CammyF 6,781 Posted January 19, 2009 Share Posted January 19, 2009 Another Game, Same Old Deficiencies …. After another below par performance against the Falkirk Bairns on Saturday, surely we can’t be the only ones who are witness to our glaring deficiencies? Our manager and chairmen have branded us faceless and clueless, but even someone as faceless and clueless as myself can determine that we could get more out of our players, especially if they were played in their correct positions and if they were ‘coached’ properly. Once again on Saturday we were served up an unacceptable performance and we were lucky to run out narrow winners. Even after going 2-1 up, we almost allowed Falkirk back into the game but thankfully held out to record a victory and secure a crucial three points. Understanding that I will probably receive the wrath of our custodian by daring to question the managers tactics, I will endeavour to give my opinions of what is going wrong on the pitch. As a paying customer, I surly have the right to that! Continuing with 4 centre-halves in the back line is restricting our attacking options. Both Broadfoot and Papac have been decent at fullback, but both are centre-halves and play like centre-halves. They play very narrow which allows the opposition to exploit the space down our flanks. Why Walter Smith spent circa Ã?£6.5M on forwards in the close season and ignored the glaring deficiencies in the fullback areas is a mystery. We actually have three very decent centre midfield players who all have experience of playing on the English Premiership. All three have shown that they have the ability to play in what is arguably the best league in the world. However, to accommodate all three of these midfield players, we are forced to play one of them as a right winger. We have another brilliant midfield player out for the season. We have two options for the left wing position, but the manager insists on playing anyone other than our natural left wingers at left wing. Again, with no natural width in the midfield, the game is narrowed and we are forced to play through the congested middle of the pitch. Up front, we are well covered at the moment. Off course, this may change during the transfer window, who knows. As for Saturday, the back four looked shaky, and Boogie was caught sleeping for the Falkirk goal (Lovell scores against us with frightening regularity). The midfield didn’t click (again) with only Mendes getting pass marks. Ferguson and Davis (last 10 minutes apart) were awful. The front two tried, but were uninspiring. The only positive was John Fleck – although played out of position (surprise, surprise) he did well. He had two brilliant runs, one where he beat two Falkirk defenders only to be scythed down. The second he supplied a wonderful cross only for Boyd to somehow header the ball directly into the ground for 6 yards out with the goal gaping and at his mercy. Now, Boynd’s goalscoring record is there for all to see, but I can’t remember a centre who is as bad at heading as Boyd is. Steve Davis cuts a lonely figure wide right and we must move him into has favoured position if we are to get the best out of him or we’ll ruin the lad. In the last 10 minutes of Saturdays game Davis demonstrated just how good he could be if played properly. His slide-rule pass to Novo for the 2nd goal was EPL class, as was his clinching goal. However, 10 minutes a game isn’t good enough. Barry Ferguson hasn’t reclaimed any sort of form since returning from injury. This is worrying as he is the only driving force we have in our squad. So, we go to Aberdeen on Saturday only 2 points behind in the league and I for one can see Walter making changes. However, I’d bet that the changes will involve the likes of Adam, McCulloch et al rather than Fleck, Aaron et al. We’ll approach the game as a ‘must not lose’, rather than a ‘must win’. The days of letting the opposition worry about our formation, flare etc are long gone and we have a worrying tendency to alter our team selection to ‘suit’ the opposition (see the changes for the Tannidice game as an example). Somehow we have been given a glimmer of hope in this title race, and we must take full advantage and capitalise on this. Do we have the players capable of doing this? Does our manger have the tactics and coaching capable of this? The next three league games will supply us with the answers. Hopefully, the faceless and clueless legions will be proven wrong and we’ll use this as a springboard to catapult us towards the league title. Only time and the closing of the transfer window will tell. So Do We Deserve Better? There has been much written and spoken about the ‘we deserve better’ campaign and the subsequent response for our custodian and manager. Now, I believe that we all knew how SDM and WS would response, so whilst their responses were disappointing, they were unsurprising. They have basically told us that we are ‘faceless’ and ‘clueless’ when it comes to the running and future of Rangers Football Club. This is the usual SDM mantra – pay up and shut up. So the question remains, do we deserve better? Two last day SPL titles in 8 years, a decade of financial mismanagement, a youth academy that is failing even after numerous changes and a youth development that nobody knows who actually owns it and the players registered to it. A decade of asset stripping that has seen the catering, ticketing, merchandise sold off with little or no money coming directly to Rangers from these ‘outlets’ (apart for the initial fees – short termism at its best). And that is just ‘scratching the surface’. SMD claims that we aren’t entitled to discuss this as we aren’t captains of industry and that we don’t offer alternatives and / or solutions (surely a contradiction in terms there). Anyway, the RST have given SDM pages and pages of solutions, ideas and alternatives, all which SDM dismissed out of hand. Can’t have it both ways SDM. I sincerely hope that this seasons doesn’t fall into the ‘papering over the cracks’ category just like the previous title winning season have. Don’t get me wrong, I am willing Rangers to win this title as much as anyone but fear us winning the title will see the pressure being exerted on SDM diminishing and allowing him to continue with his downsizing of the club and out ambitions. In conclusion, to answer the set questsion - YES, we do deserve better, a hell of a lot better........ Whispers From Murray Park The captain of the ship (i.e the guy who runs our RSC) was through at Murray Park on Friday to get a couple of tops signed for charity. Every player except 4 signed the tops (4 players, McGregor, Mendes, Weir & Naismith had arrived prior to The Captain and were already in for training) but one of the management team refused point blank to stop and sign the tops. Yip, Ally McCoist, hang you’re head in shame, you more than anyone else should know better. Anyway, the general consensus was that ALL the players were happy to stop and not only sign the tops, but to stop and talk for a couple of minutes and were also happy to have photos taken etc. Kris Boyd reinforced his desire to stay at Rangers (as did Boogie and Ferguson) and an unnamed player stated that every player was determined to stay and regain OUR title from Celtc. Most players also confirmed that Boyd was determined to stay and ALL wanted him to stay. Kevin Thomson stated that his operation went well and he can’t wait to get back training and playing. Nacho Novo recognised the guys from the RSC as he was a guest at our POTY Dance 2 season back. NN reinforced his desire and passion to continue to play for Rangers and again stated that he would do all in his power to help our RST (he has in the past – he is a credit to himself and to Rangers Football Club). The two tops are being raffled at a Race Night at the start of February to help raise funds for The Sick Kids Hospital. Cammy F - 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bluedell 5,329 Posted January 19, 2009 Share Posted January 19, 2009 Cammy, it is known who owns the youth development. The club does, despite the misleading statements that were made around the time of the launch of RYD. There were just 4 guys who made interest free loans. They are not due any further cash. RYD is wholly owned by the club. The catering and ticketing has been sub-contracted. We can all argue about the quality but the commercial rationale behind doing it is sound. Do we benefit more from doing it than if we did it in-house? I don't have a clue, but I haven't seen or heard anything to suggest that we are worse off financially. Likewise the JJB deal is sound commercially, but there are obvious and well-documented downsides, but we are better off financially with it. Great to hear your NN story. Everything I hear about him reinforces what a credit he is. I heard recently he stayed far longer than all of the other players when the visited sick kids in hospital. 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Barr 0 Posted January 19, 2009 Share Posted January 19, 2009 Not suprised McCoist didnt stop to sign it. I'd get pee'd off signing things a 1000 times a day too. In saying that though, i suppose he is in a way paid to behave in a manner deserving of good publicity to the club. McCoist signed my programme many years ago aswell as stopping for a photo. Wonder if he has changed his attiude atall. 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frankie 8,150 Posted January 19, 2009 Share Posted January 19, 2009 Agree totally with your report on the game mate... We dominated the match for long periods but never really looked all that dangerous. Why our manager didn't take off a defender as soon as Falkirk went to 10 men I'll never know...? Still more questions than answers at this stage but the 2nd half performance of Fleck certainly made the sangria taste sweeter than evening... 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
CammyF 6,781 Posted January 19, 2009 Author Share Posted January 19, 2009 Agree totally with your report on the game mate... We dominated the match for long periods but never really looked all that dangerous. Why our manager didn't take off a defender as soon as Falkirk went to 10 men I'll never know...? Still more questions than answers at this stage but the 2nd half performance of Fleck certainly made the sangria taste sweeter than evening... Yip, I think everyone in the stadium thought that once Falkirk went down to 10 men that we'd take off a defender and bring on Aaron. Another thing I noticed on Saturday, it took 9 mins (I counted them) for us to bring Nacho Novo on - god knows what the hold up was It took the dissmisal of Papac for us to improve...,. Cammy F 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
calscot 0 Posted January 19, 2009 Share Posted January 19, 2009 Likewise the JJB deal is sound commercially, but there are obvious and well-documented downsides, but we are better off financially with it. Seems to me that in this climate it could be very good for us if JJB stay solvent. We're guaranteed a fixed amount whereas Celtic could suffer from lack of sales. If JJB go under, am I right in thinking we keep the upfront money and just have to find a new distributer? If that's the case we're quids in again. Seems to me we can't lose at the moment - except the bonuses we could have had in the UEFA cup final run. 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
calscot 0 Posted January 19, 2009 Share Posted January 19, 2009 Why our manager didn't take off a defender as soon as Falkirk went to 10 men I'll never know...? The ref must have agreed with you! :devil: 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
craig 5,195 Posted January 19, 2009 Share Posted January 19, 2009 The ref must have agreed with you! :devil: Ha !! Nice one cal 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
craig 5,195 Posted January 19, 2009 Share Posted January 19, 2009 Seems to me that in this climate it could be very good for us if JJB stay solvent. We're guaranteed a fixed amount whereas Celtic could suffer from lack of sales. If JJB go under, am I right in thinking we keep the upfront money and just have to find a new distributer? If that's the case we're quids in again. Seems to me we can't lose at the moment - except the bonuses we could have had in the UEFA cup final run. Yep, I can't see anyway that JJB could claw back the up-front cash or indeed any of the payments since (again, depends on the contract though). We would lose the future payments though and the likelihood of getting a similar deal could hurt us with the economic situation. If Celtic suffer reduced sales you just can't see any retailer offering us the JJB deal for the same reasons. 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
calscot 0 Posted January 19, 2009 Share Posted January 19, 2009 But to match the JJB deal they only have to pay the �£3M a year for a contract that was previously worth �£5M. Perhaps we could get �£4M and be �£1M better off per year. 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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