How do we see the rest of the season going?

[Sutton_blows_goats 4,320]

Exactly what we need.. 🤣

[RANGERRAB 3,293]

1 hour ago, CammyF said:

 

 

Shankland isn’t Rangers class

[Scott7 5,229]

Why would he be available? Is he Neilson’s bondman?

 

Maybe this is the market we have to shop in.

 

 

[Graeme Ro55 653]

13 hours ago, CammyF said:

 

 

Oh dear 😒

[Rousseau 9,484]

I'm not as dismissive of the Shankland link, as it appears the rest of you are.

 

He always hits, or over-performs, his xG. This season he has an xG of 18.6, scoring 18 goals; two years ago it was 8 goals from an xG of 6.4; he scored a goal-a-game in the Championship.

 

He's clinical. I wonder what he could do with the chances we create. 

 

I would have signed him after he had a difficult spell in Belgium (5 goals from an xG of 7, which is the only time he has under-performed and it's not by much), because he would have been quite cheap.

 

Hearts will play hardball, though. 

 

 

[CammyF 6,881]

30 minutes ago, Rousseau said:

I'm not as dismissive of the Shankland link, as it appears the rest of you are.

 

He always hits, or over-performs, his xG. This season he has an xG of 18.6, scoring 18 goals; two years ago it was 8 goals from an xG of 6.4. he scored a goal-a-game in the Championship.

 

He's clinical. I wonder what he could do with the chances we create. 

 

I would have signed him after he had a difficult spell in Belgium (5 goals from an xG of 7, which is the only time he has under-performed and it's not by much), because he would have been quite cheap.

 

Hearts will play hardball, though. 

 

 

If you look at how successful Hickey and Ferguson have been since leaving Hearts / Aberdeen it shows that there are still some gems to be found in SPFL - is Shankland one of them? Only time will tell. 

[der Berliner 3,281]

We need strikers who score regularly at Scottish level (and even better if they have done so before).

 

But likewise we need strikers (aside from "attackers") being played in pairs if not threes, if that 4-3-3 shall ever reap any countable benefits in the Scottish game. If've seen people bending backwards for years because of that "modern approach to the game" and how good it supposedly is, but truth be told, in Scotland it has yielded next to nothing. 55 is gone, was won because our defense played exceptionally well (with no-one in the stands on their backs) and the Scum imploded after the turn of the year. Ange has steadied the ship and bought people to rule the Scottish game. Nothing that special, but well capable. We never adapted to that since the days of Warburton, threw in "better" players but at the end of the day, were sussed out by mediocre opposition time and again.

 

Beale brought Sakala back into the game, essentially as right-sided attacker, but you could easily see that he is actually a true striker, scoring goals and collecting assists. Cantwell came in and provided more spark, yet Beale failed to chop Kent for Sakala, so we get goal-scoring threat from the left too - Sakala can play across the front three and has done so throughout his career. As long as we keep with this target-man striker trash, we won't go far in the Scottish game of packed defenses and layered, brickwall defending. We may pound these defenses for the whole game, but still have far too few people on the park to put chances away. Tillman also arrived on that scene, of course, yet, he is not a striker either by trade.

 

Pending on the opposition, I'd go 3-5-2 or 3-4-3 from now on with but one DM (Jack and/or Raskin), chopping the wingbacks for wingers (who, like anyone in the modern game, defend from the front too), play at least two full blown strikers. No ifs and buts.

[Rousseau 9,484]

2 hours ago, CammyF said:

If you look at how successful Hickey and Ferguson have been since leaving Hearts / Aberdeen it shows that there are still some gems to be found in SPFL - is Shankland one of them? Only time will tell. 

Agreed.

 

Although, I don't think Shankland is in the same category, as he is 27. 

[ranger_syntax 3,790]

How is Shankland rated for xT?

 

(expected titles)

[Bill 13,717]

2 hours ago, CammyF said:

If you look at how successful Hickey and Ferguson have been since leaving Hearts / Aberdeen it shows that there are still some gems to be found in SPFL - is Shankland one of them? Only time will tell. 

I thought it was crazy we didn’t sign Lewis Ferguson but there was a large part of our fan base who always condemned him out of hand. Maybe it was his name.