DMAA

His treatment of Murphy is strange though. He went to Burton and in 10 games scored 7 and assisted 2. He showed that he still has it. But Gerrard won't even put him on the bench. As I said, I think he likes a certain type of player and it is disappointing when quality players like Murphy lose out.

Having two strikers to hold the ball up and get us further up the field in games like that is very important IMO. It makes it easier to find a forward pass too because you have more to aim at.

https://www.hulldailymail.co.uk/sport/football/greg-docherty-rangers-deal-agreed-4431280.amp Docherty to Hull is all but done apparently. A bit disappointing if we have only got 400k and disappointing for him he didn't get a move to the Championship. Hopefully he'll do well though and work his way up.

That would strengthen them against Celtic. However, I think Hibs have had more success taking points off Celtic in recent seasons.

I brought facts into my comment. I didn't make anything up, and the facts were anything but shoehorned. They were directly relevant.

He is on form and has started the season confidently. He is actually fulfilling more of a Windass role at the moment, not creating goals directly much but dangerous on the counter attack and starting to score more goals. I still think he would do very well on the right wing though where he could more easily use his pace and get to the byline.

We do develop into that formation, but it isn't the same when you don't have two strikers on the pitch who know how to play in the box and have the physicality to hold up the ball and link up. Well, it isn't solely long balls and crosses but more varied play yes. The ball moves slower on plastic and it makes it very hard to carve them open the way we normally would.

Do you know what shoehorned means? It would have to be irrelevant to the argument, or not support my point, to be shoehorned. My prediction was that he wouldn't get enough assists because of x,y,z. That has panned out exactly as I said. There are no stats that I could bring into the debate that would be more relevant. Kent certainly wasn't the worst offender yesterday, I didn't say he was.

It is hardly “shoehorning” when it is on the exact topic I have spoken about with regards to Kent. If it was barely related it would be shoehorning. I said in his first season he just lacks end product, he lacks the vision and passing ability required to get the assists we need from our attacking midfielders. He has a tendency to run into crowded areas instead of hitting the byline. I was repeatedly berated and told “the assists will come”, (more in other places than on here).

I prefer 4-4-2, but 3-5-2 is more attacking on that pitch because you have 2 strikers occupying the centre backs instead of 1, and the midfield are largely the same but with less defensive duties because you have an extra centre back behind. Obviously our two most productive players, Tav and Barisic, are also freed up significantly from defensive duties. I think if you compared heat maps afterwards you would find in a 3-5-2 you’re players were much more active further up the pitch.

On that subject, not including goals he has scored himself, Rangers have scored 47 league goals since Kent's last league assist in February 19 vs Hamilton Accies, 28 games ago. He plays in our front 3 and we spent £7m on him to create goals. I said when we signed him that I would be bemoaning his lack of end product and here we are.

I don't think we need a permanent formation change, but I do think we need to consider whether our system is going to work on this pitch against this system. With Aribo out in particular, I was very concerned it wouldn't. I think we need to be more direct on plastic pitches and two strikers in the box would be a big help to making that work. We shouldn't be too proud to be pragmatic. The fact is that our attacking midfielders have a terrible record of breaking down teams in those circumstances.

Neither of them are really DMs for a start.

Gerrard loves fast and fit attacking midfielders. It’s why Murphy and Stewart can’t get a look in despite being better players than those playing ahead of them.

I think we need to play a more attacking formation with two strikers. A version of 4-4-2 would be good too. It is very difficult to pass through teams who park the bus on a terrible pitch. With two strikers , if you put the ball in the box often enough, with support from midfielders, you’ll cause them far more trouble. There is no doubt that the formation failed yesterday, and not for the first time in those games. Celtic put this theory to the test last season and proved it.

Aribo is our most important player and I was immediately worried when I saw he wasn’t playing. We rely on him as a team to break down teams and create goals. It is so unfortunate that we lost him for this game. I’ve only seen the RTV highlights (10 mins long). A lot of possession and wee half chances but quite worrying that there weren’t really any good chances at all. The best chance was probably the one Kent hit wide from a run. Hagi & Morelos barely featured, which is a worry. Kent featured quite a bit but nothing came of anything he did, and he seemed to be turning himself into a centre midfielder at times? I don’t want my forward/winger roaming around the middle of the park. In a game in which we have 77% possession the forwards need to be doing better to turn that into chances, I don’t think you can just blame Jack and Kamara. That’s not to say I don’t think the management got tactics wrong though. I think it’s time to try 3-5-2 or something in these games. Celtic used it to great effect in the second half of last season.

Depends. Is the particular foot injury he had really more likely to recur on a plastic pitch? The medical team will have to make a call on that.

Yes, McCrorie. He’d be an excellent signing for them, but I never understood the optimism among our fans over his potential. There was pretty much a backlash when he joined Portsmouth on loan. Crazy.

There's someone on FF claiming a deal is all but agreed with Hibs but being held up by us inserting a clause saying he can't play against us this season. Bizarre if true. It's going to be a long transfer window, especially with the Skov Olsen link not going away. It's got me excited when there is probably nothing in it.

I still think Ibrox being empty helps against the small teams but would be a lost advantage in bigger games. And is a major lost advantage for our opponents away from home. Some of our players don’t cope well with the sighs, moans, groans and worse when they are struggling to break down a low block and making mistakes.

Disappointing for him after an excellent start, but if it fastracks Helander's road back to full fitness then that would be a good thing.

Interesting that Football Italia have reported this. Previously it was only a very questionable Twitter source that had reported it. His name came up in January 2019 I think, before he got his move to Bologna. Surprised it hasn’t worked out, he looks a real talent from his YouTube reel. His signing, even on loan, would be a real coup.

I can't imagine why when they have 30 million pound man Ajer who AC Milan are desperate to sign and Julie Anne who the papers are telling us Napoli are after.

Celtic have signed Albian Ajeti. It is interesting because he is very similar to Itten. A Swiss striker, only a few months between them in age, both ex Basel and with similar records in that league. One thing that is different is that Ajeti seems to have got his done better in the early years of his carrer whilst Itten has really come onto a game in the past season or two. Ajeti looks like a decent player, but have they really signed a £5m striker to sit on the bench next to a £3.5m striker? Not to mention Griffiths. With any luck Edouard will leave now.

He would be good but Norwich have no intention of selling, their manager rates him highly