Monday morning regrets and a touch of reality

[DMAA 3,603]

2 minutes ago, der Berliner said:

Goss was subbed for Cummings after 74 mins

Oops, got me  

 

Goss should have been subbed much earlier and Cumming should have been on much earlier.

[pete 2,499]

It should have been a double substitution with Cummings and Holt both coming on. I would have taken Goss and Murphy off and stuck Windass out wide. Windass was  poor but he holds a better scoring danger than Murphy.  

[ian1964 10,457]

GREAT ADVERT

Rangers fans might not have liked losing to Celtic but this Old Firm clash was BRILLIANT for Scottish football says Jim Duffy

Scottish football's moneymakers are set to open talks over a new TV deal for our game and they should be taking a DVD of Sunday's match into the meetings.

 

SCOTTISH football’s moneymakers are set to start talks about a new domestic TV deal.

Here’s my advice. Take a DVD of Sunday’s Old Firm game, put it in front of TV company execs and say: ‘Fancy some of that?’

I know Rangers supporters won’t see it this way. But the Ibrox game was a BRILLIANT advert for Scottish football. In terms of product, it was as good as it gets.

It didn’t let up from the first minute to the last — quite literally. At the start you’d Josh Windass punishing slack Celtic defending to put his side in front.

At the end you’d stand-in Celtic keeper Scott Bain making a great save to deny the home side an equaliser, then Alfredo Morelos blew his chance from the rebound.

You can choose your own adjective for what went on between times — breathtaking, exhilarating, fantastic.

But whatever one you pick, the game had the ‘Wow Factor’.

In terms of promoting the product we have, it was as good as it gets — there were sensational goals and atrocious defending, action, saves, chances, a debutant goalkeeper, a key player stretchered off, a red card.

The atmosphere was electric.

Put it this way. If you were sitting on your sofa the game that came on after Rangers v Celtic was Arsenal v Watford.

That’s a Premier League game, a London derby, with multi-million-pound players on show.

The Emirates was only three-quarters full, there wasn’t much atmosphere and there was little tempo to the game.

TV companies can dress it up any way they like. But it wasn’t a patch on the 90 minutes that had gone before it.

Now I know not every game shown live on Scottish TV is like the Old Firm. The next Old Firm game might be a poor spectacle.

But this is the time to strike while the iron’s hot. If that Old Firm game had been an English Premier League match, the pundits would be RAVING about it — and quite rightly so.

That’s why I think discussions about a new TV deal in Scotland should go well.

Because no TV company in their right mind wouldn’t want a bit of that kind of action.

So in their way, both Glasgow teams might have helped the rest of Scottish football!

There will have been plenty of discussion in both ends of Glasgow about the key moments of the game.

But for those of us who didn’t have any vested interest in who won, it was just tremendous entertainment.

Rangers will be understandably devastated, and Celtic elated, after the way the game panned out.

In any game where there are a lot of goals, there’s inevitably going to be poor defending and the sides had a howler apiece.

Josh Windass took his goal really well but it was down to Dedryck Boyata’s basic mistake and for most of the afternoon he looked well off the pace, which was understandable considering he’d been out for five weeks.

However I thought the pivotal moment of the afternoon was Celtic’s equaliser just before the break.

If Rangers had gone in 2-1 up the stadium would’ve been bouncing but as it was, it seemed to knock the stuffing out of them.

It was such a bad goal to lose. For Moussa Dembele to get in between two central defenders and get on the end of a 60-yard ball up the park was just criminal.

My suspicion is that if David Bates had been on the pitch, it might not have happened.

Bates has a lot to learn but he gets about the grass quite well and I think he might have dealt with the long ball better.

The big second-half talking point was Jozo Simunovic’s red card.

I thought Willie Collum handled the game really well and got the decision right.

Simunovic had a glance at Morelos and, although there wasn’t huge contact between his elbow and the Colombian’s face, there doesn’t have to be. For me, it warranted a red.

I think the most telling aspect of it was that the Celtic defender didn’t question the decision.

He looked sheepish going off and so he should have, because he’d made a massive mistake which could have cost his team.

As it turned out, the arrival of Odsonne Edouard and his good finish ensured Celtic opened up a nine-point lead at the top with a game in hand.

That, of course, means the league’s won. For that not to be the case, Celtic would have to lose three games, maybe four, and Rangers would need to win every one of theirs.

That’s not going to happen.

But credit to Graeme Murty. When he took over I couldn’t see them finishing second. I thought Aberdeen or Hibs would.

Now I can see them ending as runners-up and that represents a significant improvement for them.

https://www.thescottishsun.co.uk/sport/football/2347791/rangers-celtic-brilliant-scottish-football-jim-duffy/

[Gaffer 1,665]

39 minutes ago, der Berliner said:

Speaking of which, I was a bit disappointing that Murty levelled bother at his defenders. For it was him who kept Cardoso on the bench for ages and did not hand any of our "2nd string" any game time with friendlies or the like on a more regular basis.

 

What hurt people most was probably their 2nd, but saying that who can tell if any other defender would have done any better, while risking a straight red along the way? The ball bounced well for Dembele and he struck a sweet strike he probably won't repeat this season. How often have we seen such goals decide an OF, and against the run of play?

Likewise their third. We can say this or that against our defence, but the reality is that we have 300k chaps out there against a loanee from Paris St. Germain costing them 2m in loan fees, who showed all the class that is required at PSG to whip one past Foderingham.

 

While one can sure talk about "bad defending", it surely isn't as simple as that. You can't have strikers hitting fine shots and score brilliant goals on the one hand, and simply poor defending on the other. That pendulum also swings both ways.

Im glad he hasn't been playing Cardoso.  We would not have been as likel to build the momentum had he played ahead of Martin and Bates.  Our two most reliable defenders were unable to play this match (well, not for long anyway) so we can't give Murty pelters for that, surely.

[RabiDuck 89]

A few thoughts on this one.  Firstly it's the first time in a while that I've had any level of optimism going into a game with them and that's a sign of progress that we've made.  We're still behind them, can't match their financial clout and there is a gulf in class and quality.  The mangerial situation between the two clubs is evidnece of this.  We have Murty, doing a great job and I'm a fan of his, who has no previous mangaerial experience, and with the exception of a few international caps his main playing experience was with York City (my home team!), by contrast Celtic have a manger with Premier League credentials.  There is a vast difference still between the two clubs, but it's narrowing and the players have the confidence to go for it.  Had it not been for a cruel miss at the end, we'd have taken a draw from this one.

 

It also occurs to me that, although we did put 2 goals past them, it was against their 3rd choice keeper, given the nature of the goals I don't think it would have mattered much who was in goal, but the organisation of the defence under Gordon or De Vries.

 

Overall, it was a big statement of how far we've come, but was a bridge to far just now.  It does suggest, however, that a realistic title challenge next year is the expectation.  That's possibly a year or two ahead of where I thought we might be.  They'll get number 7 this year, but we should be in a strong fight to prevent number 8 or number 9...