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Mccall: Team Selection Tricky


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STUART McCall admits his team selection for tomorrows Championship game with Livingston will be a last minute decision.

The new boss will have had less than 48 hours with his players when he joins up with them at Ibrox on Saturday morning.

He says it will be hard to pick Rangers best 11 as there have not been enough regular performances good enough to warrant a place week in week out which he is confident fans would agree with.

McCall said: I'm sure that I could have 50 different Rangers supporters sitting in this room with me and they would all pick a different side because there hasn't been enough consistency.

I'm sure the players are all big enough and honest enough to admit that nobody has played to the potential they have or at a consistent level for a number of games.

That could be for a number of reasons of course - from coming in and out of the team or whatever it might be.

We normally like to do the team the day before a game, but we are just in the door and we haven't been able to do that.

If you are in it then we want you to keep that jersey and if you are on the bench then be ready to come on and make an impact.

And if you're up in the stand, make sure you aren't there again because of the way you train when you come in the on Sunday and throughout the next week.

I will take all of the responsibility of picking teams, tactics and selections. The buck stops with me and my staff.

I just want to try to remind the players what good players they can be, they have been and they will be again.

There is no magic formula or no magic pill, they just have to go out there and show a bit of character, not fear anything, look in the mirror and try to go out there an perform.

We can only try to guide and help to try to put belief into them, but what gives you confidence is doing good things and doing them right and winning football games and playing well - confidence can come back as quickly as you can lose it.

And it is not just team selection that will be keeping McCall up until the wee hours, after he admitted to only three hours sleep after his first day in the job, the formation poses a problem too.

He continued: I think that in this modern day you have to be flexible and adaptable.

I've always liked to go with two strikers, but sometimes that can change and you can play that in so many different ways.

I think that if you look at Brendan Rogers with Swansea he always wanted to play a 4-2-3-1, however when he gets two great strikers like Sturridge and Suarez, he finds a way to play with two strikers.

That is what you've got to do, you have to work with what you have at your disposal - I am always a horses for courses man despite what people might say.

A few years back the formation maybe didn't change much because the squad were in such good form and the team picked itself.

"In the last 18 months I've played with a lot of different formations that I felt suited and I've certainly got players here that can adapt to different formations."

http://www.rangers.co.uk/news/headlines/item/8811-team-selection-tricky

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McCall will need time remember these players have not just let down previous manager/coaches they have let down themselves, lets hope they get their finger out and give the support something to cheer about.

most know their out of contract

most know thier careers are over and have accepted this and fell into a rut of turning up doing a bit and getting paid handsomely for their time

how do you motivate that?

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I really like the way he talks, not patronising players but subtly saying its up to them to grab the chance they are given (tu)

Instilling belief in this team could prove to be enough to push us on, buzzing for tommorow now, we are the people :thumbup:

Come on The Rangers :7325:

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I think some of us are kidding ourselves on with regards Jig, Lee McCulloch is club captain, i don't think McCall will change that and with him being so, will most likely start the match. My only hope is it isn't at the back. He is a liability back there. He is a striker, if he has to play, he should be played as a striker.

As for blank canvas, yes it may well be but we do have players who should have kicked their last ball already. The likes of Simonsen, Foster and Black have no future here, they should be nowhere near a matchday squad.

Personally i would like to see Shiels and Templeton reintroduced to the team somehow and a proper right back brought into the team, Ryan Sinnamon is on the verge of walking out on the club disillusioned, he is the best right back at the club and i would hope someone has mentioned him to McCall. Unlike Foster, Black and Simmo, the likes of Ryan are our future.

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The first training session after tomorrow is when McCall really starts tbh. I'm not saying forget about tomorrow but he hasn't been given anywhere near enough time to prepare.

It'll be interesting to see who starts. I can see most being disappointed with the starting 11 no matter what it is, that's how shite everyone has been.

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The first training session after tomorrow is when McCall really starts tbh. I'm not saying forget about tomorrow but he hasn't been given anywhere near enough time to prepare.

It'll be interesting to see who starts. I can see most being disappointed with the starting 11 no matter what it is, that's how shite everyone has been.

That's it, its going to be hard to pick a player everyone's not pissed off with as it virtually covers the whole squad.

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On the eve of the match our manager talking about our team, talking formations, team selection, identifying reasons as to why the players have been shite, trying to install believe into them, all positive stuff. Compare that to McCoist and McD's constant bumming up of the opposition, telling us how tough the match will be and getting excuses in for when we get another shity result...


Breath of fresh air, I like the cut of the wee mans jib.

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