Gersnet Editorial Back to square one?

[Frankie 8,151]

4 minutes ago, lenny3k said:

regardless of whether he's appointed in the next couple of weeks, or half way through January, I think its not enough time to have any meaningful impact on this coming transfer window

I think any new person will have their own list of targets applicable to any jobs they're interested in. We're not going to see huge changes next month in any case.

[Sutton_blows_goats 4,208]

In many cases this next run of games will influence our business in January. 

 

Either we are in a title race and we supplement the squad the best we can for the run in

 

Or

 

We get rid of as much dead wood as possible and do a wage dump

 

 

[Rousseau 9,381]

[Rousseau 9,381]

There are definite improvements, but he can only work with the tools he has.

[Sutton_blows_goats 4,208]

Interesting graph. I think it reinforces the improvement  seen so far.

[Graeme Ro55 649]

No more pics of MB please. He has set us back years. Wee *****r.

[der Berliner 3,247]

IMHO, we are still somewhat shell-shocked from that Champions League disaster of last season, alongside with the ails of the last few seasons: players who are at best average Rangers standard or simply cannot show a consistency required; players who live on a diet of glories past and odd successes now (namely our captain), a tactic that simply does not fit with the players we have ... and the games we play in Scotland. Added to that are coaches and managers who simply won't change things even if you can clearly see that things aren't working. The system simply isn't running, so change it!

 

While Beale looked very much out of his depth (and on hindsight, not really unexpected for me), but at times you do wonder how little those decision centers at the top know about football.

 

Kent had run his race for us. A penalty assist merchant for Europe, that was a good left-winger, but not the goal-threat required for a 4-3-3. That he left for free was essentially just the icing on the cake.  Truth be told, none of the players we have signed since the advent of Gerrard have been. After a certainly bright start, Morelos went steadily down the hill and remained there. Bad management and/or tactics? Who knows?

Letting Colak leave - who, bar the injury period, remained a goal threat and pest to defenders throughout - was (no hindsight argument here) criminal. You simply can't rely on two newcomers with a half decent record and "potential" to step in and produce. Has that really ever worked with foreigners?

Next stop Sakala. He had many critics, but was at long last a striker-come winger who started to assist and score when and where it matters. Winger-like scoring perhaps, but he was always there, always willing, always threatening. Now, we got Sima, who, very winger-like, blows hot and cold. Again a chap who had to get used to the game in Scotland ... and while at times you wonder whether we could afford this quality man, the next game you know why Brighton sent him on loan.

As with any of our new attackers, people certainly need time to adapt - the cardinal sin of this season might well be that we essentially replaced the whole attacking department (aside from Wright and the ghost which goes by the name of Roofe) with new players. Might have worked out, but everyone knew from the off that when it comes to Rangers this decade, "might" usually backfires.

 

Similarly criminal was sending Hagi and Lowry out on loan for no reason whatsoever. It left us with only Cantwell (of the same "spark quality") and he promptly got injured. McCausland is a winger, not a replacement for Cantwell.

 

Cantwell ... is a flair player who does things which are unexpected, sees passes that others don't (which may be too much for some of his fellow players on the park these days) and shoots himself as well. Yet, we play him out of position and wonder that he does what he does best elsewhere. If we have creative "gems" like him, why waste them on the wing? And get angry about it? IMHO, even an off-form Cantwell shows more creativity than Lammers, Lundstram, Cifuentes and Co. combined. He is not THE answer, but part of an answer. Raskin and him in the creative slots, a DM (Lundstram or Jack) behind them, should work most of the time.

 

Final nail in Beale's coffin for me was leaving Ridvan and Balogun out of the EL squad. He left us with a top-heavy team that has no real cohesion, too many people that are more like hopefuls than tried players, and a makeshift defense of veterans past their sell-by date (Goldson, Tavernier, Barisic). The latter can do their job at Premiership level most of the time, but as the last couple of seasons have shown, are hardly the standard we require. Souttar is the only brighter spark there, Davies a bit of a conundrum, and Balogun solid, reliable, but getting on too. Ridvan is more of a wing-back than a fullback, well made for a 3-4-3 where his defensive duties are lesser than normal. Still, we demand our fullbacks to go forward and deliver, as it is the trademark of a 4-2-3-1, and neither side's veterans are doing the wing-role to this standard. Or one we require now. 

 

It is still howling at a high level. These players are not bad, our centre-halfs are not dross every other week because they get caught in a couple of games. It happens all the times elsewhere too. Sometimes it is necessary to take a step back from the weekly hysteria about the odd goal lost and take the whole picture in. That said, we are toiling on ever since Warburton, essentially papering over cracks in the system by testing better players there with some degree of success. Our benchmark are the Yahoos, who, thanks to our failures, bask in CL money season after season and spent money on enough quality to keep us and the rest at bay. Add to that a rather serious sequence of injuries to lots of our best players (no excuse, just a fact) through the years. 

 

So ... up comes the festive period with a host of games and a new manager who has to figure out how to get this side going. One just hopes that his trial-and-error period in Scotland is the shortest ever. The pessimist in me has locked up the optimist in the basement, for the latter's own health.

[Graeme Ro55 649]

Although there have been some very well scribed posts on this thread the title says it all for me. We are years off having a decent squad. The manager and the next D.O.F will need time and backing to turn this shambles around. 

[compo 6,141]

1 hour ago, Rousseau said:

There are definite improvements, but he can only work with the tools he has.

You can only piss with the cock you’ve got is what your saying mind you they’re are plenty of dicks in our squad at the moment 

[Malangsob 1,203]

3 hours ago, Scott7 said:

A Rangers captain should look like this:

 

 

Nice.

 

Even his haircut says

 

'I'll whip yer ass."