Wing/Full backs

[der Berliner 3,254]

18 hours ago, DMAA said:

Well that's not my rationale though. I'm just saying there are 4 teams in the league who are harder to score against than us, and two others who are pretty much just as hard. We leak goals in a manner in which we haven't in 3 decades and as you say it's because our defence is horrendous.

 

I agree with this. Two new strong centre backs who are strong in the tackle and good in the air, and midfielders who can tackle and are also better in the air than they are. I don't personally have a problem with Tav and John for now, but in an ideal world I'd prefer full backs with more defensive ability.

 

 

 

That is taking the figures out of context though, isn't it?  We have to play attacking football to break down teams who pack their defences, so obviously we leave spaces in defence. 8 out of 12 teams pack their defences and thus are naturally harder to beat. They usually concede goals when they open up against teams of their footballing level, teams they have to win against. By our standards, the stats have been poor, no doubt. Which is IMHO down to inidiscipline of our fullbacks, a lack of consistency with our defensive partnerships (due to injury and managerial preferences) as well as cover from the midfield and lack of form.  That, and low-key opponents found out how to easily exploit our shortcomings this season without us being able to address this. Something which was hardly a factor in years gone by.

 

That ... and you wonder where we would end up without the 5 goals conceeded to the Scum, which came at a really low time for the club. Given the games before, it was an outstanding result in various ways.

 

[DMAA 3,603]

2 minutes ago, der Berliner said:

That is taking the figures out of context though, isn't it? 

No I don’t see how it is. Nothing has changed regarding Rangers having to attack teams. We just leak goals now and didn’t used to and it’s largely because our players don’t have enough defensive ability. 

[buster. 4,808]

The only number that really matters is the total points at the end of the column.

 

A manager needs to gather as many points as possible in the way he deems best for the players he has to work with or can put together.

 

As far as a league is concerned, it's consistency that is important and the most reliable way of going about that is making a priority of being solid at the back. You can also carry a threat middle to front if you have some quality and cohesion. Best example I can think of is the way Atletico Madrid go about their business under Diego Simeone.

 

------------------

 

With one game left here are the total points compared with those at the end of last season

 

Killie 56 (41) +15

Hearts 49 (46) +3

Rangers 69 (67) +2

Aberdeen 70 (76) -6

Celtic 82 (106) -24

 

Points are the most important number but to win games of football you need to score goals and you'll find that Aberdeen and Celtic have conceded a similar amount of goals as last season but scored a lot less (Celtic are 33 down on last season and although they often score a barrelload against the sheep, they are still going to fall well short)....Aberdeen are 19 goals down/ we are 15 goals up.

[MacK1950 2,231]

Remember guys we have been operating without Ryan Jack for so long he seems to have been forgotten about.To me in the games I've seen him play he was heading towards being my "player of the year".

Also we have the enigma of Rossiter whom ,if he lives up to his reputation could be a pivotal player for us.Add to that Ross McCrorie is the find of the season,therefore IMO we have a solid base to build a team on.

With a couple of even half decent,central defenders we will have a strong squad for next season.

[DMAA 3,603]

On ‎11‎/‎05‎/‎2018 at 14:47, DMAA said:

This doesn't square with the number of goals we've conceded this season. We are 5th in terms of goals conceded this season. And we're only 2 goals better than Killie and 4 than Motherwell. In other words we could easily be 7th.

 

The stats don't lie, our defensive record is appalling and nobody has had difficulty scoring against us this season or last. Bottom of the table Ross County scored against us in every game. As did 3rd bottom Hamilton who scored 6 against us in 3 games. We've conceded 45 two seasons in a row, and we haven't even played our last game of the season. This is our worst goals conceded tally in 32 years.

 

This obviously isn't due to having attack minded full backs, we just don't have enough defensive ability in the squad as a whole and that includes full backs.

 

To update this, we narrowly beat St Johnstone to 7th in the goals conceded table, conceding a whopping 50 goals.

 

This is our worst season for conceding goals since 1985-86 when we conceded 56.

 

The good news? The following season (1986-87) Rangers more than halved their goals conceded and jumped from 5th place to 1st place under the stewardship of a Liverpool legend. Time for history to repeat itself

 

 

Edited May 14, 2018 by DMAA

[buster. 4,808]

4 minutes ago, DMAA said:

To update this, we narrowly beat St Johnstone to 7th in the goals conceded table, conceding a whopping 50 goals.

 

This is our worst season for conceding goals since 1985-86 when we conceded 56.

 

The good news? The following season (1986-87) Rangers more than halved their goals conceded and jumped from 5th place to 1st place under the stewardship of a Liverpool legend. Time for history to repeat itself

 

 

Context being that we were highest goalscorers with 76 (56) and a positive GD of 26 (12).....(last season).

Goals against 50 (44)....or in other words more or less the same prior to yesterdays game.

 

 

[DMAA 3,603]

18 minutes ago, buster. said:

Context being that we were highest goalscorers with 76 (56) and a positive GD of 26 (12).....(last season).

Goals against 50 (44)....or in other words more or less the same prior to yesterdays game.

 

 

Doesn't matter how many we scored because it's the goals we've leaked all season that have cost us countless points through the season, which is why it's being discussed.

 

76 goals scored is not an impressive tally. 2 goals more than Aberdeen scored last season. Bar last season, our worst tally since Paul Le Guen in 2006-07. It is nothing to celebrate.

Edited May 14, 2018 by DMAA

[buster. 4,808]

2 minutes ago, DMAA said:

Doesn't matter how many we scored because it's the goals we've leaked all season that has lost us countless points through the season, which is why it's being discussed.

 

76 goals scored is not an impressive tally. 2 goals more than Aberdeen scored last season. Bar last season, our worst tally since Paul Le Guen in 2006-07. It is nothing to celebrate.

I don't think you can look at why XX amount of goals were conceded without at least taking into consideration the other end of the pitch but thats just my opinion.

 

 

[Ser Barristan Selmy 222]

1 minute ago, buster. said:

I don't think you can look at why XX amount of goals were conceded without at least taking into consideration the other end of the pitch but thats just my opinion.

 

 

Below Aberdeen in the league is all that matters. Hopefully as few of our players remain next season as possible.

[DMAA 3,603]

Just now, buster. said:

I don't think you can look at why XX amount of goals were conceded without at least taking into consideration the other end of the pitch but thats just my opinion.

 

 

I understand that, but the reason I don't accept that is that we've always done it. That's what the stats show. We've always scored at the very least 76, but we've conceded on average around half of what we've conceded this season.

 

To add insult to injury Aberdeen pretty much managed it last season with a fraction of our budget.

 

The bottom line is that we've scored a decent but not great amount but leaked goals like a bottom half side.