Now and the future

[bluedan 93]

Ok i understand this post may annoy a few people on here and it's not that easy for me to write some of these things but it's been going through my head all day so here goes...

 

In light of C***** fantastic result last night, i'm more than a little worried about now and the future.

I never watched the game but saw some highlights and yes, they had luck and yes, Barca weren't firing all pistons but C***** won the game. They beat perhaps the best team any of us will ever see.

 

So i started thinking, comparing us and them in the CL. Now the away record is a given. We have a far superior record but what about the home record??

 

Now this is the part where a few people get pissed off with me, i think C***** just have a much better go at teams on their home ground than we do at Ibrox. When was the last time anyone can remember us having a famous win in the CL at Ibrox??

 

I haven't looked through past results but lets go from my shoddy memory, i can remember us beating Porto (but maybe the poorest Porto in a while), We DREW with Barca at home, We Smashed PSV, Drew with Bayern and i guess the Parma match could be included. We also drew with Inter to qualify for the last 16.

 

Now thinking back to their games at Pork heid and they have beaten Man U, Barca, Benfica, Villareal, Juve, Drawn with Bayern and beat Lyon.

 

Now, look at who we've lost to at home. Smashed by Panathaniokos (3-1), Sevilla (4-1), Unirea (4-1), Lyon (3-0). We LOST to Man U 1-0 twice and were beaten by an average Stuttgart team.

 

They rarely lose at home. They certainly don't get humped 4-1 off a Romanian bunch of nobodies and 3-1 from a Greek side.

 

So it's clear that C***** are far stronger than us at home in Euro games. So why is that?? Well personally i think it comes down to the management. I can't really remember us having a real go at teams apart from the Advocate days when teams were scared to come to Ibrox. Recent times though we've been shaky and if we didn't lose, we'd draw or stumble over the line? Walter, Eck and Ally's cautious approach has clearly back fired and C***** at least having a bit of balls has paid of heaps for them. Keep in mind i'm talking about HOME games here.

 

So what's the answer?? Well i now feel even less sure about Coisty and Co being in charge. I'm not saying for a second i'm a fan of Neil Lemmon but at least he set's his teams us to have a fucking go at home in europe.

 

I'm just not feeling at all confident that when we do get back onto the grand stage, we will have a go like we all want us to.

 

Food for thought i think...

[Juancornetto 1]

Bring back Paul Le Guen.

[johnnyk 158]

Barcelona are the best team of a generation but I've seen much better teams in the past and I'm only in my early 40s. Taking nothing away from their 'great' result, as it was, but it wasn't Barca's full team was it, the team that is meant to be the best around just now. I never seen the game but it's not like they've won a cup tie to go through to the next round, they've won one game. They are now in a decent position to qualify for the last 16 but even then I doubt they will go any further unless they get really lucky again playing their fantastic defensive football

 

I am not even thinking about European football for the next few years seeing as we are not there. These results happen as we've proved away from home in the past against great teams, just as they have at home, it's harder to do it away I'd say and can't answer why we are not the same at home.

 

When we done well in the past it's been nothing like the hysteria that is happening today in the press and will for some time to come i'm sure. It's like they have actually won the CL or something not just had a lucky result like they got. I see other teams congratulating them on their win, did this ever happen when we got great results in the CL before, I can't remember that happening!

[der Berliner 3,363]

Personally, I think it is down to football. And football includes quite a serious amount of variables. What people IMHo always tend to forget is that we simply cannot debate this solely thinking of Rangers as something isolated, something that can be judged only with itself. Same again with the above article. We speak of different Rangers teams, different Rangers selections on the day, different opposition, different preparation possibilities and injury lists. Some "clever" chap will jump in and cry of excuses, but that is simply not true. You cannot isolate a team from the game that is football and try to talk it "up" or "down" on someresults spread over years.

E.g., certain people like to point at the Malmö disaster and McCoist failing tactic of 5 at the back that day. Utterly ignoring - IMHO - the fact that a) we were about three weeks into pre-season, while Malmö had nine full matchday plus pre-season under their belt - and experience and practise does a lot to win you games. Whereas we had what, 7 new players, a totally new defence and whatnot ... plus one player who essentially wrecked both ties by foolishly giving away the goal at Ibrox and getting himself send-off in the second game's first half. Add to that woeful finishing by Naismith and Jelavic and you have the recipe for loosing a CL qualifier to an supposedly average team. Not to mention that Malmö probably never scored similar stunning goals during that season again. This is something that is part of football, always has been, always will be ... and hardly anything you can do about it. Usually though, it evens itself out over the years and people trying to point out our problems by solely picking on bad results and performances kindly ignore dozens of game inbetween which have been better - and they were, no matter what people think of them on here.

Our Manchester 2008 campaign was at times woeful to watch, but in the end nearly successful. Would we have deserved to win the title? Yes, if you go by results, guile, application and all. No if you go by tactics, team selections and kind of football being played. But you can only play with the "material" you have and how you use this against the opponent on the day. The Scum essentially tried to shut out Barca at home and away playing not much different to us back then. Heroic effort et al, successful yesterday, but hardly inspiring football on their part. They probably deserved their win as much as Greece deserved being crowned European Champions some years ago. That is football. A game not solely played by one team.

[Max Rebo's Big Blue Nose 0]

Mmmmm... .... So Celtic win in Europe and it's suddenly time to shine a light on our European record. If I wasn't in a good mood I would think there is a slight whiff of timmery about this thread....

 

I'll give you the benefit of the doubt....Why stop at Europe? Our whole approach has been honking for years tbh. The belt and braces football we have to endure has been torture sometimes. To think Walter set up with McCulloch and Dailly in midfield whilst Buffel was sitting in the stand and Sionko was heading through the exit door still annoys me.

[Tannochsidebear 2,322]

Your on the wrong forum for a post like this.

 

And the fact that it is total and utter nonsense.

 

Barca, the best team ever?? Not even Spanish Champions or CL winners/finalists, so not even close there.

 

They didnt have a go at the barca bottlers last night, they parked the bus totally and completely and looked to hit on the counter. Some shocking defending gifted them their goals which were both completely against the run of play, aded to the fact that barca played the whole game slower than a lee mcculloch run. it was dire to watch as a spectacle and would get football stopped.

 

You talk about our management being the problem for our poor home CL record, and worry about McCoist being in charge, despite the fact he has not managed us in the CL groups. Total nonsense.

 

You talk about Lennon setting his team up to have a go yet they hardly crossed the halfway line last night, nor in the game against Benfica at the Glitterdome. Total nonsense again.

 

I am concerned with this rush to praise the scum for their very lucky win against a desperately poor side on the night who couldnt get through a wall of players bunched up against their own 18 yard box for 90% of the game. It was a defence v attack training session which if replicated throughout the CL would soon see broadcasters pulling out of their lucrative tv deals. Nobody wants to watch the type of football the scum are playing in the CL, and it is even more galling to real football fans that it has been successful for them.

 

There was not quite the rush to praise only 5 years ago as we did a very similar thing to the scum, and ended up in a European final. You win nothing but 3 points for last night, and you assess success or failure at the end of the competition, not halfway through.

[Frankie 8,200]

Every team has their fair share of good/lucky wins.

 

Celtic got one last night so c'est la vie.

 

The biggest problem we have isn't matching such rare wins but getting back to such a stage and being able to compete with Celtic financially.

[GovanAllan 0]

Take a moment fellow Bears and breath, just because they had one good night we don't need to start getting all worried about Rangers.

 

We will be back in our own good time.

 

And remember if you have to interact with Timmy today, the simple "the sun shines on a dogs arse once in a while" with a rye smile, will do far more to upset them than starting a slagging match.

 

Anyway knowing that shower all they will want to talk about is us.

Edited November 8, 2012 by GovanAllan

[der Berliner 3,363]

Will the Killie fans wear a shirt next time the Scum happens by, saying "Barcelona beaters beaters!"

[Max Rebo's Big Blue Nose 0]

Am I the only one that finds Barca's (and Spain for that matter) current brand of football slightly boring to watch? As much as i admire their tipy tapy style I do find it a bit tedious. How many crosses or shots did they have last night? Sometimes it's passing for passings sakes for me. Give me a team like AC Milan (circa late 80's-early 90's) anyday. Power, skill and pace all rolled into one