap opened up due to the away games at Hamilton and St Johnstone who to be honest are very poor sides. I've not included cup games because they just distort the real picture.

I was hoping there would be an improvement or some kind of trend here but unfortunately we're pretty much just as leaky now as we were in December (1 goal less conceded overall in the 7 games running up to the old firm.

Comparison of our likely bench compared to the December game: Alnwick Alnwick Bates Martin Hodson Wallace Barjonas Halliday Pena Holt Hardie Cummings Herrera Miller The improvements have largely been to the starting team, but the options off the bench are better too. Holt will likely replace Goss I think later in the game when we just need his energy to track back and to win the ball back. Cummings will obviously make an appearance and offers a real goal threat from the bench, something we didn't have last time. What Miller adds for me these days is heading. If you're getting the ball in the box but aren't winning headers, Miller can do that pretty well imo.

Excellent article. Amidst the optimism I have two main concerns for the game. First is, as I've said before, they have a huge advantage in that a draw is a win for them. Sure it doesn't fit their narrative of being on a different planet to us but at the end of the day a draw virtually wins them the league lets face it. Tactically that is huge because it means they don't need to take risks but we do, allowing them to play on the counter. This can work out to our advantage if we're clinical with our finishing because we're likely to have more of the ball. Second concern is the number of players now who aren't really in best shape for the game anymore. Alves, John and Murphy have all now had less than ideal preparation. The rest of the squad should be in ideal shape having played so many games in a row, but those 3 are a bit of a concern because we need to be at our best. It will be interesting to see if Celtic go with Gamboa at RB or a 3-5-2.

I'm conscious there may be a knowledge gap with some of this, I've never heard of this for example and I hope Bluedell is right in that it's not true. I was always of the impression he ploughed his own money into the club early on and set us up. He's certainly credited to that effect by the media, even in the piece in question. It doesn't help that we don't have hard facts in front of us. Very true and he has to take the blame for what happened for that reason. He's clearly a gambler and risk taker by nature. Without the full facts I find it hard to go quite as far as unforgivable. Nobody would have suspected Whyte's motives. Why on earth would anyone want to put Rangers into liquidation. He seems to have been tricked and given the benefit of the doubt when he shouldn't have done so. However he seems to have done that out of desperatation. For me deliberate actions are unforgiveable but mistakes aren't. Whyte, Green and his cohorts and Ashley can never be forgiven for me.