Anyone enjoying their football this season?

[pete 2,499]

The fact that at a certain point Hamilton had 73% of possession says it all I think. If we win the league this season they can make a new version of the great escape.

[Tumshie RFC 0]

Yesterday and the game against St Mirren at Love Street were the two worst performances I've seen all season. We just didn't get going and our players couldn't even do the basics right. I lost count of the amount of times players like Naismith and Davis couldn't pass the ball to a Rangers player who was less than 10 yards away. It was woeful stuff.

[Tannochsidebear 2,321]

Given the complete demolition of our club by Murray and LBG over the last few years, it is a wonder we still have a competitive team at all, never mind one that is challenging for titles, winning domestic cups, and playing 10 games in Europe without disgrace.

 

FWIW I quite enjoyed the football at the United game, although amazed we were beaten by a team playing counter attack football, and I must say the recent Cup Final of only 3 weeks ago was one where we played really well, beat our biggest rivals and won a trophy that every single other team in our country would have had major parties had they won.

 

Yes, the two away games this week at Perth and Hamilton were dire, but we won both of them without getting out of second gear, without conceding a goal with a makeshift defence, and maintaining our title challenge with a threadbare squad.

 

I dont accept this is what I want from a Rangers team, but having a go at the players, manager, coaches, pitches etc is howling at the moon considering our owner's complete negligence, bad management and disregard for our fortunes over the last near-decade, almost bankrupting us twice, and leaving us in our current state.

 

IMO the manager and players, whilst not getting everything right, far from it, deserve enormous credit for keeping the smallest squad in the SPL on track to win it. I will take 8 more performances like the last 2 thank you very much and salute the greatest title victory in our history with a major party, not a disgruntled "the football should have been better" moan.

 

Rant over, back to work now!

[Danny 0]

Tannoch, you've kinda just reaffirmed my point. And that of Bear (and others). The football isn't just disappointing, it shouldn't just 'be better' - it's ridiculously incompetent. And I defy anyone to enjoy watching it.

 

Just because we may win the SPL and we have a paper thin squad doesn't excuse players being paid thousands of pounds who each have spent their whole lives playing football producing this absolute dross.

 

Good players like Naismith, Davis, Edu, Jelavic to an extent etc have been reduced to the level of amateurs, and only a winning mentality is the difference between us being in second place and us being mid table - we are that bad.

 

There is categorically no excuse for being completely dominated by Hamilton.

 

And like I said, there's a real lack of joy being taken out of following Rangers these days because of it.

[calscot 0]

Tannoch, you've kinda just reaffirmed my point. And that of Bear (and others). The football isn't just disappointing, it shouldn't just 'be better' - it's ridiculously incompetent. And I defy anyone to enjoy watching it.

 

Just because we may win the SPL and we have a paper thin squad doesn't excuse players being paid thousands of pounds who each have spent their whole lives playing football producing this absolute dross.

 

Good players like Naismith, Davis, Edu, Jelavic to an extent etc have been reduced to the level of amateurs, and only a winning mentality is the difference between us being in second place and us being mid table - we are that bad.

 

There is categorically no excuse for being completely dominated by Hamilton.

 

And like I said, there's a real lack of joy being taken out of following Rangers these days because of it.

 

You've been a good poster of late and so I was taking on board your opinion until this post. It just smacks of a lack of footballing knowledge or begs the question whether you actually like football at all... All teams have off days and considering the state of our national game and finances juxtaposed with riches in other countries it not surprising we've had better days. But when the BEST team in the country over the last four years are so distasteful to you, you have to wonder what you're really looking for.

 

It's like having a long term single mate who complains that all but Miss World candidates are ugly, you start to wonder if he's actually gay, and should perhaps find happiness elsewhere.

 

In a town full of less than endowed women, a red blooded heterosexual will still be relatively happy if he has the prettiest girlfriend in town, even if she's no FHM babe of the year. If he's unhappy and is continually telling her and everyone else how ugly she is compared to Brazilians girls or his previous girlfriends, that just makes him a jackass.

 

I haven't seen that many games on TV this year and live too far away to get to the match, but what I have seen hasn't been the worst of my time supporting Rangers. Maybe it's because I was brought up on the dire long ball game continually interrupted by pass-backs from the half way line which dominated our play in the early eighties but I still haven't seen the headless chicken type performances of Eck's last season or Le Guen's half season. The objective measurements of proof are in the results. Grinding out wins was an attribute of Souness' teams despite the megastar line-ups and our most expensive teams under Advocaat had plenty of struggling games against the likes of St Johnstone despite the fantastic gap in transfer fees and wages.

 

Anyone expecting to see footballers of the quality we had when we could compete with Man U for players, or of the quality of the current Premiership which even the English have never had before, must be delusional and need to get real. We just can't hope to compete with that on a shoestring budget.

 

The ironic thing is that despite the gap in the quality we can afford and that of other SPL teams being the narrowest for 25 years, the consistency of our supremacy over them has rarely been better. There is absolutely no chance that we'll finish 3rd never mind mid table and saying that's just down to having a winning mentality while supposedly having the skills of a junior team is a weird one.

 

Perhaps you should take the opportunity to make a legend of yourself by taking a pub team to the Scottish championship just by instilling a "winning mentality". You make it sounds so easy.#

 

Football for Rangers FC is about winning championships and trophies first and foremost, if there was a simple way to do that while systematically playing really pretty football it's pretty obvious we'd be doing it. If you don't like that idealism, then perhaps you should switch to supporting Falkirk or whoever or maybe switch to another sport.

 

I feel privileged to support the best team in the country and to be able to see my team snaffle half of the top trophies going while constantly winning games. I feel for supporters of other clubs in Scotland who religiously watch their teams on tiny budgets strive to pick up the scraps and fail to do that more often than not. The last thing I'm going to do is slag off a bunch of professionals who are recently proven to be overall the consistently best in the country, about how they play crap football like a pub team.

[Danny 0]

Calscot, you have your opinion and I respect it. I wouldn't suggest any of the derogatory comments about you which you've imbued upon me for what I've said simply because I disagree with you.

 

I also find it curious that you've only targeted me when plenty in this thread completely agree with me?

[calscot 0]

Calscot, you have your opinion and I respect it. I wouldn't suggest any of the derogatory comments about you which you've imbued upon me for what I've said simply because I disagree with you.

 

I also find it curious that you've only targeted me when plenty in this thread completely agree with me?

 

To be honest, I can't see where I've been all that derogatory... Unless you take a couple of the metaphors literally... I stand by my reckoning that someone who thinks the best team in Scotland over the last four years are no better than a amateur team, does not have major football insight and those that think we should be putting out the quality we see on Sky from Premiership on our budget are delusional.

 

Plenty of people in the thread agree we've had some bad games and the football hasn't been the best but few have been as derogatory to the team as you have. Your criticism of the team is way harsh in my opinion and I think what I've said is a good point. When the best around is not good enough, then what is?

 

My polemic style is not for throwing mud, I use it to try and get people to see what they're saying from a different point of view. If you look at you're pay cheque and think it's shit, it might put a better perspective on it when someone reminds you, you are the best paid in the country and you're in the middle of a recession.

[Danny 0]

To be honest, I can't see where I've been all that derogatory... Unless you take a couple of the metaphors literally... I stand by my reckoning that someone who thinks the best team in Scotland over the last four years are no better than a amateur team, does not have major football insight and those that think we should be putting out the quality we see on Sky from Premiership on our budget are delusional.

 

I don't expect the level of the Premiership, where did I suggest that?

And I don't think it's too unfair to call many of our performances amateur. When you see professionals paid thousands give the ball away time and time again, or fail to control the ball in a basic manner, is it really harsh to suggest that's amateurish? It's not quite the same as saying I actually expect the Dog and Nag's Inn select to give Rangers a game, it's a, how you put it...metaphor.

 

Plenty of people in the thread agree we've had some bad games and the football hasn't been the best but few have been as derogatory to the team as you have. Your criticism of the team is way harsh in my opinion and I think what I've said is a good point. When the best around is not good enough, then what is?

 

You're being a little bit too meticulous here; we seem to be mostly in unison in this thread that the football Rangers produce is terrible, and watching them isn't the pleasure it should be. Indeed, quite a few have mentioned missing a game here and there, something I've been forced to do only once this year. But I see their point. Does that make us all your best friend who turned out to be gay?

 

My polemic style is not for throwing mud, I use it to try and get people to see what they're saying from a different point of view. If you look at you're pay cheque and think it's shit, it might put a better perspective on it when someone reminds you, you are the best paid in the country and you're in the middle of a recession.

 

So are Hamilton, yet there was the best in the country being completely outplayed by them. And it's not the first time this season a diddy team has made us look ordinary.

 

As you put it, if the best in the country is not good enough, what is?

[calscot 0]

I don't expect the level of the Premiership, where did I suggest that?

 

I never said you suggested it, I referring talking about those that think that - it's up to you what you infer from it about yourself.

 

And I don't think it's too unfair to call many of our performances amateur. When you see professionals paid thousands give the ball away time and time again, or fail to control the ball in a basic manner, is it really harsh to suggest that's amateurish? It's not quite the same as saying I actually expect the Dog and Nag's Inn select to give Rangers a game, it's a, how you put it...metaphor.

 

It wouldn't sound unfair if the team were in the relegation zone, but it becomes meaningless when they are the champions of a country, winning a load of major trophies and two points form the top of the SPL to a more expensive, bigger squad. When they are beating the best professional teams in the country more often than not and competing at a reasonable level against the best professionals from other countries it's hard to see where the comparison is fair.

 

Which amateurs are you comparing them to as the only amateur team good enough to play in the Scottish league are in the lowest division?

 

You're being a little bit too meticulous here; we seem to be mostly in unison in this thread that the football Rangers produce is terrible, and watching them isn't the pleasure it should be.

 

That point is a bit more subjective, but I'm trying to point out is how pleasurably should it realistically be? My counter is that if you get no pleasure from the best in the country where are your expectations justified? When there's a famine but you're the best fed in the country, is it right to complain about the quality of the food? You think that with our resources we should be playing "better" football but I can't see where your evidence is for that opinion. If Celtic were on the same budget as us, leading us by a fair margin and playing lovely football, you might have more of a point. My point is that when someone or a team is already the best in the country, how can we be sure that it can be done better?

 

Indeed, quite a few have mentioned missing a game here and there, something I've been forced to do only once this year. But I see their point. Does that make us all your best friend who turned out to be gay?

 

There's a difference between not fancying your girlfriend as much on a bad day than the situation while your girlfriend is one of the best looking around she's still not attractive enough to turn you on at all.

 

So are Hamilton, yet there was the best in the country being completely outplayed by them. And it's not the first time this season a diddy team has made us look ordinary.

 

Hamilton are about the 12th-15th best team in the country - when a lower team are on a good day and a top team are on a bad day, they are not going to look so different. It happens in all leagues in the world. If it wan't thus, football would be a boring processional game with a few interesting matches per season. The quality of a team is not measured in a single match, it's measured in the number of points they accumulate in a season. I think the quality difference is showing fairly well. The disparity in riches between us and Man U is greater than between us and Hamilton yet we made struggle. It doesn't make Man U a bad team or terrible to watch.

 

Perhaps you just need more respect for the opposition...

 

As you put it, if the best in the country is not good enough, what is?

 

Success is generally measure in relative terms. If I've got the best computer around, I'm not going to miserable because in five years it will be poor in comparison to newer ones. At the same time if I have very high quality furniture in today's terms, I'm not going to be miserable that it's not as well made as that from a craftman of yesteryear.

 

I enjoy the winning and being better than other teams. The football is better than it was in the early 80's and enjoyable enough considering our finances. I'm a fan of Rangers and somehow that makes me have no great desire to watch the premiership or other country's football - just like I have a long term girlfriend and have no desire to go to a lap dancing club.

 

I know my girlfriend is never going to be as pretty as she was at 20 but I'm not going to berate her for it. I just have to get used to the way she looks now.

[Gazza_8 233]