Andrew Davies Ross County - Interesting Article

[chilledbear 16]

I have copied this from FF, no idea which newspaper it has come from.

 

 

Andrew Davies reckons Rangers are in danger of becoming one-dimensional.

 

And the Ross County skipper believes that predictability leaves Mark Warburton’s side open to further setbacks.

 

Davies and his County troops did a number on Rangers again at the weekend.

 

The 1-1 draw earned at Ibrox made it three games without defeat to Warburton’s side this term.

 

Evidence from 270 minutes of action suggests County manager Jim McIntyre has Rangers sussed and Davies says the confidence in his gaffer’s findings has seeped into the team.

 

 

 

The Dingwall captain reckons a mixture of taking chances at the back and failing to mix-up attacking play could see Rangers falter against more rivals in the coming weeks.

 

County have preyed on both aspects.

 

Weekend goalscorer Alex Schalk spoke of a slow defence after the game, with Ibrox stoppers Clint Hill and Philippe Senderos having a combined age of 69.

 

And Davies added: “I think you’ve just got to concentrate. It’s that simple.

 

“The second you switch off against players like that, they punish you. I’ve played in England and played against top players and it’s the same down there. The minute you switch off they punish you.

 

“Rangers move the ball so well and their movement is excellent.

 

 

“Stick with your man and stick with the runners and that frustrates them and they can’t score.

 

“Clint Hill and Philippe Senderos are experienced players who’ve had unbelievable careers, but the back four can be got at.

 

“That’s what I said in the last game. They take little chances.

 

“When it comes off, it looks great, but when it doesn’t, it doesn’t look great at all.

 

“If you’re on the front foot and you nick the ball you’ve got a chance.

 

"You’ve got to punish them when that happens.

 

“It’s one of them that their manager thinks if we keep doing it, teams will switch off against us and we’ll open them up.

 

“But our manager drills into us, stick with your men and he said before the game we’d get chances, which breeds confidence in us.”

 

 

While County were able to cause problems for Rangers at the weekend, they were also strong in defence.

 

Davies faced up to Joe Garner but was surprised at the way the Ibrox hitman, who was returning after a shoulder injury, was asked to operate.

 

He said: “If I was a manager, I’d be saying mix it up because they’ve got Garner up top,

 

“I’ve played against him a lot in England and he’s fantastic in the air.

 

“To get the best out of him, putting balls in the box all the time and kicking balls long to him, that’s his game. When you don’t, he struggles.

 

“That his game because he’ll win his fair share of headers.

 

“If they don’t it suits us down to a tee, it suits centre-halves. It must frustrate him.”

 

 

McIntyre’s team were able to build on his planning to get their point but left Ibrox feeling they could have got more.

 

County could have added to the lead handed to them by Schalk and, with the home crowd restless, the Highlanders were annoyed at being pegged back by Lee Wallace’s late equaliser.

 

Davies said: “We’re quite disappointed. In the first half we could’ve been 3-0 up.

 

“But fair play to the boys, you could let that affect you but we were brave on the ball.

 

“The boys were excellent, tracking runners and concentrating. You switch off once and you get punished, so full credit.

 

“Scott Fox made some good saves, but that’s what he’s there for. He’s a fantastic ‘keeper and he’s been top-drawer since I’ve been here.

 

“One came off my chest and he’s made a reactions save. He’s there when you need him.

 

“You feel confident with him behind because he’s capable of pulling off them kind of saves and when you come to a place like this you’ve got to be happy with a point.

 

“Rangers is a fantastic club but they want to win games, they want to score lots of goals and we know if we keep the ball and frustrate them the crowd will turn.

 

“You saw that in the first-half, they turned straight away especially when we scored.

 

“You could just feel them and I think you could feel their players struggling to cope with that.

 

“We’re all human and it’s never nice when people are getting on your back and there’s a lot of them getting on your back, so it’s one of them that you’ve got to punish them when the crowd are turning like that.

 

 

“If we’d taken our chances we could’ve been two or three up. But we can’t just come here and get a point, we’ve got to build on this now.

 

“We’ve got to take points against the teams we should be beating.”

 

Davies was also adamant that, although the result saw Rangers lose second place in the table and their failings exposed again, Warburton and his team will wrestle runners-up spot back by the end of the season.

 

He added: “The manager’s been down in England and done really well. They’ll finish higher this season and they’ll only get better.

 

“In my opinion the atmosphere’s better than Celtic Park.

 

“They can get on their backs, but they can be really supportive as well, as you saw when they scored the goal. We thought: Oh God here we go, the last 15 minutes are going to be tough.

 

“Rangers are a fantastic team with a fantastic manager and they’ll be fine.

 

The way they move the ball around is great and it makes coming away with something even more pleasurable.”

[Scott7 5,255]

Trying to work his ticket in? Fair play to him, I would do the same.

 

His assessment is correct.

[Tannochsidebear 2,322]

Davies is spot on, absolutely 100% spot on. Best player interview i've read in years. No bull, no cliches, just accurate honest assessments of the game, of his team, of the opponent.

 

Would be interesting to see where this article was picked up from, my guess would be an English paper as it cant be from the Rhebel or Scum (they would have cut the Ibrox atmosphere is better than the piggery line) and they havent felt the need to sensationalise what Davies was saying, they just reported it.

[aweebluesoandso 290]

Some of us have been saying this since early last season, we are one-dimensional. Even teams in the Championship were reading our game plan, but we haven't changed a thing to counter their counter, comes to the stage where critique become like hitting your head against a brick wall., it's fecking sore

[der Berliner 3,292]

The point is, that was daylight robbery, at least twice at Ibrox.

 

That aside, these teams know what they have to do, solidly doubling up on our attackers, more often than not because they tend to defend with 7 or 8 players throughout the game. Which a) makes it hart to play good football and b) starts to frustrate the attacking players and their fans. It is quite amazing how quite a few of us rather go ballistic about our players, demanding more and more ... rather them actually slating the opposition for simply digging in and stop us from playing football. Of course, given their lack of quality, they would be idiots if they don't do it, but that does not mean that one shouldn't comment on it. Likewise, hoping for the odd counter attack - which is usually a smashing piece to watch - does not make their footie any better either, or actually means they have "the beating of us". Saturday could easily have ended in a 6-1 mauling, had our attackers not been so wasteful and their goalie in inspired form.

Edited February 6, 2017 by der Berliner

[chilledbear 16]

The point is, that was daylight robbery, at least twice at Ibrox.

 

That aside, these teams know what they have to do, solidly doubling up on our attackers, more often than not because they tend to defend with 7 or 8 players throughout the game. Which a) makes it hart to play good football and b) starts to frustrate the attacking players and their fans. It is quite amazing how quite a few of us rather go ballistic about our players, demanding more and more ... rather them actually slating the opposition for simply digging in and stop us from playing football. Of course, given their lack of quality, they would be idiots if they don't do it, but that does not mean that one shouldn't comment on it. Likewise, hoping for the odd counter attack - which is usually a smashing piece to watch - does not make their footie any better either, or actually means they have "the beating of us". Saturday could easily have ended in a 6-1 mauling, had our attackers not been so wasteful and their goalie in inspired form.

 

Could have been anything 6-1, 6-3, but it could also have been 3-0 at half-time.

[craig 5,199]

The point is, that was daylight robbery, at least twice at Ibrox.

 

That aside, these teams know what they have to do, solidly doubling up on our attackers, more often than not because they tend to defend with 7 or 8 players throughout the game. Which a) makes it hart to play good football and b) starts to frustrate the attacking players and their fans. It is quite amazing how quite a few of us rather go ballistic about our players, demanding more and more ... rather them actually slating the opposition for simply digging in and stop us from playing football. Of course, given their lack of quality, they would be idiots if they don't do it, but that does not mean that one shouldn't comment on it. Likewise, hoping for the odd counter attack - which is usually a smashing piece to watch - does not make their footie any better either, or actually means they have "the beating of us". Saturday could easily have ended in a 6-1 mauling, had our attackers not been so wasteful and their goalie in inspired form.

 

6-1 mauling ? Are you also missing the open goal they missed and the 1-on-1 with Wes ? I argue this point in both directions - when cooponthewing said that RC shouls have been 3-0 up at Half time I pulled him up about it on the grounds that we missed 2 or 3 half chances 1st half.

 

But, likewise, you are also conveniently ignoring the 2 chances that they had - which, if we are being honest, were better chances than any we happened to create the whole game (created the wrong word, we made mistakes - but they were still better chances than we had the whole game other than our goal).

 

Lets at least be balanced - had you said a 6-3 mauling I wouldn't have disagreed

[RANGERRAB 3,307]

Reading Davies comments, I can't help wondering if maybe we need to start playing 2 up front i.e. Garner & Miller possibly.

 

Watching the game on Saturday I'm not convinced Garner is suited to playing on his own up front. As Davies says he's good in the air & on saturday he was winning headers & knocking them on to no one. He needs someone alongside him. He was getting too isolated on saturday for my liking.

 

That would mean changing our 4-3-2-1(4-3-3) formation to either 4-4-2 or,as I'd suggest, 3-5-2 with Wallace & Tavernier playing wide in the 5. Thoughts ?

[craig 5,199]

Reading Davies comments, I can't help wondering if maybe we need to start playing 2 up front i.e. Garner & Miller possibly.

 

Watching the game on Saturday I'm not convinced Garner is suited to playing on his own up front. As Davies says he's good in the air & on saturday he was winning headers & knocking them on to no one. He needs someone alongside him. He was getting too isolated on saturday for my liking.

 

That would mean changing our 4-3-2-1(4-3-3) formation to either 4-4-2 or,as I'd suggest, 3-5-2 with Wallace & Tavernier playing wide in the 5. Thoughts ?

 

3-5-2 with the full backs wide in the 5 would be my preference. Playing 4 at the back and still having those 2 get forward in essence leaves us with 2 at the back - that isn't enough. With 3 at the back you should have cover if needed, this also allows Tav and Wallace to start higher up the pitch which, in turn, tells the 3 at the back that their only role is to win the ball and distribute it.

 

With 5 in the middle you can allow Wallace and Tav to get forward - this would also allow for a deep-lying playmaker (not sure who that would be - Hyndman for now but Rossiter if he ever gets fit) and you then also have two in front of him - or you have 2 central mids with a "10" in front of them (McKay) - it can be every bit as fluid as this supposedly fluid 4-3-3 and, indeed, more fluid given the different permutations. This also allows you 2 up front - Garner to win those high balls and Miller to break in behind off the knock downs. - it also means that you have a front 2, a central "10" behind them, wide players in Tav and Wallace, and some cover for the 3 at the back in Hyndman/Rossiter

 

So, right now, I would say 3-5-2 - the issue with that formation, for US, is that we have virtually no pace at the back so with Wallace and Tav starting further forward any balls in behind them will pose us problems as our 3 at the back struggle to cover.

[forlanssister 3,061]

Davies is spot on, absolutely 100% spot on. Best player interview i've read in years. No bull, no cliches, just accurate honest assessments of the game, of his team, of the opponent.

 

Would be interesting to see where this article was picked up from, my guess would be an English paper as it cant be from the Rhebel or Scum (they would have cut the Ibrox atmosphere is better than the piggery line) and they havent felt the need to sensationalise what Davies was saying, they just reported it.

 

He's also spot on re the crowd.

 

It was the Scottish edition of the Daily Mail (iirc).