stirlingbear 0 Posted October 22, 2016 Share Posted October 22, 2016 Gilks will start imo. time will tell. 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Norris Cole 0 Posted October 22, 2016 Share Posted October 22, 2016 Whether it's Foderingham or Gilks between the sticks is totally irrelevant IMO. Two competent goalkeepers. That's not where the game will be won or lost. 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Norris Cole 0 Posted October 22, 2016 Share Posted October 22, 2016 Head says: Foderingham Tavernier Senderos Wilson Wallace Rossiter Halliday Holt Windass Miller Garner Heart says: Weir Weir Weir Weir Weir Weir Weir Weir Weir Weir Weir 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gribz 743 Posted October 22, 2016 Share Posted October 22, 2016 Head says: Heart says: Weir Weir Weir Weir Weir Weir Weir Weir Weir Weir Weir Surely Warburton on the left 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ian1964 10,416 Posted October 22, 2016 Share Posted October 22, 2016 Mark Warburton: There IS a gap between Celtic and Rangers - but it's a only financial one 06:00, 22 Oct 2016 By Euan McLean THE Light Blues boss intends to show that his side are a match for Celtic on the pitch when they met at Hampden in the Betfred Cup. MARK WARBURTON bristled indignantly at talk of a massive gulf in the wake of his Rangers side’s 5-1 thrashing by Celtic. But five weeks on he insists there is a gap between these great rivals – in terms of their budget. It’s not just Celtic that sounds a bit rich with that statement, though. After all, just 11 months ago Warburton was berating “disrespectful” Hibs manager Alan Stubbs for speaking out about the wage gap, claiming Rangers were operating with a budget four times the size of his. Now, almost a year on from his outburst – warning Stubbs to stop ‘picking numbers out of the sky’ and just talk about his own team – Warburton’s assessment of Celtic sounds eerily familiar. As much as he maintains that 5-1 was not a fair reflection of how his team competed in that first Old Firm game of the season, he makes it clear why Celtic should be considered ahead of a club still completing the rebuilding process post-liquidation. But to Warburton the gap in wages should not represent an insurmountable gulf in class – and he intends to prove that tomorrow when he takes his team to Hampden with redemption, not to mention a place in the Betfred Cup Final, in his sights. Warburton said: “In terms of budget, I would imagine the gap is two or three times. “They are playing in the Champions League, gaining valuable European experience and they have a very good squad packed with international players. “They have added some very good attacking individuals in Scott Sinclair and Moussa Dembele and they are proven young talents. I said in the first press conference that Brendan, having worked with him, would bring a level of organisation and belief, which I am sure he has done. “It is the fine margins in football. Whether it is belief, unity, an aspect of play, whatever it may be, sometimes it falls into place. That is how the game works. “They are a good team but I have total and utter belief in my own squad of players and that’s all I can affect. “Our squad is getting better and better. Our players have gelled, we’ve got a number back from injury and on the day it’s down to how we play. We were pleased with the performance in Inverness last Friday and you can see we are improving. “It was a tough place to go but we were brave, we moved the ball. My only criticism is that we didn’t score enough goals. “But the performances are consistently getting higher.” The convincing nature of Celtic’s win the last time round would suggest those performances will need to be considerably higher if they are to knock the Hoops out at Hampden for a second successive semi-final. But as satisfying as that penalty-shoot out win to send Celtic spinning out the Scottish Cup last April may have been, it counted for little when Gers went on to lose the final to Hibs. This time Warburton will be hoping another Old Firm win will set them up for silverware. But, never one to get carried away, Warburton adds a cautionary reminder that short-term success matters less than the long-term foundations he is laying for the club’s future. He said: “We had a great day in the last semi-final, it was a big moment for the club after the way it has been. “We beat Celtic in a good game, nailbiting, a great showpiece for Scottish football, but we lost the final. “In history it doesn’t say, ‘Lost the final but had a great semi-final’. We lost the final. “Any game you go into, you want to win. If you lose that winning desire then don’t be in football. Our job on Sunday is to focus on the semi-final, try to get the right result and once that is done the cup goes out the window and we focus everything on the next game, which is St Johnstone. “The fact of the matter is that we are building and after where the club has been in the last four, five years, we have to build strong foundations. “You have to make sure that everything is in place. Get the staffing right, the infrastructure right, the work with the Academy. “The ethos of the club, is it clear? Is it well defined? Is it filtering down? When you start doing that you are in a good place. “If you come in here and ignore the Academy, that would never work. Short-term fixes won’t work for Rangers after where they have been. “I hope you see the foundations being laid down, the staffing structure, the communication through the club, the type of player we are bringing in. “There is a lot of focus on experienced guys like Kenny Miller, Lee Wallace, Clint Hill, Niko Kranjcar but don’t forget these young guys coming in like Jordan Rossiter, Joe Dodoo, Josh Windass and Matt Crooks. “Over the last 15 months we have brought in a lot of players between 19 and 24. Wes Foderingham, James Tavernier, Rob Kiernan, Martyn Waghorn, all these guys. “If we can get a core squad you improve the balance sheet of the club, we will be in a good place.” http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/mark-warburton-gap-between-celtic-9098626 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
pete 2,499 Posted October 22, 2016 Share Posted October 22, 2016 You make your own luck as they say, but the same as any other game we play that mob - the referee will have a huge say in how things pan out.The obsessives will moan whatever the result simply because that's what they do. I just hope we have no cause to complain. Last match I thought up to a point in the match we were unlucky, but with our usual defensive faults on display. The fact they ended up with a convincing scoreline doesn't scare me in the slightest. It's happened before and was turned around next fixture. I'd re-arrange the defence and set Tavernier loose on them. Yes that would be my surprise. Hodson at RB and Tav in a more advanced position. Hodson is a better defender than Tav and Tav is better and stronger going forward than Windass. I think Hodson would snuff out Sinclair better than Tav as well. 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
der Berliner 3,249 Posted October 22, 2016 Share Posted October 22, 2016 Heart says: Weir Weir Weir Weir Weir Weir Weir Weir Weir Weir Weir Well, it looks solid enough, but I think the goalie is better with his legs than his feet, which might be a problem with cross balls into the area. Can't remember seeing him doing that many bicycle saves. And honestly speaking, this Weir lad in midfield - i.e. the left central midfielder - is way too defensive for my liking ... 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
der Berliner 3,249 Posted October 22, 2016 Share Posted October 22, 2016 Yes that would be my surprise. Hodson at RB and Tav in a more advanced position. Hodson is a better defender than Tav and Tav is better and stronger going forward than Windass. I think Hodson would snuff out Sinclair better than Tav as well. The point is whether we should stick to the 4-3-3 or simply revert to a 4-5-1 or the like. Not that we play a strict 4-3-3 anyway. Likewise, I wonder whether Tav would be needed in the right midfield when we could play Holt and O'Halloran up there, or indeed Waghorn. That said, Holt could move more centrally, which would make his runs into the area more effective. Windass ... yes, he had some sparks in the last game, but will he be ready to step into the cauldron straight away after the latest injury? We probably need a solid support for Halliday in central midfield. Of course, the best way to do that is keep them occupied in their own half ... 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ian1964 10,416 Posted October 22, 2016 Share Posted October 22, 2016 Mark Warburton reveals second Rangers training-ground row has fired his players up for Old Firm clash THE Gers boss insists his players are determined to make amends for their 5-1 humiliation at the hands of Celtic last month. MARK WARBURTON last night insisted his rowing Rangers stars will take the fight to Celtic after another training-ground argument this week. The Gers boss revealed the determination to make amends for their 5-1 humiliation in the last Old Firm clash is driving the squad on to demand higher standards than ever. That desire to get the very best from themselves and those around them led to another heated debate at training in midweek. This time there was no fallout and acrimony like the notorious Parkhead post-mortem that saw Joey Barton banned after he went to war with Andy Halliday then mouthed off at his boss. But the combative refusal to accept anything less than 100 per cent from each other has thrilled Warburton as he admitted his team will need to get in Celtic’s faces in the Betfred Cup semi-final. He said: “We had a heated debate on Wednesday on the training pitch because that’s how you keep demanding high standards. The easy thing to do is to just sit there and say that’s fine. “You won’t win anything by just accepting average. What we have to do is keep getting better and better. “There will be good days and bad but if we can improve the consistency of our performance we’ll be ok. “What we do in training is the key. There is a unity and there has to be. That was one of our strengths last year. What we had to do after the last Old Firm game was work harder. We had to improve the consistency of our performance and I think that’s what we’ve done.” Midfielder Niko Kranjcar will miss the semi-final after suffering a serious knee injury in training. He damaged ligaments in a freak accident and medics are waiting for the swelling to go down before they’re able to fully assess the problem. But Kranjcar could be out for six months or more if the issue turns out to be a ruptured cruciate ligament. http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/mark-warburton-reveals-second-rangers-9099941 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
the gunslinger 3,366 Posted October 22, 2016 Share Posted October 22, 2016 Well, it looks solid enough, but I think the goalie is better with his legs than his feet, which might be a problem with cross balls into the area. Can't remember seeing him doing that many bicycle saves. And honestly speaking, this Weir lad in midfield - i.e. the left central midfielder - is way too defensive for my liking ... He will head them clear. Knew a keeper who used to do that. 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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