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Mohsni in midfield?


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I remember when Mohsni was on trial in the close season, he was getting rave reviews by the fans and played well against Newcastle. I think that suggests he has some playing qualities. It seems to me that his downside that was not on view at the time, is his catastrophic mistakes and his predisposition to losing the plot.

 

His problem does not seem to be his lack of ability.

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Depending on the opposition, it might work if we place him in front of the centre halfs, sweeper-like. Thus he can break up play and "bomb" forward at leisure, while we need not to worry about any defensive lapses. Given the lack of goalscoring prowess from our old-school centre forwards (i.e. Daly and Boyd), we might even throw him up front to cause chaos in the opposition defensive line-up. And we would have someone to aim at should the long-ball game becomes a necessity. His distribution to the front is far superior than his defensive skills and his ungainly style can sure disrupt the opposition build up play too. All, as I said, depending on the opposition and how we can get the best out of him. That people don't want or fancy him is another matter.

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Depending on the opposition, it might work if we place him in front of the centre halfs, sweeper-like. Thus he can break up play and "bomb" forward at leisure, while we need not to worry about any defensive lapses. Given the lack of goalscoring prowess from our old-school centre forwards (i.e. Daly and Boyd), we might even throw him up front to cause chaos in the opposition defensive line-up. And we would have someone to aim at should the long-ball game becomes a necessity. His distribution to the front is far superior than his defensive skills and his ungainly style can sure disrupt the opposition build up play too. All, as I said, depending on the opposition and how we can get the best out of him. That people don't want or fancy him is another matter.

 

God forgive me, and I think I may be losing my mind, but I think I agree with that.

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You are probably correct.

 

However, in the spirit of Scott7's contribution, I am reminded we signed Tam Forsyth as a Scottish League capped central midfielder. I witnessed Jim Denny's debut as a right back in a Scottish Cup final(man of the match), never saw him play there again, Alex Miller was a free scoring inside forward in the reserves,, in excess of 300 games in the first team as left back/left midfield. During Walter's tenure, did we have a right back who was NOT a central defender? Derek Parlane was a right half ............

 

Arthur Numan was a winger. Derek Johnstone was excellent as Centre forward or as Centre-half there are many more examples

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Didn't dB moot this very same question some weks ago? To which I would reiterate; the only advantage of having Moshni in midfield is that when he fucks up he still has the defense behind him to help sort it out.

 

let's bear in mind that he may show some skills (as he did last night) that are noteworthy for a defender, but he hasn' shown anything that suggests he would be comfortable in midfield (other than in some sort of Libero role - yes, there I've done it; compared Franz Beckenbauer to Bilel Mohsni - sue me). The obvious solution is, let's keep him in defense and have him marked by McGregor until the end of the season, then sell him to anyone who'll give us a penny for him.

 

Jings, Moshni is Rangers answer to Franz Beckenbauer. I sense a new thread here - comparing our duds to world greats. How about Jig as the new Bobby Moore?

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Arthur Numan was a winger. Derek Johnstone was excellent as Centre forward or as Centre-half there are many more examples

 

Derek Johnstone started off as a striker in season 1970-71, scoring the winning goal as a sixteen year old in the League Cup final against Celtic and he also forced a replay in the Scottish Cup final that season with an equaliser 3 minutes from time v the tims.

He was then only used mainly as a striker (naturally) in 71-72 until Colin Jackson got injured and went on to show his ability in defence with some outstanding performances in that position culminating in winning a CWC medal in May.

 

1972-73 and 73-74 seasons saw him play mostly as a central defender with only a Scottish Cup winners medal to show for his efforts.

 

1974-75 Johnstone was paired with the other Derek (Parlane) winning a league medal scoring 14 goals.

 

1975-76 Johnstone continued up front claiming 31 goals in a treble winning season.

 

1976-77 playing up front - no winners medals.

 

1977-78 His best season as a Ranger, again as a striker, prolific partnership with Gordon Smith scoring 38 goals and bagging other 3 winners medals in an other clean sweep, also got Scotland's player of the year for that season.

 

1978-79 he became captain replacing legend John Greig who was now manager. Greig thought DJ'S best position was as a centre half and played him there. The Scottish Cup was secured when Johnstone scored twice in a 3-2 victory against Hibs from that position.

 

For the 1979-80 season Greig preferred Johnstone as his main striker, despite scoring 20 goals no medals were added to his cabinet.

 

Season 80-81 Johnstone was reverted back to defence, after some serious setbacks up front he was moved back up to the strikers role the goals dried up for him but he added another Scottish Cup medal to his personal collection, thanks to goals from Cooper, Russell and John MacDonald (2) in a 4-1 defeat of the Arabs.

 

1981-82 Derek continued as a forward scoring 16 goals with only a League Cup winners medal in a 2-1 final victory again against the Arabs, where Cooper and Redford got the goals.

 

1982-83 DJ found it very difficult to get into the starting line-up as a striker...the defensive positions were nailed down by record signing Craig Paterson (£250,000 signing from Hibs) and Northern Ireland internationalist John McClelland.

These were dire times for Rangers fans as this was highly regarded as the worst Rangers side of all time.

 

1983-84 John Greig signed Ally McCoist and Johnstone signed for Chelsea. Big John chucked it soon after.

 

Things have changed a lot since Johnstone juggled from Rangers Striker to Rangers Defender, back to Rangers Striker then on to Chelsea.

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