match thread (image) Celtic v Rangers: Becoming the real deal...

[Walterbear 557]

3 hours ago, buster. said:

The only way we compete with them and beat them is if we get in their faces, play a high press and play very well.

 

Yesterday we played European Away tactics (happy with a 0-0). It allowed them to dictate the play and they are a better team than any we've came up against in the 4 summer qualifiers. We did so, probably because of a lack of the necessary collective energy to be able to employ an effective high press.

 

 

 Several things.....

 

1. They focused and raised the quality of their game (especially retention of possession) from the inconsistent Colin Nish they had previously been playing. This will nearly always happen for OF matches and we have to be ready for it. The less 'noise' we make prior to these games the better.

 

2. Villareal game on the 20th will be a long night unless we can vastly improve on retention of possession.

 

3. Despite all the signings, we are currently light on options.

 

 

All that said, we need to forget about them and concentrate on improving ourselves. We have an excellent management team in place and the base of a good squad. This season will see teething problems and humps in the road but we are going in the right direction. 

Agree with most of that. You beat Celtic by pressing them and it’s been proved by a few home and foreign teams who are not world beaters. Had we done that yesterday we could have been in the end of a thrashing as Thu would have taken its toll and I’m sure damage limitation was on the minds of our tacticians. Given all the circumstances of injury, Europe, the fixture schedule and still lacking a bit of quality which will be remedied over time I am very confident that yesterday is the widest the gap we will see and it will narrow quite quickly. 

 

It was was a blessing that game was at Porkheid because had we lost at Ibrox with the handicaps of the fixture list etc it would have been far more difficult to retrieve the 3 points - which I suspect we can do in December at our place. 

[DMAA 3,603]

A few brief comments on the defeat;

• It was an away game. At this stage in our development a point is the aim there and a win would be a bonus. The home games are the really huge ones because we should be winning them.
• Playing 3 days after playing on the wrong side of Russia (with 9/10 men) was always going to be challenge. History shows us that even the best teams regularly drop points after away games in Europe (road to seville and road to manchester both prime examples). The boys were in no state to press the game for crying out loud they're not robots.
  • Because of this the management had hardly any time to analyse the oppoisition and work on tactics
• Gerrard spent about £6.5m this summer. £6m was on defence. He did what he had to do but that will obviously impact on how we play in big games
• They had a lot of chances but that doesn't change the fact they needed a breakaway to score, and that was with our holding midfielder on the ground at the other end
• We have someone in the ranks already who would have improved us yesterday, Coulibaly. He'll be back and will help significantly with winning the ball back
• They have a well gelled team. 7-8 of their starting lineup have been there for 3+ years. Tavernier is our longest serving player and 1 of only 3 starting player who were here last season. That is obviously going to play a part in big derbies.

All of that is not to say that ball retention in particular isn't an issue but we shouldn't be drawing big conclusions from that game. The management will have more time on the training field than they've had in past two months for the next two weeks and will be using it well.

[DMAA 3,603]

9 minutes ago, DMAA said:

Gerrard spent about £6.5m this summer. £6m was on defence

Sorry that doesn't include Grezda, but he didn't feature yesterday anyway

[JFK-1 1,671]

I just don't see it as a major setback. First game after the break which is still 17 days away will give us more of an indication of where we are. It wont be just a couple of days after a long trek into and back out of darkest Russia and it wont be following an intense schedule.

 

And for the first time we may actually get a chance to see our strongest 11. Dundee will be the opposition at Ibrox. They should be swept aside in a crushing win.

[Tannochsidebear 2,313]

I must admit that due to being in the air I didnt see any of the game and landed to turn my phone on and was totally gutted to see the result. 

 

What disappointed me more was on further reading, how poorly we played for the first hour or so where we let our fragile opponent dictate the flow of the game, have all the chances, and generally use the game to get their confidence back. Hence the celebrations from them at the end, I think most of them thought they were going to find it tough yesterday as well.

 

What worries me more is that after 3 league away games, we have 2 points, have conceded in every game, and have only dominated one of the 3 games while being really quite poor in the other 2.

 

While some go on about a 12 game unbeaten run, and that we were tired after our Russian exploits, we were continually told that we had the best and toughest pre-season in years, and wouldnt be blaming fitness on any result, and yet here we are already making excuses.

 

The nature of the performances at Fir Park and yesterday worry me more than the results. We were second best for large chunks of both games from what I read on here (not having seen either game in full) and the inability to keep clean sheets away from home while setting up defensively, is not a good omen.

 

It is only to be realistic to understand that our manager is learning all the way along and has shown some admirable qualities to date. The working of this transfer market was simply incredible and to be heartily applauded. The ability to get through 4 really tough 2 legged European ties is also thoroughly satisfying. However the league is the bread and butter and we sit with 5 points out of 12. We simply have to win the next 5 league matches (Dundee, St Johnstone & Hearts at home and Livvy & Hamilton away) before we travel to Easter Road at the end of October. If we have 20 points by then we will probably be in second place and no more than 4 points behind the scum, which will then look a lot better after 9 games than it does after 4. November sees us entertain Motherwell & Livvy and travel to St Mirren. Surely another 9 points are the only option there. 30 from 13 games would be a reasonable return and put us on target to be realistic title contenders. What we cannot have are any more silly slip ups like at Fir Park against a side who going into that game were winless and goalless. 

The Europa League will get in the way (in a nice way of course!) and force us to use the squad. But that is why we sanctioned so many new faces of a better quality than the ones who left. If we can also get our injured players (Coulibaly, Dorrans, Rossiter, etc) back and available we should be able to rotate a little. SG must also use his subs wisely in this regard.

 

Most importantly we must retain the ball better, create more chances, and score more goals. Have courage in possession, hunger to get it back when we dont. We started like that but after a few games we have tailed off already. Yesterdays terrible result and performance is the crossroads for the season, it can go one of two ways from here. Sadly, one road we have travelled on far too often, lets go the other way this time.

 

 

 

 

[Walterbear 557]

Agree with that Tannoch and winning these games is vital to build momentum and self belief. I don’t think

we can understate the effort expended in EL qualification and that pre-season got us through it and the mgt and team deserve massive credit. It’s right to make a further assessment after the run of games you refer to. At the moment it really has to be a thumbs up to the achievements so far and for the fans to play a continuing part in that.

 

Celtic’s defence would not have withstood the pressure that we have been under so Im confident our back 5 is better than theirs.

 

The real difference is the middle of the park and we have some decent players who I think just need that one star player to make everyone play better. I don’t see that player anywhere in the current squad tbh. 

 

I’m fairly confident we can match their attack out wide and in front of goal although yesterday we saw again (twice) the rash shooting from narrow angles when other players were in better positions. That has been going on for a couple of seasons now and needs trained out of Morelos in particular. 

 

[Darthter 542]

10 minutes ago, Walterbear said:

Agree with that Tannoch and winning these games is vital to build momentum and self belief. I don’t think

we can understate the effort expended in EL qualification and that pre-season got us through it and the mgt and team deserve massive credit. It’s right to make a further assessment after the run of games you refer to. At the moment it really has to be a thumbs up to the achievements so far and for the fans to play a continuing part in that.

 

Celtic’s defence would not have withstood the pressure that we have been under so Im confident our back 5 is better than theirs.

 

The real difference is the middle of the park and we have some decent players who I think just need that one star player to make everyone play better. I don’t see that player anywhere in the current squad tbh. 

 

I’m fairly confident we can match their attack out wide and in front of goal although yesterday we saw again (twice) the rash shooting from narrow angles when other players were in better positions. That has been going on for a couple of seasons now and needs trained out of Morelos in particular. 

 

100% agree about our defence.

 

In the middle, I think we do have the players to dictate the game.

 

Again, I agree about the wide players.

 

Overall, the problem (IMHO) wasn't the quality of our players - we've see how they can play - it was the fact that the whole team was sitting far too deep & there were no options for an out ball.  Kent & Lafferty we both camped in our half for most of the game.

[Walterbear 557]

Yup. At some point we really do need to lose the fear we have in these games. 

[ranger_syntax 3,768]

16 hours ago, The Shed said:

I know why it was done, I just think it's a mistake to diminish the only thing that this league has to offer the wider football world, and reducing the opposing support to virtually nothing, diminishes it.  I wouldn't be surprised if in the not too distant future Sky will be informing the clubs the same. That's my opinion, I'm entitled to it as are you to yours, so don't be giving it the 'Oh dear'  s**** [Foul language redacted].

 

Oh dear.

 

I don't think people will stop watching the Old Firm match because of this.

 

Neither is this the only thing that this league has to offer the wider football world.

 

This change was led by demand for season tickets and will be extremely difficult to reverse as long as that demand remains high.

[Gonzo79 13,613]

54 minutes ago, ranger_syntax said:

This change was led by demand for season tickets

A lot of Rangers fans, myself included, have been moaning about the scum getting the whole Broomloan Road stand.  I am delighted they've had their allocation reduced.