A jag in the bum. Rangers v Partick Thistle Preview

[pete 2,499]

After the visit to Pittodrie last week we are fuming. Frustrated! A total feeling of “ We were robbed”

The decision of referee John Beaton to award a free kick for a perfectly good Tavernier tackle in the last minute of the game brought a feeling of disbelief. It would seem the referee was the only person on the planet who saw the tackle as a foul. When James Maddison stepped up and curled a world class free kick into the top corner of the net that disbelief turned to rage. Our manager who is normally the corner-stone of respect walked up to the referee and with his face grimaced in anger, spoke to him in a way that normally would have been alien to him. What he said I have no idea but it certainly was bad enough for the referee to enter it into the match report .

 

Roll on a few days and the club are hit with another double whammy. On the same day that Mark Warburton is hit with a one match ban, the SFA dropped all charges against Hibs for their supporters rioting and attacking Rangers players in the Scottish cup final . A decision that has again thrown up more rage and frustration inside the Rangers family.

The fact that Rod Petrie could call up the SPFL lawer to fight the charges of the rules his committee have to implement looks like a massive conflict of interest to everyone except the SFA.

The Rangers manager is accepting his ban but unfortunately integrity only seems to be a one way street

 

 

 

So what can we do with all this anger? Any Psychotherapist will tell you that you have to try and channel it into a positive Karma. Given our opponents are Partick Thistle on Saturday you could say, use it as a jag in the bum to fight against the jags. Turn that anger into an injection of adrenalin to kick off our season for real and start punishing our opponents. Mark Warburton has to take a photo of his anger grimaced face and hang it on the wall in the rangers dressing room. He should be saying I don't want to see my face like this on the park, I want to see 11 players with that look on their face from the start of the game to the end. I want to see 11 players bursting a gut to get that ball in the Partick Thisle net.

 

We are taking a lot of comfort from having a large chunk of possession but the fact is possession does not win you games. You only have to look at Leicester City to realise that, as they won the English league last season with very few games where they dominated possession. The ball resting in your opponents onion bag is what wins you games.

 

One of our main problems has been that when Kenny Miller dropped deep to receive a pass then it left nobody in a central advanced position. Enter Joe Garner and everyone hoped that we once again had an out and out striker. Looking at the passing patterns of the Aberdeen game it was most disappointing to see that the most passes to Joe Garner were almost as deep as Andy Halliday received his passes. That would be okay if he was pulling defenders with him so as Holt or Windass could get in behind but teams have taken up the tactic of letting Rangers have possession in that area.

 

Remembering back to what brought us so much success when Mark Warburton walked into Ibrox was that will to get the ball back high up the pitch. Hunting in packs. to get the ball back as quickly as possible. I hate to say it but having watched Celtic v Man city and also Liverpools 5-1 against Hull, the most scoring chances comes from winning the ball from the opponents within their own 30 meters. I have even heard many top clubs train on having a 5 second turnover.

That is where we need to channel our anger and get that hunger back to win the ball back as quickly as possible in the opponents danger areas. That is what I have been missing amongst the ticky tacky football. We need that hunger to bust a gut that really wins games. Don't get sad get mad.

 

Will Mark Warburton make any changes for Saturday? I doubt it to be honest

 

Foderingham will keep his place in goal although I still have doubts about his starting position at the free kick but to be honest he will probably never come up against such a beautifully placed free-kick ever again.

 

Tav was probably at fault for the first goal but then again Wilson looked if he was running backwards against Hays.

 

I would like to see the team as:

Foderingham

 

Tavernier Wilson Hill Wallace

 

Windass Halliday Holt

 

Forrester Waghorn McKay.

Edited September 30, 2016 by pete

[geoger64 0]

Agreed, front line need to be sharper and whole team need to work harder from the off.

 

We should be looking to win games in first half. Think we had a mindset last season that we could wear teams down and win late on. Not going to happen this season.

 

Really hope Windass is available.

[BEARGER 1,829]

Prediction thread started.

[Frankie 8,199]

I don't think Windass will make the starting XI unfortunately. Hopefully he can feature from the bench.

 

I'd like to see a similar team to last week but with MOH starting on the right as, with a wider pitch, we need to stretch the game and provide space for Waghorn and Holt to make the most of.

 

[Waltersgotstyle 297]

An early goal and we could do what we did to Queen of the South.

 

What ever we do - we cannot concede first again - as teams are then happy to sit in and hit us on the counter.

[Uilleam 5,533]

Score early, score often; you know it makes sense.

[stirlingbear 0]

I don't think Windass will make the starting XI unfortunately. Hopefully he can feature from the bench.

 

I'd like to see a similar team to last week but with MOH starting on the right as, with a wider pitch, we need to stretch the game and provide space for Waghorn and Holt to make the most of.

 

 

Is Garner injured?

[calscot 0]

I think we will roll over quite a few of the smaller clubs as although they will try the same tactics, the quality they have will struggle to hold back the tide; however, the top half of the table might have enough quality to use the highly defensive tactics to thwart us much more than we can afford.

 

It's a bit like our UEFA cup run where we had just enough quality to get away with it quite often against the more middling clubs, especially in the UEFA/Europa Cup.

 

I think if Warburton had been able to spend like pre-McCoist days (and post Wallace), then the difference in quality would allow his tactics would work like in the second tier.

 

But unfortunately that suggests his tactics only work when there is a marked difference in budget. He obviously needs to build on the possession play, and introduce version 2 that can systematically defeat the likes of Aberdeen and Hearts most of the time, but with "only" 2 or 3 times the budget, as even when we up our spending in the future, we will then be coming up against financial peers in Europe (as well as still having to beat Celtic).

 

For our system to be any good it must be able to beat teams of *similar* quality more often than not, and obviously *usually* beat teams of lesser quality.

[ian1964 10,486]

I can't see the team change much from the sheep game!,if at all?

[Frankie 8,199]

Is Garner injured?

 

Not that I'm aware of. I'd just rather play Waghorn up top ahead of Garner personally.