NixonRFC

Definitely a tim but he's old school in that he's always respectful and complimentary to us much in the same way Walter and McCoist are/were respectful to them.
 
I think his family are mixed though, he's best pals with Charlie Nicholas and Nicholas told a story that they were out in the street on the day of the Ibrox disaster waiting to see if Duffy's uncle made it home safely, pretty sure the poor guy came home covered in blood minus a shoe.

Definitely a tim but he's old school in that he's always respectful and complimentary to us much in the same way Walter and McCoist are/were respectful to them.
 
I think his family are mixed though, he's best pals with Charlie Nicholas and Nicholas told a story that they were out in the street on the day of the Ibrox disaster waiting to see if Duffy's uncle made it home safely, pretty sure the poor guy came home covered in blood minus a shoe.

That confidence in him will only come through consistency, playing big games, making big saves and winning those big games thanks in part to said saves, it builds from there.
 
Said on this very thread two weeks ago after he kept us in the USG tie that his contribution would only be fully appreciated if we turned the tie around, I think his saves have given us a great chance to qualify next week and if we do I think people will start having more confidence in him although that being said, if we get the CL money a top goalie should be our #1 priority.

Love the positivity but the thought of Kent as a wingback and Sands being the only cover gives me the fear, if we played that team Morelos n Colak would need to score 4 or 5 between them 😄

I thought we played this game like a second leg, we went all out for the win and we kinda lost a lot of control of the game because we seemed in such a rush to get the ball forward, I don't think we played badly though, we just didn't play as well as we could've, on the otherhand PSV weren't great either so I'm expecting them to be better next week.
 
When they went for Gutiérrez over Til it was obvious they were going to just try and keep this tie tight, if Til starts next week that'll tell us their intention to hit us fast, we'll need to be resilient but we'll definitely get chances, neither of our defences look particularly great but their keeper is a bombscare and while I wouldn't class McLaughlin as a Rangers goalie, I think he's far more reliable in this situation than theirs.

He's gonna be a hero here, he's started the season really well, four goals on six games suggests he could be in for a big season but I don't see him hitting 25-30 but I do think he'll hit 20 but it's his work rate and guts I think that'll make him a hero, he'll definitely score against the tims this season, there's just some players you know instantly that'll do them damage, Prso, Novo, Miller, he's in that bracket.

Looking at his record in Croatia and Sweden I've no doubts he'll score goals here, particularly playing in a team who will create more chances than he's probably ever had, if Morelos stays then he'll be a very adequate understudy but if worst case scenario happens against PSV then he might find himself as our first choice #9.
 
I think if we lost Morelos we'd definitely need to strengthen that area but I'd not be overly worried about relying on Colak domestically at least.

I've got a habit of remembering when they get pumped 😂

He's still young and young wingers tend to be inconsistent, as long as you can see talent in there you persevere and the glimpses of magic you see become more frequent.
He's played 74 games, started 52 of them and played in England, Germany and Belgium already, he's going to need time to adjust and grow here.

My mistake, was sure it was actually put in by the sports minister into law at one point.
I can see that the FA's get the power from this through Uefa Article 48. Its optional though, so the FAs if they wanted could just ignore it.

It's not, it's just an agreement we enter into willingly every July, it can be scrapped every single year but the clubs always instruct the SFA to renew the agreement, the Scottish and English FA's are the only football associations in Europe who have blackouts.

I had no worries we would get past USG, even after last week's debacle I still fancied us strongly, this game is a different kettle of fish, I think it's very evenly matched but I do fancy us, blue tints are always on, no point saying they're not but I just feel they're below a Dortmund and Leipzig and we've shown we're more than capable in that environment, more importantly as well, the second leg is away from home and that'll be two further weeks of getting Morelos upto speed, he'll start in Holland and he'll score and take us through.
 
I fancied Monaco to scud them so while I'm happy we've avoided that game it's obvious PSV have big qualities but this squad knows what's expected of them in these two leg games and whether we win or draw next week, Alfie will be instrumental over there.👊

Playing PSV!!!
 
Thats a result in itself

We're on our way Brother, tonight is just the start
 

Playing PSV!!!
 
Thats a result in itself

Its your duty to believe we'll win it.
 
The tims have a settled side so it's just about keeping pace with them until our new players find their rhythm, by that time you'd expect Morelos to be flying again too, I'm confident.

I think Barry had a very similar personality to Derek in the sense that they were very easily led astray, that was Derek's biggest problem, pretty sure Souness tried to keep him on track but he struggled with the self discipline and with the teammates around him he always had an opportunity to go out.
 
With Barry, he was lucky that while Advoccat got a hold of him, unlike Derek, he was surrounded by a lot of model pros so it was easier for him to remain disciplined (even if he did have his moments)
 
Derek could've been a fantastic player but was a symptom of the times.

I'm no doubting your research mate, you've clearly spotted a pattern that he succeeds in and one not so much but I would say Malmo at home last year was a case were he flourished as the lone striker, they may have set up as a two but as soon as their midfielder got sent off on the stroke of half time they changed their formation and Colak played through the middle by himself with two runners either side of him and he done us twice.
 
That for me shows he can play that role in the biggest of occassions.

Where are we right now?
 
Transition, it was always going to be the case, two of our big players gone in Aribo and Bassey, our two most influential players in Europe running out of contract and currently injured (Kent and Morelos) and trying to bed in a new CB and left back.
 
It's been borderline miraculous/incompetent to hold onto so many players for as long as we have, the longer we held off selling them there was always going to come a summer were we might lose 3 or 4, you can spend all the money in the world and the more you spend the better chance you've got of getting it right but it's always going to be  big ask to bring 4/5 newbies into what was a very strong side last year and expect them to hit the ground running.
 
I'd say the important thing will be not to panic, as much as you don't want to give that mob credit, last year is an example of how quickly it can turn around, they started slow, very slow but they turned it around, I don't think we're anywhere near that kind of state and if we keep the heid we'll do alright this season, this tie isn't over yet, if we don't make the CL it'll be a bitter blow but the Europa is probably our level and we could give that a real go again while that mob will get demoralising pumpings regularly so in the worst case scenario we have an opportunity to build up some genuine momentum in the autumn or in the best case scenario we qualify for the CL and probably make one or two big signings that will enhance the quality of our first XI.
 
Tonight was abysmal but there's a lot to be positive about.

That's Steven Davis job, there's no point renewing his contract to play against St Mirren, he's the one player you can trust to take the ball deep and start a move, I wasn't overly thrilled about his renewal but if he's in the squad I'd rather he played in these type of games until Gio signs someone better than him.

That's Steven Davis job, there's no point renewing his contract to play against St Mirren, he's the one player you can trust to take the ball deep and start a move, I wasn't overly thrilled about his renewal but if he's in the squad I'd rather he played in these type of games until Gio signs someone better than him.

He's the sole reason we're still in this tie, I don't think people are down on him personally it's just that seeing him on the pitch is a huge reminder that they club haven't strengthened an area of the pitch that was badly needed.
 
Negativity breeds negativity.
 
We go through next week and his performance last night will be lauded for a while.

Gerrard didn't fancy Katic and neither does Gio, I don't see why they would cut their nose off to spite their face, there's clearly an issue with him whether it's ability, fitness or attitude but he's not someone that two brilliant football men just didn't want to give an opportunity to.

Where are we right now?
 
Transition, it was always going to be the case, two of our big players gone in Aribo and Bassey, our two most influential players in Europe running out of contract and currently injured (Kent and Morelos) and trying to bed in a new CB and left back.
 
It's been borderline miraculous/incompetent to hold onto so many players for as long as we have, the longer we held off selling them there was always going to come a summer were we might lose 3 or 4, you can spend all the money in the world and the more you spend the better chance you've got of getting it right but it's always going to be  big ask to bring 4/5 newbies into what was a very strong side last year and expect them to hit the ground running.
 
I'd say the important thing will be not to panic, as much as you don't want to give that mob credit, last year is an example of how quickly it can turn around, they started slow, very slow but they turned it around, I don't think we're anywhere near that kind of state and if we keep the heid we'll do alright this season, this tie isn't over yet, if we don't make the CL it'll be a bitter blow but the Europa is probably our level and we could give that a real go again while that mob will get demoralising pumpings regularly so in the worst case scenario we have an opportunity to build up some genuine momentum in the autumn or in the best case scenario we qualify for the CL and probably make one or two big signings that will enhance the quality of our first XI.
 
Tonight was abysmal but there's a lot to be positive about.

There's no getting away from it, Gio got it wrong to start with and nothing he did to change it made it any better, in fact it got worse, the one saving grace tonight is we didn't completely capitulate by losing a 3rd goal and we're still in this.