Time to right a few wrongs - Rangers v Celtic

[pete 2,499]

This is absolutely bang on.

 

Also I cant believe I am going to say this but after the start to the season agree with Sutton that we are miles behind them. They were better on the ball, better are pressing, created far more chances and also seemed to simply want it more than we did. Whilst I would never want another 5-1 defeat from that lot I would rather lose 5-1 playing good football than lose 1-0 barely getting a sniff. granted in the first game we didn't play well and lost 5-1 but you know what I mean.

 

After last season I said that the players Warburton brought in were excellent... this year though is the total opposite. I mean ok Hodson played well when I have seen him Gilks too but there hasn't been one player brought in that took us up a level. Windass shows promise to be that player but yesterday he looked like a dear caught in the headlights too much.

 

The squad is quite big now but would be interested to know what you guys thought about Jan signings? Say we had the cash to make one big signing what position would you go for? For me it has to be a centre forward. Simply not enough goals and the defence seems to be getting better.

 

I actually had a big positive about the game yesterday. Dutch television showed it and I didn't have to listen to a biased commentator. Although I must admit he said the Wallace tackle should have been a penalty which I disagree with. I think we can all agree their disallowed goal shouldn't have been disallowed as it was Hill himself doing the pushing.

 

Even the Dutch commentator could not believe McKay got Yellow and Dembele didn't. He in fact done a Sutton on it and went on about it for a good 10 minutes. All in all I don't think Thomson was biased against us I think he is just a crap referee. Even the Dutch commentator commented that he made a lot of mistakes in the game.

 

The other thing he kept commenting on was the distance between the rangers defence and forwards. Because our defence is so slow they are sitting far too deep. If there was a bit of fog yesterday miller would have been invisible to them. As we have learned in our vacation to the lower leagues defending is easier when you park the bus in or around your own 16mtr box so all those 7's and 8's for Kiernan and Hill only really apply to defending their build up play was non-existent. If we have a game like that then O'Halloran may be a better option as striker and throw balls into the space behind the defenders. You know Gordon is not going to play a sweepers role so there is a lot of space there.

 

I was one who petitioned for Tav to be used in a more advanced role but I will put my hand in the air and say I got it wrong or at least it didn't work out the way I thought it would. The biggest reason for that was we were sitting too deep and his forward play was virtually non-existent as well.

 

To answer the January sales question I still say a good speedy CH is a must. If we are going to be camped in our own half then you can put Messi in as striker he will still not get a sniff of goal. We need to have confidence in pushing up that we can still defend. If we can box our opponents in their own half we will create far more chances

I agree though that a goal-scorer would also be nice and all I have seen Garner do until now is wrestle with players, he doesn't even get near to looking dangerous.

That 1.8 mill looks a little flattered to say the least his old club must be pissing themselves. Still it is still early days for him I suppose.

Edited October 24, 2016 by pete

[der Berliner 3,271]

A lot of truth in that pete.

 

Coming to think of it, we most likely struggle somewhat to being under the cosh be "better" teams. Last season we were on a high and the Yahoos did not know what hit them. This season, we have not hit any heights so far, have been plagued by injuries and rotating squads, and simply can't adapt to being on the defenisve for long spells and pass our way out of it ... or keeping the ball up the park. A chap who took hold of our creative midfield was badly missing, so we did not keep the ball up the par for long spells and made it easy for them to come at us in wave after wave.

 

Noting it above, I don't think anyone is whipping McKay, but simply call a spade a spade (as Craig once put it). He wears the 10 and so far this season hasn't grown into that role. And I would assume that he will be the first to admit that he hasn't been up to his own standards just yet. Which - again - is not just down to him, but those around him too. I would assume that Forrester and O'Halloran feel a little hard done by right now. But that's the name of the game.

 

As much as we expect everyone to perform to the best of their abilities, you want those at the top of their game on the park. If others take their place, you would, ultimately, look to the manager. no matter who it is.

[calscot 0]

Talking of slow to defend, there was a couple of times where we had a wee bit of pressure in their half, lost the ball and they were off on the break - their guys were sprinting up the pitch at speed and ours looked like they were running on sand or something they ended up dozens of yards behind and you could visibly see the gap opening very quickly.

 

I don't know whether their players are just much faster, much fitter and less tired, or just put more effort in, but whatever it is, it's very worrying.

[BeardyGuts 6]

To answer the January sales question I still say a good speedy CH is a must. If we are going to be camped in our own half then you can put Messi in as striker he will still not get a sniff of goal. We need to have confidence in pushing up that we can still defend. If we can box our opponents in their own half we will create far more chances

I agree though that a goal-scorer would also be nice and all I have seen Garner do until now is wrestle with players, he doesn't even get near to looking dangerous.

That 1.8 mill looks a little flattered to say the least his old club must be pissing themselves. Still it is still early days for him I suppose.

 

 

There has been games where we have dominated the ball and not sat deep but still cant score I think that's why I favour a striker. But the problem with buying strikers I guess is that they don't come with a guaranteed number of goals. My firm second choice is a speedy centre half.

 

When we look at the squad assuming all fit we really do have 2 for most positions. Even at goalie which is something I never understand... why waste wage money on a decent second string goalie... but that's another topic.

If we all were to pick our best team right now how many new signings would be in it? Gilks probably... apart from that I think I still pick the same 11 as last years best.

[ian1964 10,430]

The bottom line is we are miles behind them financially!,we need serious investments made for us to compete with them, I don't know where this investment will come from tbh!,and don't know if the board have any plans to invest but until we can get some cash coming in it is going to be a long hard wait to get to being the top team in Scotland.

[pete 2,499]

Talking of slow to defend, there was a couple of times where we had a wee bit of pressure in their half, lost the ball and they were off on the break - their guys were sprinting up the pitch at speed and ours looked like they were running on sand or something they ended up dozens of yards behind and you could visibly see the gap opening very quickly.

 

I don't know whether their players are just much faster, much fitter and less tired, or just put more effort in, but whatever it is, it's very worrying.

 

We even made Scott Brown look like Nijinsky

[the gunslinger 3,366]

Talking of slow to defend, there was a couple of times where we had a wee bit of pressure in their half, lost the ball and they were off on the break - their guys were sprinting up the pitch at speed and ours looked like they were running on sand or something they ended up dozens of yards behind and you could visibly see the gap opening very quickly.

 

I don't know whether their players are just much faster, much fitter and less tired, or just put more effort in, but whatever it is, it's very worrying.

This is something we can rectify with no money.

 

It has to be said they haven't had any injuries so will be at max fitness..

 

 

We need to get there and soon.

 

I'm sure we will.

[jhunter 0]

Have just logged on and not read any posts yet but would like to give my ratings:-

Gilks 9/10 would have been ten but for poor work with feet

Hodson 8/10 solid display

Kiernan9/10 what a difference with a proper right back at his side

Hill 8/10 solid display

Wallace 5/10 responsibility starting to show

Holt 6/10 good first hour then faded

Halliday 8/10 quietly efficient

Tavernier7/10 fish out of water but some good tackles

Windass 4/10 struggled to get into game

Miller 9/10 gave everything till subbed

McKay3/10 lazy totally off form needs a kick up backside

Subs Waghorn/Garner/Dodoo all 4/10 none were a game changer

 

your ratings are absolutely stinking

 

with the exception of gilks i don't think there was another pass mark

 

we were lucky it wasn't another hiding

 

it took us an hour to put a shot on target FFS.

[der Berliner 3,271]

Talking of slow to defend, there was a couple of times where we had a wee bit of pressure in their half, lost the ball and they were off on the break - their guys were sprinting up the pitch at speed and ours looked like they were running on sand or something they ended up dozens of yards behind and you could visibly see the gap opening very quickly.

 

I don't know whether their players are just much faster, much fitter and less tired, or just put more effort in, but whatever it is, it's very worrying.

 

 

... as I said above, we were not exactly able to cope with being under the cosh, chasing balls and players all day long. I reckon the managers of other teams feel much the same when we play them. Last season, their players (mostly part-timers) fell away in the latter stages, which opened them up for us. This season it happens less often and we have to work harder. And we only faced this ball-chasing scenario twice this season ... with different personnel at that. We need to learn from it and find ways to tackle the problem.

 

IMHO, Hodson was handling their threat well and it is a shame that we do not use him more often.

[calscot 0]

I think last season was a bit of a one off, with them under a lot of pressure, none on us while having a lot of confidence from a relatively easy season, and they had a manager who wasn't up to it.

 

Whatever you think of Rogers, he's at least competent against us and they are the kind of level above us as we used to be over the likes of Heart and Aberdeen. On a good day for us and a bad day for them, we can narrowly beat them or at least get a draw; but with it the other way around, we'll get a result like the 5-1 defeat.

 

I think we can maybe cope with one season of being second best to them, but the worrying thing is that our level might actually be that of Hearts and Aberdeen and it's going to be difficult to get that second place.

 

The problem is that Warburton's record against SPL clubs is well below pass marks so far, and he also didn't pass against the top two last season of Hibs and Falkirk. If we're going to get above Aberdeen and Hearts, he has got to improve dramatically. Otherwise, even if we qualify for Europe, we'll also be unlikely to do any better than Scotland's usual representatives in the Europa Cup of the last few years.

 

We must have between 3 and 10 times the wage bill for the rest of the SP, while being more than a third of Celtic's, so we should be getting far better results than we are.

 

Maybe as some say, it just needs time, but the signs are pretty bad when you consider our three marquee signings were Barton, Kranjcar and Garner... I'm not talking about sackings, instead I think Warburton has to acknowledge the problems and change something - as the saying goes: "The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, but expecting different results."

Edited October 24, 2016 by calscot