match thread (image) [FT] Rangers 2 - 1 Hearts (Cummings, Candeias)

[Herbieb1 0]

I just want Murty gone with his negative attitude to basic tactics and for the record Cummings would wipe the floor with Windass any good Manager can see that of what Murty is not and never will be.

[Rousseau 9,485]

14 hours ago, der Berliner said:

That's a bit bizarre. We've played with one and essentially relied on Morelos to do all the damage, with Murphy and Candeias providing the assists. Windass, despite his goal-spree a few weeks back, has hardly played a decent 10 or shadow striker. That is were Cummings made his mark at Hibs, but perhaps were not that focussed on "tactical positions" and double-6s, DMS, shadow strikers and whatnot, but said 4-4-2 nonetheless.

He did indeed make his mark in a front two; I'm all for it, but I have little confidence in Murty having the tactical nous to implement such a strategy. 

 

Cummings actually played in a 5-3-2 / 3-5-2 at Hibs. They had a structure behind to make it work. 

 

Our experiments with 4-4-2 have been poor. 

 

It works, clearly -- Atletico Madrid play it all the time to great success, but they play a certain way to make it work. We've not got a manager to make it work at the moment. IMO.

 

I'd keep Cummings around, but we'll need to proper manager to utilise him properly.  

[Rousseau 9,485]

9 hours ago, Herbieb1 said:

I just want Murty gone with his negative attitude to basic tactics and for the record Cummings would wipe the floor with Windass any good Manager can see that of what Murty is not and never will be.

Any good manager -- even a crap one, i.e. Murty -- can see that Windass would "wipe the floor with" Cummings.  

[Big Jaws 570]

This last week starting with the poor showing in the semi final coupled to the suspension of Wallace and Miller has been more difficult than it needed to be. Given where we've been in the last 6 years we've had worse weeks as Rangers fans.

 

As far as Celtic, Aberdeen and Hibs are concerned I seriously couldn't care less about them or their results. I'm a Rangers supporter and I only care about Rangers. What was obvious was that Celtic played for a draw yesterday and only turned up for the last 5 mins all so they could get their title decider against us at home. We've not played well consistently this season but that was not a smart move on their part. We don't think we're good enough nor do we expect to beat them in the next game but they should still have wrapped the league up yesterday against Hibs and didn't. That's a mistake because the league isn't over yet.

 

Now lets hope the Rangers turn up today against Hearts and give them a spanking and then carry that on to the next game.

[RANGERRAB 3,296]

Last week was mostly about individual errors which contributed to at least three of their goals.

 

My biggest concern about Murty is he doesn't always seem to take into account how the opposition play. Last week they had four MF players, one wide player & one up front. We were outnumbered in the middle of the park again.

 

Today hertz will likely play one up front & five across the Middle. Our gameplan & tactics must be based on that & ensure we're not chasing shadows in MF. And I'd like to see us go with two up front also.

[Rousseau 9,485]

22 minutes ago, RANGERRAB said:

Last week was mostly about individual errors which contributed to at least three of their goals.

 

My biggest concern about Murty is he doesn't always seem to take into account how the opposition play. Last week they had four MF players, one wide player & one up front. We were outnumbered in the middle of the park again.

 

Today hertz will likely play one up front & five across the Middle. Our gameplan & tactics must be based on that & ensure we're not chasing shadows in MF. And I'd like to see us go with two up front also.

See, I don't think we were outnumbered in midfield. Yes, they had McGregor wide, but he always came inside. We had a narrow 4-3-3, so we weren't outnumbered per se. It was individual mistakes, and our midfield pushing up and not covering those runners in behind -- McGregor gets the chance because we fluff our clearance, but our midfield is nowhere to be seen. So, IMO, we weren't outnumber per se, it was just our execution of it left too much space. It was really poor.

 

We were a bit more passive too, which is strange, because most teams that execute a good press do well against them.  

 

 

[Gaffer 1,665]

17 minutes ago, RANGERRAB said:

Last week was mostly about individual errors which contributed to at least three of their goals.

 

My biggest concern about Murty is he doesn't always seem to take into account how the opposition play. Last week they had four MF players, one wide player & one up front. We were outnumbered in the middle of the park again.

 

Today hertz will likely play one up front & five across the Middle. Our gameplan & tactics must be based on that & ensure we're not chasing shadows in MF. And I'd like to see us go with two up front also.

I agree with you that we are suffering from some terrible individual errors.  

 

However, I don't think the stronger team should ever base its tactics on the opposition.  It's definitely something that should be considered, but it's not the most important consideration.  The players at our disposal, the pitch conditions and size, and the result we need are all the key considerations.  Our players are not yet good enough to chop and change each week to accommodate the opposition.  Actually, very few are.  We need a game plan and tactics that use our players to the best of their effectiveness.  I have said this for months now, we use a great system, but don't have the players for it.

 

I like 4-2-3-1 but for it to work you need a very creative number 10.  We don't have that.  The nearest we came to it was Pena (Yeah, seriously) but we need to get a proper 10 in there or change the system.  When people say they want two up front, as far as I can see that's what we have.  Neither Windass or Cummings have the attributes to play as that playmaker so they end up playing as a second striker.  This is what's wrong with the way we play.  We've not got the worst of both worlds.  We don't partner up the strikers, and we don't have a playmaker.  We've got something in between.

 

What I'm saying is the obvious and will be addressed by the relevant football staff.  I imagine that Allen has a target list of appropriate players already and I expect we've been talking to the relevant clubs and agents.  That'll fix our attacking threat.  However, we need a central defence.  The system requires pace in at least one of the centrebacks and we don't have that.  If we fix that, our defence will start to look more solid immediately.

 

Allen must get these positions sorted in the summer, or we have no choice but to change the system.  Having been given an opportunity to manage the most successful club in the world, understandably Murty has chosen to go with his preferred setup.  I feel sorry for him because had he been given another transfer window to sort these positions , I think he would have done much better.  I suspect another manager will come in though and do well, and I doubt Murty will get the recognition he deserves for that.  It's fine margins in this game, and with these small improvements we can challenge.

[compo 6,214]

Go 4 3 12 and get it over by half time so I can watch the racing channel. 

[buster. 4,808]

Just for the record, Hearts have a poor Away record this season.

They have only won 4 out of 17 games and 3 of those were before the clocks went back in October 2017.

 

Their wins came at Kilmarnock (under Lee McCulloch), twice at Hamilton and once up at Ross County.

 

Our Home record in the League has also been poor, with only one more win (8) than defeats (7), only two draws (one of those was a 0-0 draw against Hearts back in August).

 

Both sides tend to get better results elsewhere, ie. us away from home and Hearts, at home.

 

 

Hearts don't really have anything tangible to play for except for perhaps a win bonus whilst we are contesting second place.

However, I think it's actually more about how much this group of players want a win for themselves and if they have the mentality to take the situation on. I don't really think Murty will have much to do with it, I think he's now 'window dressing'.

[ian1964 10,444]

No leaked team line up days in advance this week!