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Mccall Doing His Best Mccoist/mcdowall Impression


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STUART MCCALL believes his side will be fired up and ready to give everything to secure three points from next weekends final Championship fixture against Hearts at Tynecastle.

The Light Blues now sit third in the table after yesterdays 2-2 draw with Falkirk but the manager has not given up hope of moving back into second place with Hibs taking on the Bairns at Westfield in their last match.

Speaking after the 90 minutes against Peter Houstons men, he said: I thought we would need to win the last three games. Obviously we have not done so but if Falkirk put in a performance next week like they did against us then Hibs wont find it easy.

"But we've got to focus on ourselves, we've got to go to Tynecastle and play in patches like we did against Falkirk going forward.

At times in the last 15 minutes we were relentless from both sides. Law down the left and Walsh down the right so naturally I'm disappointed we didnt win although I'm proud we kept going and that we got the deserved equaliser.

"In football if you want success you have to stick together as a team. You've got to be good team-mates to each other and you've got to get behind each other.

"If your mate is down or making mistakes, or whatever it may be, you've got to pull each other through.

"We'll keep driving that in the dressing room and nothing has been decided. We will go (to Tynecastle) and fight and scrap and do as much as we can to make sure we get promotion. We'll pick them up for next Saturday and we'll be ready.

With Rangers two goals down after 61 minutes yesterday some fans voiced their frustration and McCall knows this is understandable with every game now of crucial importance as the club targets promotion to the top flight.

He has, however, urged all supporters to get behind the team for what is one of the most important periods in the clubs long history.

The manager added: "We need them. I was obviously disappointed at a little bit of the booing at a certain point but I think the supporters turned that on its head and got behind everybody.

"From now until the end of the season we need the fans to stay with us until the last minute because we all want the same.

We all want to win games of football, we all want success, we all want promotion so we can do that far better when we are on each others side."

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Sadly yesterday was the day for fire in the belly now we need falkirk to do the job next week as well as us winning

Agreed.

It was when we were in pole position we should have had that attitude.

Now , even a win next week may not be enough , and having to rely on a team , whose league position is sealed and with players who'll not be wanting injured in case of missing a cup final place.

We have only ourselves to blame . Just wished we'd played the full game the same way we played the final 20 minutes .

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Although they lost last weekend Hibs totally outplayed Falkirk. I thought that Falkirk side were very poor and its beyond belief we couldnt beat them yesterday. Im forever the optimist but there is a massive struggle to get this team up now and a bit of realisation of where we are is starting to creep in.

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McCall got his team selection and first substitution badly wrong yesterday.

Kenny Miller will always give 100%, but his legs just aren't what they used to be. Starting with Clark and Hardie would have made more sense, leaving Kenny to be brought on for the last 20 or so.

A bigger mistake, though, was leaving Shiels on the bench. He gives us some much needed dig as well as some impetus when going forward. After Falkirk outmuscled us in midfield for much of the first half, bringing on Shiels for the second 45 seemed to be the obvious thing to do. Instead, though, we had to wait till we were 2-0 down before Shiels was committed to the fray.

McCall's biggest mistake, however, was leaving Jig as the defensive lynchpin for the second half. I know Mohsni's a bomb scare at times, but at least he can read the game. He's got some pace as well. Mind you, a tortoise with a gammy leg might look speedy in comparison to Jig. It might also have better positional sense - he was running (or as near to it as he gets) around like a headless chicken at defensive corners instead of picking up a man.

Bringing on Robbie Crawford at right back was no good for him or the team. He looked like a rabbit in the headlights at RB, but that was hardly his fault. He needs game time in his proper position; he shouldn't be used as a walking elastoplast.

I know that McCall's not been dealt the best of hands in terms of playing personnel, but even so there was enough in the cupboard to have put Falkirk away if the team had been properly set up.

He needs to learn from this going into the play-offs.

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McCall got his team selection and first substitution badly wrong yesterday.

Kenny Miller will always give 100%, but his legs just aren't what they used to be. Starting with Clark and Hardie would have made more sense, leaving Kenny to be brought on for the last 20 or so.

A bigger mistake, though, was leaving Shiels on the bench. He gives us some much needed dig as well as some impetus when going forward. After Falkirk outmuscled us in midfield for much of the first half, bringing on Shiels for the second 45 seemed to be the obvious thing to do. Instead, though, we had to wait till we were 2-0 down before Shiels was committed to the fray.

McCall's biggest mistake, however, was leaving Jig as the defensive lynchpin for the second half. I know Mohsni's a bomb scare at times, but at least he can read the game. He's got some pace as well. Mind you, a tortoise with a gammy leg might look speedy in comparison to Jig. It might also have better positional sense - he was running (or as near to it as he gets) around like a headless chicken at defensive corners instead of picking up a man.

Bringing on Robbie Crawford at right back was no good for him or the team. He looked like a rabbit in the headlights at RB, but that was hardly his fault. He needs game time in his proper position; he shouldn't be used as a walking elastoplast.

I know that McCall's not been dealt the best of hands in terms of playing personnel, but even so there was enough in the cupboard to have put Falkirk away if the team had been properly set up.

He needs to learn from this going into the play-offs.

this. Agreed.
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McCall has, at least, got a reaction from the majority of players, and we have performed better - and played a more thoughtful game - under his leadership.

But that is a far as I would go. I'm not persauded that he's the right man for the job long term, although I'll await with interest how he deals with the deadwood at the end of the season.

I'm sure he knows who needs to go and who merits a new contract, but I'll keep my powder dry until those decisions are made - assuming he's still there to make them!

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McCall has, at least, got a reaction from the majority of players, and we have performed better - and played a more thoughtful game - under his leadership.

But that is a far as I would go. I'm not persauded that he's the right man for the job long term, although I'll await with interest how he deals with the deadwood at the end of the season.

I'm sure he knows who needs to go and who merits a new contract, but I'll keep my powder dry until those decisions are made - assuming he's still there to make them!

Well said.

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We were the only team in it for the first half. It was only With the enforced substitution that we started to struggle and Falkirk started to control the match. Last fifteen minutes we could have scored a handful and there was good attitude to fightback.

The amount of stick Law takes is misguided if you ask me, he put in a good shift and never hid yesterday, also plenty of attack when he was shifted to the left wing. Think he might be suffering abuse because Foster isn't there to be the scapegoat.

Sort out the susceptibility to breakaways and we should get promoted.

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We were the only team in it for the first half. It was only With the enforced substitution that we started to struggle and Falkirk started to control the match. Last fifteen minutes we could have scored a handful and there was good attitude to fightback.

Agree re. the fightback, but I don't think that we dominated the first half. We had a good first twenty, but Falkirk took charge of the midfield after that. Apart from a few flurries, we didn't regain control of midfield until after Shiels came on. By then, we were two down and some of the less faithful were legging it out of the stadium. McCall should have either had Shiels on from the start or brought him on a lot sooner.

The defence was a shambles after Zaliukas came off, and McCall has to take a large slice of the blame for that as well. Bringing Crawford on at RB was right from the Ally playbook.

I like McCall but I'm losing faith in him as a manager. If he had set the team up properly and/or had made the right substitutions at the right time, we'd have been going to Tynecastle with second place still in our own hands.

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McCall got his team selection and first substitution badly wrong yesterday.

Kenny Miller will always give 100%, but his legs just aren't what they used to be. Starting with Clark and Hardie would have made more sense, leaving Kenny to be brought on for the last 20 or so.

A bigger mistake, though, was leaving Shiels on the bench. He gives us some much needed dig as well as some impetus when going forward. After Falkirk outmuscled us in midfield for much of the first half, bringing on Shiels for the second 45 seemed to be the obvious thing to do. Instead, though, we had to wait till we were 2-0 down before Shiels was committed to the fray.

McCall's biggest mistake, however, was leaving Jig as the defensive lynchpin for the second half. I know Mohsni's a bomb scare at times, but at least he can read the game. He's got some pace as well. Mind you, a tortoise with a gammy leg might look speedy in comparison to Jig. It might also have better positional sense - he was running (or as near to it as he gets) around like a headless chicken at defensive corners instead of picking up a man.

Bringing on Robbie Crawford at right back was no good for him or the team. He looked like a rabbit in the headlights at RB, but that was hardly his fault. He needs game time in his proper position; he shouldn't be used as a walking elastoplast.

I know that McCall's not been dealt the best of hands in terms of playing personnel, but even so there was enough in the cupboard to have put Falkirk away if the team had been properly set up.

He needs to learn from this going into the play-offs.

Absolutely spot on. Couldn't have put it better myself. (tu)

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McCall has done a good job and it won't be his fault if we don't get up. He has given a few of the young players a chance and one of them have let us down, it is the experienced players who have. I would like to see McCulloch dropped ( if we can ) and also Sinnamon given a chance at RB as we don't have one. Don't think we will go up unfortunately

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McCall got his team selection and first substitution badly wrong yesterday.

Kenny Miller will always give 100%, but his legs just aren't what they used to be. Starting with Clark and Hardie would have made more sense, leaving Kenny to be brought on for the last 20 or so.

A bigger mistake, though, was leaving Shiels on the bench. He gives us some much needed dig as well as some impetus when going forward. After Falkirk outmuscled us in midfield for much of the first half, bringing on Shiels for the second 45 seemed to be the obvious thing to do. Instead, though, we had to wait till we were 2-0 down before Shiels was committed to the fray.

McCall's biggest mistake, however, was leaving Jig as the defensive lynchpin for the second half. I know Mohsni's a bomb scare at times, but at least he can read the game. He's got some pace as well. Mind you, a tortoise with a gammy leg might look speedy in comparison to Jig. It might also have better positional sense - he was running (or as near to it as he gets) around like a headless chicken at defensive corners instead of picking up a man.

Bringing on Robbie Crawford at right back was no good for him or the team. He looked like a rabbit in the headlights at RB, but that was hardly his fault. He needs game time in his proper position; he shouldn't be used as a walking elastoplast.

I know that McCall's not been dealt the best of hands in terms of playing personnel, but even so there was enough in the cupboard to have put Falkirk away if the team had been properly set up.

He needs to learn from this going into the play-offs.

A very good summation and several points of which , I ,and those about me , agreed during the game yesterday.

Shiels , and Law , have improved under SMcC and Shiels should have started.

After the first 15 , although we didn't play well , I never felt threatened by Falkirk. Taking Zaliukas off at HT changed that and Crawford just didn't look comfortable at right back , though he did improve later on when he pushed further up.

What was most disappointing is , collectively , we didn't show the same urgency and desire throughout the game as we did once we were two goals down . Had we done so , I'm sure we would still have that second place in our own hands.

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McCall potentially cost us 2nd place yesterday with his poor tactical knowledge. Once he finally changed to a 3-5-2, we scored 2 goals in 5 minutes. Worryingly that's several times now where he has persisted with the 4-4-2 when a blind man could see it clearly wasn't working, but failed to alter it.

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McCall to me has done reasonable well as these players had thrown in the towel, he's not perfect and at times makes odd team selections but he's doing better than i expected with these cant be arsed players.

is he really

the victories over hibs and hearts have clouded a few judgements imo, he's failed to win as many games as he has won

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To win promotion you need to win games. To win games means you must avoid losing goals and in turn score goals. In McCall's case he as put nowhere near enough priority on sorting out a defence so that it stops conceding easy goals. He has failed to do that. Part of that failure is a persistence in playing Lee McC at CB where (imo) he is simply not good enough in this league. McC has not learned from the efforts and mistakes made by McCoist and McD in creating a defence that is a real defence and not an illusory defence.

For the play offs each team will believe - be convinced even - that they can score against us. And score more than once. Similarly every reason to believe that we will not create many scoring chances and those which are created will largely be missed because we do not have enough forwards who can find the net on a consistent basis. So nothing to fear from playing Rangers. McCall has had time to apply fixes to the defence to stop it leaking but has not been able to do so. Nor has he found an effective strike partnership. He does not appear to know what to do to improve the defence and is settling for experimenting week after week with a forward line in the hope that something clicks. As usual this season the players let the manager down on a consistent basis.

So for the play-offs its not down to skill, determination, tactical ability, nous on the pitch, toughening up against opponents, pace on the wings, quality of midfield play, strikers in goal scoring form. None of that. It looks like it will largely be down to whether or not we will be lucky during the games. If that is largely correct then it is fundamentally very far from the place any Rangers team in this situation should be in. Also - if that is largely correct - it is evidence plain and simple of how far McCoist and his successor McD had driven Rangers to levels which are unacceptable. And McCall is showing insufficient signs of fixing the defence or fixing the strike-force before vital play off games.

I can see a situation coming about where out of near desperation he throws on as many of the Newcastle loanees as are fit enough to play part of a game in the hope that they can do a Vuckic and inspire match winning performances. Who knows, the way the Board likes to avoid taking responsibility and to blame others he might even be instructed to play them so that if there is failure to gain promotion the Board could use the lack of impact from (most of) the Newcastle loanees as part of the reason, and by extension blame Ashley.

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