Europa League rival watch

[RFC55 108,906]

Just now, Bad Robot said:

That’s what it finished but their forward got a double so our defence and midfield will need to shut him out.

They score and concede some.amount..Think their last few games have either been 3 2 or 3 3

 

[dee9 3,972]

Spartak seem off the pace. 3 points would be magic on Thursday. 

[ForeverAndEver 71,482]

46 minutes ago, hooooootchy said:

Spartak losing 3-2 at home to arsenal tula. 15 left 

Yes, up the Gooners

[Bad Robot 21,150]

8 minutes ago, Rfc52 said:

They score and concede some.amount..Think their last few games have either been 3 2 or 3 3

 

Hopefully we take a few off them and they will brick it for the return leg ?

[soulboy 2,518]

Villareal drew 1 1 at home with Atletico Madrid yesterday

[kanjo 26,328]

4 points from the two spartak games would see through IMO.

[scottyc06 6,915]

Spartak have just sacked there manager. 

Got be pushing for 6 points over these two games! 

[chris182 6,297]

There’s a theme emerging here ?

[Bad Robot 21,150]

Spartak playing today at 4pm but a win could take them from 6th to 3rd in their league.

Villareal also playing Levante at home 315 k.o. Sitting 17th with only 9 points from 10 games but still a dangerous team IMO.

Rapid ko 4pm away from home to Altach

[MurrayWilson 3,393]

Spartak just lost two one at home to fc Ural, Rapid drew 2 each away .

[Bad Robot 21,150]

4 minutes ago, MurrayWilson said:

Spartak just lost two one at home to fc Ural, Rapid drew 2 each away .

Villareal scored at the death to draw 1-1 at home. Their manager is under pressure.

[MurrayWilson 3,393]

33 minutes ago, Bad Robot said:

Villareal scored at the death to draw 1-1 at home. Their manager is under pressure.

None of the four teams are doing that great domestically so its not just us.

[Bad Robot 21,150]

24 minutes ago, MurrayWilson said:

None of the four teams are doing that great domestically so its not just us.

Hopefully Spartaks poor form continues and we raise our game again and get something from Thursday 

[Misteral 2,932]

Although I'd be happy enough with one, I don't want us to play for a draw. Put them under pressure at home and have a go, Rangers. They are not up to much. 

[cushynumber 25,178]

i think this is a free hit for us. We can take some of the pressure off domestically, and even if its a defeat, its not a disaster. I seen nothing from spartak to suggest we cant get at least a point of there though. the worry is the targeting of morelos. The entire team will do everything they can to get him sent off.

[dummiesoot 16,006]

14 minutes ago, cushynumber said:

i think this is a free hit for us. We can take some of the pressure off domestically, and even if its a defeat, its not a disaster. I seen nothing from spartak to suggest we cant get at least a point of there though. the worry is the targeting of morelos. The entire team will do everything they can to get him sent off.

If they focus on Alfredo that leaves space for others to exploit, perhaps. 

[cushynumber 25,178]

8 minutes ago, dummiesoot said:

If they focus on Alfredo that leaves space for others to exploit, perhaps. 

Hopefully. i think the Spartak dirty tricks campaign will be in full flow  on Thursday. I hope this ref knows what he is doing.

[Terry Hurlock Loyal 12,133]

This group is going to get tough for us now, still not convinced we will get through - 2 away games and a tough game at home to Villarreal. I hope we get at least a draw in Moscow, but not sure winning in Austria is a certainty - Villarreal could go any way, despite them probably putting out a reserve side as I am guessing they will be through by then.

[whatnobeer 89]

6 hours ago, cushynumber said:

Hopefully. i think the Spartak dirty tricks campaign will be in full flow  on Thursday. I hope this ref knows what he is doing.

Suspect the same. They were throwing themselves all over the place at Ibrox and at home with the pressure from the crowd the ref will need to be strong and wise to their antics otherwise we'll be in for a tough night.

[Ozblue 4,331]

On 17/09/2018 at 20:07, Rfc52 said:

Villarreal are a different breed to what we've played mate come on to fuck.

Rapid are probably around maribor and spartak again are an uplift on what we have faced 

It's not a group of death by any stretch of the imagination but we were knocked out by Luxembourgs 4th best side islast seasonSpartakand now people are wanting to play down spartak Villarreal and rapid

we could be sitting on Friday morning on the back of a 3 or 4 0 hammering.

6

Anybody who thinks Spartak Moscow are an easy touch for us is living in a dream world. Here is a team with probably 12+ international players and a squad with a combined transfer fee of £95 million. They are backed by LUKOIL, which is one of the biggest and richest oil and gas companies in the world. They certainly aren't unbeatable, but it's going to take a massive performance in Moscow to get anything from this game. I never thought we would get anywhere near the group stages, never mind the knockout round, so getting there in front of Spartak or Villarreal would be an amazing achievement for our club.

[simplythebestest 2,145]

11 hours ago, Ozblue said:

Anybody who thinks Spartak Moscow are an easy touch for us is living in a dream world. Here is a team with probably 12+ international players and a squad with a combined transfer fee of £95 million. They are backed by LUKOIL, which is one of the biggest and richest oil and gas companies in the world. They certainly aren't unbeatable, but it's going to take a massive performance in Moscow to get anything from this game. I never thought we would get anywhere near the group stages, never mind the knockout round, so getting there in front of Spartak or Villarreal would be an amazing achievement for our club.

Absolutely. It's remarkable what we've achieved in Europe so far. We might have been dug shite in domestic games recently, but this is the same group of players who beat Rapid Vienna 3-1, a scoreline that any Rangers line up in history would have been chuffed with. Honestly does my tits in that we can do it against quality European sides, but struggle to put a goal past a horrendous Aberdeen side to reach a final.

[Ozblue 4,331]

2 hours ago, simplythebestest said:

Absolutely. It's remarkable what we've achieved in Europe so far. We might have been dug shite in domestic games recently, but this is the same group of players who beat Rapid Vienna 3-1, a scoreline that any Rangers line up in history would have been chuffed with. Honestly does my tits in that we can do it against quality European sides, but struggle to put a goal past a horrendous Aberdeen side to reach a final. 

1

Our domestic results are certainly frustrating, but there's a reason for it being chalk and cheese with European results; For example, against Rapid Vienna there wasn't  a massive difference between the possession-attempts on goal-corners, so it was an open game where we took our chances and they didn't. Villarreal easily had more possession-attempts on goal-corners, so once again it was open and we had space to fashion chances.  Against Spartak Moscow, we had a massive advantage in possession-attempts on goal- corners, but they parked the bus and we couldn't find a way to score. In the League On the domestic front, apart from our draws against Aberdeen (we played with 10 men) Motherwell (who had a go at us) and the scum, every team we have played have parked the bus and hoped to catch us on the break. This plus the fact we have been very disjointed by changing our backline to accommodate Worrall, missing Morelos/Lafferty against the sheep haven't done us any favours, because we certainly aren't the same team we had earlier in the piece.   Just my opinion from 20,000 kilometres away, of course.

[simplythebestest 2,145]

16 hours ago, Ozblue said:

Our domestic results are certainly frustrating, but there's a reason for it being chalk and cheese with European results; For example, against Rapid Vienna there wasn't  a massive difference between the possession-attempts on goal-corners, so it was an open game where we took our chances and they didn't. Villarreal easily had more possession-attempts on goal-corners, so once again it was open and we had space to fashion chances.  Against Spartak Moscow, we had a massive advantage in possession-attempts on goal- corners, but they parked the bus and we couldn't find a way to score. In the League On the domestic front, apart from our draws against Aberdeen (we played with 10 men) Motherwell (who had a go at us) and the scum, every team we have played have parked the bus and hoped to catch us on the break. This plus the fact we have been very disjointed by changing our backline to accommodate Worrall, missing Morelos/Lafferty against the sheep haven't done us any favours, because we certainly aren't the same team we had earlier in the piece.   Just my opinion from 20,000 kilometres away, of course.

Very good post this ? you could argue that's been the problem ever since we went down the divisions. Trying to dominate teams when we don't have the skill in the final third to break through their two lines of defence. That's why I keep thinking we need to switch up the tactics to invite a bit more pressure - even if it sounds counter intuitive. It might create the space we need to get more clear cut chances. I also think we need to spend big on one or two attacking midfielders whose bread and butter is timing runs into the box to support Morelos when we get up the wing, taking shots from distance or playing killer through balls. I like Arfield, Ejaria and Coulibaly but they don't offer us what we need.

[sausagetrunks 6,022]

On 04/11/2018 at 19:02, Bad Robot said:

Hopefully Spartaks poor form continues and we raise our game again and get something from Thursday 

was on reading their forum, they are not to confident, hopefully we can take something from this game.  would love to see SG go back to his early season team and formation. 

[Ozblue 4,331]

12 hours ago, simplythebestest said:

Very good post this ? you could argue that's been the problem ever since we went down the divisions. Trying to dominate teams when we don't have the skill in the final third to break through their two lines of defence. That's why I keep thinking we need to switch up the tactics to invite a bit more pressure - even if it sounds counter intuitive. It might create the space we need to get more clear cut chances. I also think we need to spend big on one or two attacking midfielders whose bread and butter is timing runs into the box to support Morelos when we get up the wing, taking shots from distance or playing killer through balls. I like Arfield, Ejaria and Coulibaly but they don't offer us what we need.

5

I agree with you regarding how we can find a way to break up their 10 men behind the ball set-up because it's almost impossible to break it down the way we are set up at the moment. We don't have the midfielders that can hit that killer pass to split their defenders who patrol that area the width of the 18 yard box, so basically, the only way we can do it is with speed down the flanks, which would turn their defenders. The other problem we have is that we don't have a Dado Prso, Nikita Jelavic, Kris Boyd type player who is a 100% penalty box predator, whereas we have Morelos who is actually winning the ball all over the park, then trying to be in a position to be our main scorer. We certainly have come on leaps and bounds since Gerrard arrived, but it's easy to figure out our biggest problem is a lack of goals from our midfielders, because they just aren't prolific scorers; for example, Alfredo has 14 goals and Tavernier is next with 8 goals (mainly PK's) then Lafferty with 4 goals. Then we have EIGHT midfielders who have made double-digit appearances, but only scored 15 goals between them; and therein lies the problem.