Plan A, With Clout

[Rousseau 9,488]

It was the same old, same old from Rangers; 'Plan A', with a similar lineup. And Hibernian most certainly approached the game with their usual two banks of four, looking to break. But the added pressure and stakes that comes with a top-of-the-table clash brought an added intensity and edge from the men in blue, adding bite to the dominant possession. A thunderous Ibrox saw the return of the fight and desire lacking in recent games.

 

 

Rangers line-up in their trusted 4-3-3, with Oduwa and Shiels dropping out for Law and Miller. Miller was deployed up top, with Waghorn taking up the wide-right position; McKay in his usual wide-left position. Law slotted into a three-man midfield alongside Halliday and Holt. A back four of Tavernier, Kiernan, Wilson and Wallace played in front of Foderingham in goal. There was no real difference to the set-up, except that Waghorn and Miller were maybe playing in the opposite position than normal, but they have license to swap during the game; and perhaps the inclusion of Law gives added energy and a goal-threat from deep.

 

Likewise, Hibernian line-up in their usual 4-4-2, with a diamond in midfield, that compressed into two banks of four when defending. The team consisted of: Oxley, Gray, McGregor, Hanlon, Stevenson, McGeouch, Fyvie, McGinn, Henderson; and Cummings was paired up front with Keatings, instead of Malonga. Hibs generally like to sit with those two banks of four, leaving Cummings and Keatings up top, and look to break with pace and overload the central areas.

 

Rangers settled into their normal routine: both full-backs pushed up high, central midfielders roaming around the central areas and Halliday acting as pivot, wide-players staying wide; all to provide good passing options and allow the team to dominate possession. Rangers looked to recycle the ball, before working it out wide.

 

The left side was most targeted area, with Holt, McKay and Wallace always linking-up well in triangles. Space was tight, and little came of the attacks down this flank. Wallace was quite high when recieving the ball, and could never get the run on the defenders. The right flank was different, as Tavernier did not push up as high, covering the drifting Keatings, and therefore was able to receive the ball in space and take on his defenders. Waghorn, Law and Tavernier were not as comfortable on the ball, but were able to provide a more direct threat and subsequently created a few half-chances.

 

To combat this, Hibs retreated into two banks of four, and doubled up on the flanks to crowd out McKay. They were content to allow Rangers possession. When they won the ball back, their forwards were a good outlet and three of the midfield four generally broke at pace through the central corridor to support as quickly as possible.

 

Halliday, Wilson and Kiernan dealt with the counter relatively well, but struggled to win back the ball and had to settle for committing fouls early on. The only real outlet for Hibs in the early game were set-pieces: one was beautifully delivered onto the head of Cummings, but his guided effort flashed wide of the post. Wilson struggled in open-play when he was exposed, but was solid enough when covered.

 

The opening goal came from a Hibs counter. Gray, bombing on down the right into space, received the ball from the central area before delivering a ball into the box. The first ball was cleared but only to Henderson, who turned his man and unleashed a tame effort that deflected into the path of Cummings. Kiernan was far too deep, playing Cummings onside, when the attack could have been stopped dead. Cummings calmly chipped it over the onrushing 'keeper.

 

From the restart, Hibs seemed to expect an onslaught as Keatings dropped deeper to cover Tavernier, who was allowed to collect the ball easily. It changed the game: Halliday, Wilson and Kiernan from then on only had Cummings to watch out for. The deeper Tavernier was attracted to the first Hibs player to break, and this brought the equiliser. Hibs were sensed blood, only for Tavernier to intercept the ball, and slide through Waghorn, who cut the ball inside for Holt to slot passed the helpless Oxley. 1-1.

 

The narrowness of the Hibs team was tailor-made for a quick switch of play, which is exactly what Rangers did. McKay was aggressive on the left, and always hugged the touchline. When Hibs were dragged right, and a long switch of play gave McKay the ball in acres of space. During the second-half in particular, Kiernan played a few pin-point diagonals straight to McKay's feet. When opponents are sitting deep, one needs to change the angle of attack as quickly as possible. Unfortunately, Gray was a stubborn opponent and McKay struggled to beat him one-on-one, and was forced to recycle the ball.

 

McKay was always lively, always looking for a pass but with little on offer. However, on one occasion, Holt managed to find some space for McKay to thread a precise ball into Holt. He turned and a deflected shot bounced into the net. When Gray was forced to go off, McKay started to get some success in one-on-one situations, 'nutmegging' McGregor before setting up Miller, who skied the ball over the bar; the ball just bobbled before reaching him.

 

It was wing-play again that brought the third goal. Waghorn knocked a ball inside to Holt, but his mistimed dummy saw the ball deflect into the path of the newly introduced Shiels. Shiels dragged the ball wide, before 'dinking' a ball into Clark, who guided a volley into the bottom corner. Clark -- who came on for Miller -- added a spark to the attack, always playing on the shoulder; he had several good chances later on that should have been taken. Miller had been popping up everywhere except where one would want him to be: in the box. Nevertheless, a better ball on occasion would have seen Miller score a couple of goals through his troublesome movement.

 

Halliday was sent off with 20 minutes to go, which changed the game slightly. He reacted badly to a dangerously late stomp by Fyvie, squaring up to the Hibs man, before throwing his shoulder. Fyvie didn't help the situation by clutching his face, when the movement was nowhere near his face. The Referee was conned. Halliday saw red. The Referee had been contributing to a hostile atmosphere by blowing the whistle for every fifty-fifty. Several late challenges by Hibs players were simply let go without so much as a card.

 

Ball came on to strengthen up the midfield, but the same old defensive frailties reared their head. A mix-up in defense from a lofted ball in gifted Hibs a second. Foderingham started to come to collect the ball, only to stop and retreat. Kiernan and Wilson did the same. Malongo still managed to make a mess of the header, but it crossed the line anyway.

 

A nervy ending to the match was curtailed by a powerful run by Waghorn from wide; standing up his defender, before cutting inside with a step-over -- almost sending Fyvie into the barriers -- and slotting the ball under the squirming 'keeper. McKay had seen subbed for Ball, so Waghorn took up the touchline-hugging role, stretching the Hibs back line.

 

There was nothing new from Rangers. It was the same possession-based game; full-backs pushed up high; the main outlet of attack wing-play with triangles and intricate passing. Although Wilson, and especially Kiernan, did well as the game went on, cutting out attacks before they begun, the defensive frailties remain. The difference was the thunderous atmosphere in which the game was played. The stakes of the game seemed to instill a bite and edge to the players: every tackle was aggressively challenged; every pass was just a little quicker; and the roar of the crowd propelled them forward. In short, it was Plan A with clout.

[trublusince1982 243]

it wasn't the same.

 

He changed a couple of things to help sort some of our previous weaknesses.

 

he moved Waghorn out of the central position where he has failed to hold up the ball and replaced him with holt taking the place of miller who would drop out pulling the defender with him creating space. Eliminating the need for the centre forward to come short and hold the ball till the midfield moved. We have failed to hold the ball upfront for weeks he finally did something about it. Instead of playing through the middle he used the wingers to hold up play while the centre shifted(miller and holt) then had the ball played from wide into the space created by miller pulling out. Basically using runs to drag the centre backs out instead of the ball as previously done.

 

He also had both right and left wingers staying out wide and running at the defence instead of coming inside and passing across the middle in hope of dragging out the hibs defence.

 

We also utilised the third and you could also say fourth runner (law) which we had not done in recent weeks. Previously our midfield(central) sat behind the ball or inline with play while the full backs mainly Wallace did the over lapping runs with both wingers pulling inside. The main tactic before was to have our ball players come inside then find the runs from the full backs to get in behind the defence. Yesterday instead we did the opposite the center mids created the runs while the full backs and wingers stretched the defence

 

 

sorry bit long winded and repetitive but not sure how else to explain it fully!

[ranger_syntax 3,795]

What does it mean for someone, or a team, to recycle the ball?

[compo 6,217]

As an old timer the main thing was a well earned victory,mon the gers .

[craig 5,199]

What does it mean for someone, or a team, to recycle the ball?

 

As someone who has coached youths for a number of years I have always taken it to mean passing the ball and changing the focal point of attack.

[trublusince1982 243]

yeah moving the ball down one avenue then back out to go down another until you find a weakness.

[Tannochsidebear 2,320]

For me the biggest difference was that our opponent believed they could win and were a match for us. They didnt defend as deeply or as vigorously as our other opponents, and as they pushed forward we managed to score two of our four goals on a break, something we could never do against Dumbarton next week as they wont be upfield to allow us to break on them.

 

The other was we actually tried, successfully, to win the ball back in the opponents half of the field instead of in recent weeks we have not been closing down in numbers upfield.

 

We did play with a bit more zip and a lot more desire, and a lot of that came from Law who had a smashing game for the hour he played. I'm delighted Warburton chose Law instead of Zelalem who cannot play at that pace or intensity, and I hope Law can now reproduce this type of performance more often as this was the player we signed, not the one who played alongside Ian Black last season and contributed nothing.

 

The clock is ticking down to the window opening, and I am sure I am not alone in wanting to see a lot of movement in our squad to allow us to push on now we have a lead again.

 

Our next few games give us the chance to build some momentum again - Dumbarton (A), Cowdenbeath (H - cup), Livvy (H), Morton (A), Falkirk (H) and Raith (A) between 2nd Jan - 2nd Feb. All must be won and hopefully with a bit of swagger and style, with new faces adding to the quality and creativity and failures (also including face dont fits) like Miller, Wilson, Clark, Temps, Bell, moving on.

 

I know this wont happen, especially with the first 2, but I said when I seen the line-up yesterday that we were playing with 2 players that were worth 2 goals to Hibs, Miller up front would miss at least 1 great opportunity (he missed 2) and Wilson would give up at least one great chance (he was absolutely honking and his distribution was even worse than normal - out of his first 4 passes, 3 started Hibs attacks), so Warburton has to be hard on these guys and stop playing them if he wants to send the fans home happy. I understand there are not a lot of options, but he can not have that excuse on 1 Feb so the hard work starts now.

[MacK1950 2,249]

Only agree re Wilson the biggest howler was when he received the ball with no one near took an eternity to decide what to do and managed to give away a throw in.If it wasn't so serious at the time I could have laughed,a mistake always waiting to happen.

[aweebluesoandso 290]

I think Monday's game was plan A-positive rather than A-negative.

[Frankie 8,182]

Thanks for the analysis mate.

 

I'll try to publish it tomorrow as the usual TBB stuff starts to die down.

 

FWIW, the most important difference for me was that our central defenders sat a bit deeper - as did Wallace. Further our atackers shut down any Hibs attempts to play from the back - leaving them no option but to play the ball long time after time.

Edited December 30, 2015 by Frankie