weebluedevil

He doesn't call it the Old Firm

I didn't notice, what happened?

I wouldn't but at least McInnes would have some sort of plan for shape and tactics.

I wonder what Beale will say Post Match. Edit. Actually I don't and couldn't care less.

Don't agree. Not Roofe's fault he was denied a legitimate goal. How many did the Danilo/Lammers/Sima triage score?

Progress then, eh. Lost 4-0 last time, only 1-0 today. Ref denied us. Reality is we have improved 300%. It's only match day 4, 32 games to go. We should all calm down.

If they could shoot or score, apparently they wouldn't be at Rangers.

Beale has all his new toys in his pram now.

Don't need an ex-Ref to tell us if that was a foul. Clearly wasn't. Shocking

Should have been 1-1, robbed by Robertson and Muir. We are still in this game. It wasn't the worst first half from us, but I fear that's the best they can do.

Sign of intent from Beale. 3 debutants, only, which means more experience in terms of this fixture. The only concern for me is Sterling at LB, but we do have Ridvan on the bench if he looks out of depth. The call on Matondo and Roofe was what most of us wanted and is less of a risk in my view than the alternative, again given my first point and the fact that Lammers/Sima/Danilo have not started great. Big opportunity for Dessers, and hope he can repay the faith Beale has in him. C'mon Rangers, don't let us down. Any win will do. Just do it.

Butland is the only signing that has, thus far, improved us. In order to predict which newbies will come ‘good’ we need to define ‘good’. For example, did Kent make it ‘good’? Was exciting to watch at his peak, could turn a player inside out, put the fear into them, but most of the time ferreted down a dead end or beat himself, and his numbers suggested he didn’t make it to ‘greatness’. If Kent was just good, then I think most of the attackers should be capable of good, but not great. Cifuentes will hold down a place and I have high hopes he will settle and do well. Sima and Dowell -more squad caliber for me. Sterling will not make it with us, Balogun is purely back up for this season. Lammers has something there but maybe not aggressive enough for us. If Roofe can stay fit, one of Danilo or Dessers will spend much time on the bench, I haven’t seen enough yet to know which. Neither will be as good as Morelos in his pomp. Overall, other than Butland, the signings are not impressing me and I don’t think we’ve found any rough diamonds with that lot. Gone backwards IMO. Beale will be accountable and will be gone by the end of the season. That’s my honest opinion/prediction on what I’ve felt so far, but I hope I’m very wrong.

Swap Lawrence with Rabbi, I’d go with that.

Proper cup in those days then? Sounds like 8 games to win the cup. Only 4 needed these days (for some).

I agree with that. I would just caveat that consistent CL qualification and yearly participation, on it's own, will not enable us to perform better. For that we need to invest the financial rewards into the playing squad. Sorry, but these days 5million quid for a player is bargain basement these days (sometimes that can work out, but more often it won't). We need to mix it up with some young prospects for 1-5million, and a couple of proven players that may require higher investment. Outgoings, if we are true to the player trading model (+ the academy product has to be better), combined with regular European prize money should allow for that. On the back of a European final run and CL qualification last year, we didn't reinvest, and then it gets harder and harder and then we're on a slippery slope.

Would be tough to outperform a Talisker

Then quite frankly Beale can fuck off. Win the league and the fans will allow him more time and Europe becomes a bonus (for this season). Fail to win the league and get pumped in Europa and/or Conference, then at least we can look forward to a new manager that can actually take us somewhere.

No idea 🤪. However, it would be an easier opportunity that the Europa, which resembles Champions League this year.

I don't know if we drop to the Conference and go far in that competition (final or winning it) would be viewed as a failure. I can see us getting to the round of 32 in Europa, maybe round of 16 at best. Would I rather get to the final or win the Conference? Absolutely!

What the group daw has offered up to us, is a great chance to progress to the knock-outs, whether that's Europa, where I think our chances of going deep there is very limited, or the Conference - where perhaps we could go quite far. I wouldn't mind it if we dropped down and got through to the semi/final of that competition (would still require massive progress in performance from where we currently are right now).

That is a huge concern I'll be honest. It would be selfish of Beale to pick a team to justify his summer recruitment choices, rather than the best team for the test, which is most definitely Roofe, Matondo and Cantwell up front. Even if he goes with one of Sima or Lammers, with Cantwell deeper, leaving Dessers and Danilo on the bench is quite damning really.

That might not be a bad suggestion

Rangers 1 Celtic 1 FGS: Matondo

Diddley-squat