Smith's future up in the air

[Dr Preston Burke 0]

We play 1 up at home in Europe because our midfield is nowhere near good enough to play 4-4-2 without being picked off

 

First half against Unirea we played 4-5-1 and it was 1-1 at half time

At half time we replaced Mendes with Lafferty, played 4-4-2, and lost 4-1

[wabashcannonball 0]

Aye right.

[Dr Preston Burke 0]

Considering Manchester United have played 4-5-1 in Europe for 4 years in a row now, it really does astound me how so many of our fans are completely intolerant of this formation and see no benefits of playing it

 

4-5-1 got us to a European final. 4-4-2 got us beaten 3-0 over 45 minutes by a team of Romanian minnows at Ibrox

[Zappa 0]

Romanian Champions actually..

[calscot 0]

Champs from a country who are 8 places above us in the UEFA rankings and are ahead of Holland and Portugal...

 

Coming from Scotland we are in no place to disrespect them.

 

However, I agree with the defence of 4-5-1.

[wabashcannonball 0]

How many teams do you know that have been accused of playing anti-football, it is a term I never want to hear used again in relation to Rangers, but there again I was spoiled by the Baxters, Scotts, Penmans McMillans, Hendersons, and a bevvy of others to numerous to mention, we called them fitba players.

[Super_Ally 0]

How many teams do you know that have been accused of playing anti-football,

 

Celtic, Chelsea, Spurs, Inter Milan, Italy, in fact every Italian side. And that's without giving it more than 10 seconds thought.

 

And who made the whining sour grapes jibe? A multi-million pound Barcelona team who failed to defeat us in a game of football. A team blessed with more money and more talent were out-thought by our manager and out-fought or matched by our players.

 

I wont worry too much about those sort of sour grapes.

 

You have to be pragmatic. You can go out and try and beat a better side (or sides) at their own game but you'll only end up like Mowbray's WBA and now Celtic. They can crow about all the pretty football they want (even if it is mostly lies and bullshit) while my team can celebrate success and trophies. :spl:

[wabashcannonball 0]

And that is why we haven't won anything outside of Scotland for 38 years, you may be happy with parish success I'm not, we should be at least competing against the best, not ending up with record low points totals and playing like fish out of water, if anyone thinks major changes are not required they are deluding themselves, or perhaps they are happy to win a piss poor SPL and have a few games in Europe for the day out.

[maineflyer 0]

How many teams do you know that have been accused of playing anti-football, it is a term I never want to hear used again in relation to Rangers, but there again I was spoiled by the Baxters, Scotts, Penmans McMillans, Hendersons, and a bevvy of others to numerous to mention, we called them fitba players.

 

Celtic, Chelsea, Spurs, Inter Milan, Italy, in fact every Italian side. And that's without giving it more than 10 seconds thought.

 

And who made the whining sour grapes jibe? A multi-million pound Barcelona team who failed to defeat us in a game of football. A team blessed with more money and more talent were out-thought by our manager and out-fought or matched by our players.

 

I wont worry too much about those sort of sour grapes.

 

You have to be pragmatic. You can go out and try and beat a better side (or sides) at their own game but you'll only end up like Mowbray's WBA and now Celtic. They can crow about all the pretty football they want (even if it is mostly lies and bullshit) while my team can celebrate success and trophies. :spl:

 

There's a real danger in putting all criticisms down to sour grapes though SA. There will always be comments spawned by jealousy or rivalry but our own opinions should count for more ..... and should be as honest as possible. So although the anti-football jibe was motivated by whatever pissed off Barcelona, the fact is that it was as far from the football I want to see from Rangers as I can imagine. I endured it rather than watched it and it was fukking rank awful, close to embarrassing. I don't care how much money Barcelona have, no Rangers team should serve that up to its fans. Pragmatism only stretches so far and there is a limit to how low we should let our expectations drop.

 

We are doing better than we were 2 or 3 years ago and players and manager alike deserve credit for that. But better isn't synonymous with best and we need to set our sights well above the current level. In my nearly 50 years as a Rangers fan, I reckon the current team is struggling to come up to average and is nowhere near the standard of the best Rangers teams I watched before the Murray era (the money era). You'll forgive me if I share some sentiments with wabash because I also stood and watched Jimmy Millar, Ralph Brand, Eric Caldow, Bobby Shearer, Davie Wilson, Willie Henderson, John Greig, Ian MacMillan, Jimmy Baxter ..... every one of whom was light years better than their counterparts today. IMO, only McGregor bears comparison in goals. And that's not just old-fartism SA, it's a cast iron fact from nearly half a century ago. I'd like to see that again at Ibrox before I head skywards and I don't see it happening if we remain a club that is so afraid of failure that we can't bring ourselves to succeed.

[Super_Ally 0]

And that is why we haven't won anything outside of Scotland for 38 years, you may be happy with parish success I'm not, we should be at least competing against the best, not ending up with record low points totals and playing like fish out of water, if anyone thinks major changes are not required they are deluding themselves, or perhaps they are happy to win a piss poor SPL and have a few games in Europe for the day out.

 

Yes, realising that sometimes you may have to change your game plan and play to your strengths, even if they are predominantly in defence, is the reason we haven't won a European trophy in 38 years.