Rangers v Motherwell- April's Full day

[Gribz 743]

Was the first have a case of a different approach that the players arent use to yet? It is refreshing if PC wants to play an attacking way but he will need to get use to playing opposition who raise their games 20% against Rangers and be more physical.

 

Obviously we had fitness issues in defence prior.

[jhunter 0]

??? I agree about being slow out of the blocks today, but it wasn't disorganised at all in the second half. In fact, they had to be very organised to play with only two defenders. PC went for it in the second half because he knew we needed to win the game. He has to get credit for that. And although Foderingham had some great saves, we could easily have scored a few at the other end. So, there's no way you can selectively pick out their chances and suggest we deserved a hiding. It was an exciting game of football, and although we didn't get the result we were looking for, I really enjoyed it - as did most people I spoke to afterwards.

 

It is a game of many different opinions, but I'm surprised at your characterisation if it.

 

that doesn't surprise me

 

ive been reading summations of games all season that don't chime with the reality that this is a stinking group of players who have very little heart

 

BTW motherwell are toilet

[SteveC 150]

that doesn't surprise me

 

ive been reading summations of games all season that don't chime with the reality that this is a stinking group of players who have very little heart

 

BTW motherwell are toilet

 

This isn't how the manager sees them - unless his post match comments were deliberately untruthful.

 

And of course Motherwell are toilet, everyone we play is - it is the SPFL after all. Just so happens that we are, too. And, unlike historically, we are not one of the two clearly ahead of the rest at the moment having just come up from the bottom divisions.

Edited April 2, 2017 by SteveC

[der Berliner 3,330]

In case someone missed it ...

 

Pedro Forced Into Surprise Subs

 

Saturday, 01 April 2017, 18:41 by Alice Hedworth

 

PEDRO Caixinha admits he was forced into making his trio of surprising half-time substitutions due to injury and illness.

 

The Gers boss replaced three quarters of his defence at the break with the unlikely threesome of Andy Halliday, Michael O’Halloran and eventual goalscorer Joe Garner.

 

The Portuguese said Lee Wallace and Clint Hill were both injured while Lee Hodson was sick and it meant Rangers played the second-half with a makeshift defence of Rob Kiernan, Jon Toral and Halliday, much to everyone’s obvious surprise inside Ibrox.

 

“Lee Wallace came back from the national team injured and he put in a great effort because he is the leader and because he is the captain and he wanted to be on the pitch. He did fantastically until he couldn’t carry on any more.

 

“Then Lee Hodson arrived sick this morning so he did what he could and Clint also felt something on the hamstring so we were forced to make three substitutions.

 

...

 

More here: https://rangers.co.uk/news/headlines/pedro-forced-surprise-subs/

[Rousseau 9,606]

The changes were forced, but I don't think changing like-for-like (Hill for Senderos, or Senderos on for a Full-back) would've seen a better result; it would've been inferior players playing out of position, with the same problems as the first-half. It was better to go gung-ho, with another striker in there and giving Toral more space to play. It could've cost us, but it almost payed off too.

[ian1964 10,486]

The changes were forced, but I don't think changing like-for-like (Hill for Senderos, or Senderos on for a Full-back) would've seen a better result; it would've been inferior players playing out of position, with the same problems as the first-half. It was better to go gung-ho, with another striker in there and giving Toral more space to play. It could've cost us, but it almost payed off too.

 

Agreed!, I was stunned when they came out at half time!, I was thinking is PC lost the plot already?

[limeburner 0]

that doesn't surprise me

 

ive been reading summations of games all season that don't chime with the reality that this is a stinking group of players who have very little heart

 

BTW motherwell are toilet

 

Our new manager will live or die based on his recruitment policy.mw had a 1-11 success rate.He can surely improve on that.

If he cant ,well,you know what will happen.Big changes are needed.

[aweebluesoandso 290]

I'm sure it is more effective against Rangers - normally you would be committing a ton of fouls but obviously you can get away with a lot more against us.

 

Without a shadow of doubt, teams are given far more latitude than Rangers, if the two footed lunge on Toral had been the other way round, there is no question Toral would have walked. That and many incidences where Motherwell deserved yellows and don't mention the time wasting.

[Tannochsidebear 2,322]

Well that was different, surreal, enthralling, embarrassing, entertaining, pathetic, gripping over 90 minutes yesterday!

 

The first half was, as many have said, about as bad as I have seen a Rangers side in many a year. No fight, no passion, nobody able to hold onto the ball, no sign of the high pressing we were told PC would get his team to play, and that I am told we did very well in the last game, and not one effort on target in 45 minutes at home to a side struggling in 11th.

 

As the half time whistle blew and the booing rained down on PC, he turned to the subs and told them to warm up on the pitch instead of coming inside. So I knew sub(s) were coming and was pleased about that but nobody saw what was about to transpire when the three subs were stripped to come on. So I see Halliday, MOH & Garner ready to come on and I expect to see like for like replacements with three of the midfielders/forwards coming off. There was absolutely no sign of any injuries to any of the back 4. So to then realise that 3 of the back 4 were hooked, was astounding. Now I heard his post-match bull that they were all ill/injured but i'm not buying that at all. If both your full backs are goosed, and then your CH tells you his hammy is a bit tight, you dont hook him off without playing your sub defender, Senderos. Why have him on the bench at all if he doesnt get on with 3 defenders having to come off? I assume Senderos will be in to see him today to ask for his contract to be ripped up, as he clearly isnt going to get another minute of football if he doesnt get on in those circumstances.

 

Halliday goes to left back, not his natural position (what is?) but he has played there before so fair enough. To move Toral to CH when he is your main playmaker supposedly taking the ball from the defence and creating forward play is just plain stupid. It didnt work at all and should have cost us a few goals were it not for poor finishing, poor final balls and some great saves by Wes, who thankfully had his best game in a Rangers shirt by a country mile. We then move Miller to Toral's position in centre mid where he just constantly got caught on the ball or gave the ball away. He puts on MOH and after the game says he wants him to play wing-back. MOH clearly hadnt a clue where his position was supposed to be and he ended up neither helping the defence nor helping the attack. He is not that great to start with but to ask him to do this was just nonsense.

 

If Hodson was ill, and Wallace is injured pre-match, you either dont play both of them, or you have enough cover on the bench. His choice of bench, and then his choice of changes, was ridiculous, naive and borderline insane. We were only 1-0 down at half time and while we hadnt played well a few choice words and some tactical tweaks would have been enough, he panicked with the booing at half-time and went full mental. We did play a lot better in the second half due to Motherwell not being able to get away with the physical aggression and pressuring of us they employed int he first half, together with the Garner/Waghorn twin strike force giving them more to worry about and they sat much deeper as a result. We also managed to get the ball to McKay a lot more which worked. I dont think any of our improvement was down to the use of subs, which clearly made us wide open at the back. I couldnt believe they took Moult off (injured perhaps) as he was the tormentor and with Hill off he had free reign to score if he got the service, which thankfully he didnt.

 

The game probably should have ended 5-5 or something similar with the quality chances missed by both sides (Hyndman should have had a hat-trick and had his worst game to date).

 

It was certainly entertaining, and hopefully this sort of lunacy with the panic subs is a one-off and was Pedro trying to show off a bit. You can imagine if we had won 3-1 he would have said he meant the subs tactically and not the excuse he gave after a really poor draw.

 

2 wins out of our last 8 league games (under 3 different managers) has turned a healthy lead in 2nd into no chance of second. Not PC's fault that of course, but is the reality for the club. We just had to get 4 wins in a row between Hamilton, Motherwell Killie, and Dolly to have any chance of second, so now that is gone. Can anyone actually believe that with 8 games to go we have no chance of finishing second?

 

Roll on the Killie game to see what madness PC comes up with for this one. Will we even bother starting with a back 4 this time round? Will we play anybody in their right position? Tune in and find out in the next gripping episode! At least i'm looking forward to it just out of curiosity to see what PC delivers, whereas for the last 12 months I have been turning up out of routine without really being enthused about it.

Edited April 2, 2017 by Tannochsidebear

[der Berliner 3,330]

BTW, Parland made a very important remark on Saturday, saying that playing for Rangers, you had 11 captains on the park. He meant leaders and people who take responsibility.

 

For these last two or three years, i.e. those who really count on our way back, we have a serious lack of leadership on the park - no matter what the order from the sidelines are. These chaps are full time pros and most of them have years of experience under their belt. They should in case of question know exactly what needs to be done, no matter if you are a right winger playing full back or the like. Hill talks a lot, Miller does too. But people have to take responsibility as well, and show that they can rise to the occasion. These next few months and this summer will show us whether we will be able to get such guys or whether those we have can rise to the next level.