Rangers 2 - 1 Motherwell

[cooponthewing 1,139]

March 20th 2005 was the friendly cup final. It was the CIS Insurance Cup final v Motherwell at Hampden Park. I remember it quite clearly as I had managed to get a brief for my sister at the last minute and we were both behind the goal. It was a great cup final with some magnificent talent on show such as Novo, Prso, Kyrgiakos, Alex Rae and Fernando Ricksen to name but a few? Rangers would go onto win the match 5-1, it was also played in memory of the late great Davie Cooper, who was a servant to both clubs during his wonderful life and career.

 

Things have changed and we have been through challenging times over the last few years and we meet Motherwell for the second time this season with our club in a good place and looking to build on our present position at the top of the SPFL where we sit with six points. The clubs have faced each other a total of 265 times with Rangers winning 184 of them (4 at neutral venues) Motherwell 38 and 43 draws. The most recent of these fixtures was the very first competitive meeting of the season at Fir Park where, after a shaky 15 minute spell at the start of the match, Rangers were to run out comfortable 2-0 winners in the end thanks to strikes from Tavernier 48' and Waghorn 90+1'.

 

There is no doubt the steelmen will come to Ibrox looking for revenge after their defeat at our hands in the Betfred cup, and after suffering the humiliation of a 5-0 thrashing at the hands of last year’s losing Scottish cup semi-finalists, in the Betfred cup a few weeks ago, Mark McGhee will no doubt make sure his outfit are 100% focused on their match with Rangers. The former Celtic star will relish the chance to inflict damage on our title aspirations. What they can expect is a full Ibrox, 50,000 Rangers fans looking for another three points on or quest for number 55. I'm hoping by the time Saturday comes we may have signed another striker, Joe Garner from PNE and are still hopeful of another CH possible Joleon Lescot or Phillipe Senderos? There is no doubt the centre of defence is of paramount importance for us to strengthen. Rob Kiernan, Danny Wilson and the recently signed Clint Hill will all give 100%, however it is felt by many that for both Kiernan and Wilson, the step up, is a step too far. We require a solid foundation and one which we will hope we could find with one of the two possible acquisitions mentioned above.

 

None of the above potential signings would play any part in proceedings this Saturday and I expect we will start with a slightly different line up than last Saturday. We will of course look to build on what was a wonderful confidence building 2-1 win last week up at Dens Park in Dundee, with goals from Harry Forrester 14' and Kenny Miller 39' eventually being enough to come away with all three points. We are fantastic going forward, and as we were told by some Brentford fans, Mark Warburton's attacking style is indeed a joy to watch. We play wonderful football the likes of which many of us thought we would never see again, free flowing, open football, attacking down the flanks looking to open up the opposition at any given opportunity. However we do leave ourselves terribly exposed at the back with our team formation resembling that of a 2-5-3 much of the time. I'm not complaining, it’s a wonderful place to be again, discussing football and where we improve, rather than off the field activities. Our club is once again breathing, we have a board at the helm with the interests of the club and its fans at heart.

 

Jordan Rossiter has stood out way in front of everyone else, his vision, appetite and mental awareness of what's around him are way beyond his teenage years. I expect he will once again start in midfield alongside Joey Barton, Barrie Mckay, Niko Kranjcar and Harry Forrester.

I feel it’s time that we see how the midfield runs itself with Andy Halliday on the bench. Nothing against Andy Halliday, I just feel we are more productive with the midfield I have mentioned. I feel we could let Rossiter sit in between the back four and the midfield four of Kranjcar, Barton, Mckay and Forrester. This allows the fullbacks to bomb forward and rather than leaving the two centre half's exposed we would have Rossiter sitting as a spare man. This also allows a slightly more liberal role for Barton, although there is certainly an argument that both Barton and Rossiter can play the holding role and could even alternate.

 

Potential line up…

 

Forderingham

Tavernier Kiernan Wilson Wallace

Rossiter

Mckay Barton Kranjcar Forrester

Miller

 

It looks like a 4-1-4-1 formation which quickly changes to a 4-3-3 or a 3-5-2, depending on how we move the ball around. To me it look like a very solid and fluid formation. One which can provide us with a solid platform to start Saturdays match. I feel for Clint Hill, but it seems Mark Warburton is set on playing both Kiernan and Wilson until we can bring in something which he feels is more suitable.

 

My prediction for this Saturday is comfortable 3-1 victory with Barrie Mckay getting off the score sheet first. I feel we have the quality to outplay the visiting side and will be too strong going forward. Onwards to 55…..

Edited August 18, 2016 by Rousseau

[pete 2,499]

Thanks mate. Good read and nice and early. I should learn a lesson.

[Tannochsidebear 2,322]

Nice one COOW, however did you really put "magnificent talent" and Rae and Ricksen in the same sentence? Of course the intention might have been to give the reader a wee chuckle at the start of the piece, and it definitely worked for me! Cheers!

[Tannochsidebear 2,322]

Just had a look at the line-up for the 2005 LC final to see who you could have picked for that sentence, and what struck me was boy, how on earth that team won the title that year remains one of the greatest achievements in management in our history. And by somone who got it so horribly wrong the following season and was rightly sacked at the end of it for coming third in a two horse race. The team that day of Wattereus, Ross, Kyrgiakos, Malcolm, Ball, Ricksen, Ferguson, Buffel, Vignal, Prso, Novo is not going to go down as a hall of fame team. Ferguson was not the same player second time around although he still had his moments, Prso was a whole hearted player but not prolific enough, wee Novo was a good impact player to bring on but rarely did the business as a starter, and Buffel had lots of talent but was inconsistent. The rest were pretty average at best and honking at worst.

 

This was the direct result of Murray's Advocaat gamble failure and we were in a period of "downsizing". Look at the difference between this team and the team that won the 2003 LC final and see the difference in just two years. Klos, Ricksen, Amoruso, Moore, Bonnissel, Canniggia, Ferguson, Arteta, Lovenkrands, Do Boer, Mols. Ok, the full backs are still rotten, but the rest of that team was top class and a joy to watch as we scored over 100 goals for the season with 3 or 4 players all getting over 20 goals and winning the treble against a very good tim team.

 

Will we ever see a similar quality side again in Rangers colours?

[cooponthewing 1,139]

Pmsl...Yeh I had actually written the peice and was proof reading it before submission when I noticed how it would read lol, I have now stuck a question mark in the relevant place. I had a wee look at some highlights of that day too last night. We certainly achieved great things with limited resources under AM while downsizing at the time.

Edited August 18, 2016 by cooponthewing

[26th of foot 5,865]

I seem to remember Maurice Ross scoring our first with a long range lob that day?

[Frankie 8,187]

He did indeed.

 

[video=youtube;5mSW5lc-tYI]

[BEARGER 1,829]

See game prediction thread.

[ian1964 10,462]

Mark McGhee: Celtic are out of Motherwell's league.. Rangers aren't

 

 

MARK McGHEE insists Motherwell have a better chance of beating Rangers than Celtic.

 

The Steelmen lost 5-0 at Parkhead last week, before the Hoops fired another five past Hapoel Be'er Sheva in last night's Champions League play-off.

 

McGhee has watched Celtic splash out £4.5million on Scott Sinclair this summer.

 

And while he recognises Rangers are able to attract players that he couldn't he reckons his side are closer to the Ibrox outfit's standard.

 

The Well boss said: "They have not quite got to the stage of signing the sort of players Celtic are signing for millions and millions.

 

"Their ability to sign players is different from ours, regardless of the noises that come out of there about their circumstances.

 

"So it's always going to be difficult for the rest of us to compete with that.

 

"So therefore we feel as if we should still be in touch with them, in a way that maybe we've no right to think we are with Celtic.

 

"We played them here and it was a clash of styles in a sense but it was a fairly even game and we felt a little unlucky to lose the way we did.

 

"So we know we can go there and give them a game."

 

McGhee watched Lanarkshire rivals Hamilton earn a point at Ibrox on the first day of the Premiership season.

 

And he's confident his side can get a result in Govan this weekend, providing they improve their energy levels from their 2-1 defeat to St Johnstone.

 

He said: "Hamilton played really well that day and second half last week Dundee played well, so I think there are opportunities.

 

"So we can go there believing if we play really well then we can get something, as Accies did.

 

"We do all the sports science and the GPS and our stats were down by about 1.5km on Saturday

 

"I demonstrated to the lads how significant that was by giving them 10 200-metre runs at training on Tuesday, to show that was missing from our game, and how can you expect to win if that's missing from your game?

 

"We've got to get up to that level to give us a chance of getting anything from Ibrox."

 

http://www.thescottishsun.co.uk/scotsol/homepage/sport/spl/motherwell/7225952/Mark-McGhee-Celtic-are-out-of-Motherwells-league-Rangers-arent.html

[Frankie 8,187]

A good sign: