A poor Rangers team?

[Super_Ally 0]

Credit JimmyGers1873 on FF:

 

2002/03

1	Rangers	26	22	3	1	72	19	+53	[b]69[/b]
2	Celtic	25	20	3	2	65	16	+49	[b]63[/b]

 

2004/05

1	Rangers	26	20	5	1	56	11	+45	[b]65[/b]
2	Celtic	25	20	2	3	53	21	+32	[b]62[/b]

 

2008/09

1	Rangers	26	17	6	3	56	19	+37	[b]57[/b]
2	Celtic	25	17	5	3	52	25	+27	[b]56[/b]

 

Now...

2009/10

1	Rangers	26	18	7	1	59	15	+44	[b]61[/b]
2	Celtic	27	15	6	6	51	29	+22	[b]51[/b]

 

They've obviously become worse but we've improved on last season and considering our off the field problems and size of squad aren't that far behind previous good seasons.

 

Only 4 points short of the Helicopter Sunday season when we were considered a pretty good side.

 

Only 8 points short of the treble-winning 02/03 season when we were considered a very good side.

 

Maybe not a vintage side, but certainly a side that nows how to play and win football matches. :spl:

[ian1964 10,469]

I've been confident all season,regarding the better team between us and them,there's no doubt when we have all our players playing at their best we are actually a very good team, as December form showed what we are capable of,I think Rangers get too much criticism tbh.

[calscot 0]

At the risk of sounding like I’m banging on, there is a different playing field now than the early noughties. We still had the remains of a very expensive team which compared well with the spending of top EPL clubs.

 

Celtic at that time also started spending like a top 6 EPL team, so the OF in the SPL scenario was like a couple of top prem teams shoved into a league with the top half of League 1. That meant it’s much easier to beat the opposition.

 

The situation now is like two teams from near the top of the Championship shoved into a league with the bottom half of League 1. The difference in quality is there but not as stark and so both teams will drop more points.

 

This has pretty good anecdotal evidence this season with a top Championship manager and a top Championship budget easily being ahead of the League One teams but not as far ahead as previous years.

 

So my personal conclusion is that our current team is doing about as well as could be expected in the current scenario – much better than could be expected in fact, if you consider the incredibly small squad compared with previous teams for as long as I can remember, the lack of player purchases in the last three transfer windows, having a management team with no contracts, upheaval on the board with bank interference, and the general uncertainty about the club as a whole.

 

I think in those circumstances it would be difficult to name a manager who would have done any better than Walter Smith and I think the criticism he’s received this year has been unbelievably harsh.

 

His only failure has been the CL but how well would you expect a championship team to do in that arena? And many still don’t get that Romania are 8 places above Scotland in the UEFA ranking and are also above Holland and Portugal. The money comparison is also difficult to make between two countries whose GDP per capita vary by a factor of 5.

 

I’m no blinkered “Walterite” but I appreciate his qualities and think he’s a pretty solid manager who deserves more support from the fans. I think the lack of praise for him after the latest watershed game is baffling considering the abuse he’s taken all season.

 

So many people it seems would rather wait misty eyed on a hapless manager who can’t compete even a little bit in his first season than appreciate one that knows how to win. I’ve said before, if we had the last 3 years of success under PLG, he’d be a legend by now and we’d be crapping ourselves about him moving on.

 

So I think we should stop harking on about past eras that can’t we can’t compete with under the present European financial model, and start enjoying our current period of success which is as valid as any in the past.

 

Just because you can no longer afford filet mignon, doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy the best rib-eye around.

[ian1964 10,469]

Although WS is not every ones choice of manager you just can't ignore what he has done for Rangers FC especially this last year working under such circumstances the club are in. I know I am thankful to him and wouldn't have any other man in charge of us just now, he has held this club together in these hard times so well done Walter

[Dr Preston Burke 0]

We're nowhere near as good as we were in 2002/2003 but how could we be considering the players we had back then? I certainly believe we're better than last season though. Less silly points dropped (since September anyway), more goals scored, less conceded. I also believe that the departures of Ferguson and Mendes have helped us as their 'partnership' was very very disappointing and their departures have allowed McCulloch and especially Davis to shine a lot more than they did in the past

[Super_Ally 0]

So many people it seems would rather wait misty eyed on a hapless manager who can�t compete even a little bit in his first season than appreciate one that knows how to win. I�ve said before, if we had the last 3 years of success under PLG, he�d be a legend by now and we�d be crapping ourselves about him moving on.

 

Very good post. The above point is very true and more than a little disappointing.

[Super_Ally 0]

Walter Smith tired of critics and insists current Rangers team are as good as any he has managed

 

Hugh MacDonald

 

Published on 8 Mar 2010

 

They are Scotland’s Damned United.

 

Damned by faint praise, united in pursuit of the common goal.

 

The Rangers class of 2009/2010 have attracted only grudging respect for their efforts as they surge towards a consecutive Clydesdale Bank Premier League title. They have gained few marks from some critics for artistic impression.

 

Walter Smith quietly sought to set the record straight yesterday. His Rangers team, routinely and lazily described as the worst in recent memory, was given a glowing report card at Murray Park. “I can only compare them with previous Rangers teams,” said Smith, who managed the club from 1991 to 1998 before returning in 2007. “The club did once go 10 years without winning a championship, so I don’t know where that would put us. I don’t have any hesitation in saying this team ranks alongside any of the Rangers teams I have managed.”

 

It is a significant statement. Smith is tired of the carping. Embroiled in the worst financial crisis ever to hit the club, Smith has also immersed himself in the refereeing debate. Yet there has been a drama at Ibrox far more unlikely than any rows over decisions.

 

Smith inherited a side that lost three goals in a Scottish Cup tie to Dunfermline. Since, then, he has lost only one domestic cup match and that the final of the Co-operative Insurance Cup last season. He has also guided Rangers to a UEFA Cup final and won the title last season.

 

He may just be becoming a tad impatient about the denigration of his side. His outburst on Saturday about the regularity of comments about referees is, at part, due to the belief that the achievements of his side may be lost in a miasma of hype about officials, takeovers and the off-field exploits of players.

 

Smith weighs his words with the care of an old-time shopkeeper appraising the wares of a prospector. But he was extraordinary in his praise yesterday. “We have some good players,” he said. “They would have been involved in any of the teams I had previously.”

 

The idea of the Whittakers, Papacs, and Millers rubbing shoulders with Butcher, Gascoigne and Laudrup may be implausible. But Smith was insistent about the quality at his disposal.

 

“It has been shown historically that if we don’t have the level of player the club needs, then Rangers don’t win. But we have been winning, we have reached a European final. You don’t do that if you don’t have good players. As long as they keep being good players between now and the end of the season, we’ll be all right.”

 

Of the level of football his side was capable of producing, he said: “A lot of teams get a reputation for a specific level of play. People’s perception of Rangers has been formed more by our success on the European stage a couple of seasons ago, when we played a certain way in a defensive sense. Everyone now looks at our team and says that’s the way we are when we are playing domestic football.

 

“But we don’t play like that in domestic football. If we are asked to defend, then we defend. But we set out to go forward and try to win the games. I have been like that in Scotland for the majority of games, the exceptions being maybe a few trips to Celtic Park. But in 98% of the games in Scotland, we try to go out to win, home and away.

 

“Now we have that defensive reputation, though, that when we actually play well, everyone just ignores it anyway. They say ‘Och, Rangers ground out a result’ or ‘Rangers are resilient’, or ‘Rangers are this, that and the next thing’. We actually play some decent football at times. Look at the Old Firm game a couple of weeks ago. In open play, we had our left-back Sasa Papac forcing a corner in the last minute. We try to get our full-backs forward generally. We do get people forward and play in an attacking manner.”

 

Rangers have scored 62 goals in 27 league games to Celtic’s 53 in 27 but Smith was keen to point out he was not answering comments from Tony Mowbray, the Celtic manager, who was reported as saying he could not play the Smith way.

 

“That was a conversation we had. Although it makes a good headline, it wasn’t quite how it was portrayed, as if it was an inflammatory statement. It wasn’t,” Smith said. “Managers all have wee differences in the way we set out our teams. That was the conversation we had and it’s not something that would be taken as a problem by me. Tony has had success playing the way he plays. I do it slightly differently.”

 

He was keen to praise his players. “A few of them have had terrific seasons. The goalkeeper, Steven Whittaker, Madjid Bougherra, Davie Weir, Sasa Papac and Lee McCulloch. Kenny Miller has done well and for me Kris Boyd has had his best season. We have had problems with a few because of injury, like Kevin Thomson who is kicking on now. So there have been a lot of good things at the club this season which have been clouded a bit by the financial situation.

 

“The quality of the team hasn’t been discussed much. Even in recent weeks, when we have created a gap at the top of the table, it has still been other things which have been highlighted. I don’t think we have been given the level of credit we deserve for our level of play, never mind results.”

 

His side travels to Kilmarnock tonight to extend their lead at the top to 13 points. Bougherra is a doubt, the conviction of the players is not. Damned by some critics, the Defiant United intend to take a stride towards another title.

 

 

http://www.heraldscotland.com/sport/spl/rangers/walter-smith-tired-of-critics-and-insists-current-rangers-team-are-as-good-as-any-he-has-managed-1.1011998

 

Seems Walter agrees.

 

Highlighted the paragraph in bold. Think he makes some fair points there. Lazy journalism to say that the side outscoring Barceltona are defensive and stodgy.

[Totti 0]

Super_Ally is a bit of a broken record.

 

We've been solid this season domestically and will deservedly win the league but we literally have no competition whatsoever. We were shown up in Europe to be limited.

[Super_Ally 0]

Super_Ally is a bit of a broken record.

 

We've been solid this season domestically and will deservedly win the league but we literally have no competition whatsoever. We were shown up in Europe to be limited.

 

I didn't say we were any great shakes in Europe. But we don't get the credit we deserve domestically as Walter rightly points out. Any time we win, it's ground out. Which is bullshit. We've outscored the Gallowgate Galacticos who are apparently an attacking team. It jsut doesn't stack up.

[pete 2,499]

I didn't say we were any great shakes in Europe. But we don't get the credit we deserve domestically as Walter rightly points out. Any time we win, it's ground out. Which is bullshit. We've outscored the Gallowgate Galacticos who are apparently an attacking team. It jsut doesn't stack up.

 

Attacking team my buttocks! How many teams have had them pinned back on their own 18 this season?