[Never winning the title this season]

Maybe we won’t but I’m not going to give up on things this early on. If we drop points to Dundee, st Johnstone or Livingston the at this early stage i’d say it looks very unlikely.

Beat them then hearts and the spoon burners and people will start to believe it again such is the yo-yo of optimism to pessimism.

[No excuses]

Just now, Dickie said:

Take it your were happy watching that pish today?

What is that based on? I called out that you said Gerrard got his team selection wrong then said it had nothing to do with team selection.

i think Gerrard got it wrong today, based on the demands of Thursday night he had a few choices:

• play the preferred 11 and play high pressing, high tempo and run the risk of them being exhausted after 25 mins
• play the preferred 11 but acknowledge they’re tired and sit deep
• play a weakened/rotated 11 and play high pressing, high tempo and run the risk of the, not being good enough to do so
• play a weakened/rotated 11 and acknowledge they aren’t as good and sit deep

Whatever he did above some would not be happy but the odds were against us today but 12 games unbeaten tends to make you get ahead of yourself and believe we could do it despite the context.

So I’m not happy but I can see why the gaffer did what he did, it wasn’t right so he needs to learn.

[No excuses]

25 minutes ago, Dickie said:

We we’re well beat and 1-0 was a result for us. Team selection wrong ,tactics wrong. Gerrard is going to be one of our greatest ever managers but u cannot let any team ,be it Tim’s or mwell attack u non stop and expect a result. Hopefully he will learn from today and move on. If ever in the Rogers era we had a chance to have a go then today was it but that was just a total fuck up , go in at half time and say if fucked up and change it but to go with same system was suicidal. 

 

10 minutes ago, Dickie said:

Fuck all to do with team selection,Gerrard said his game plan was high pressing the opposition, well today we made brown and co look like Barcelona. Dig me up fair enough but tell me where Gerrard got I right today and then we’ll discuss it 

Time for bed mate 

[Ejaria]

Just now, Sportingintegritymyarse said:

Fair dos on that.

But likewise folk say certain players became scapegoats as soon as they're criticised for obvious actual errors. Can't praise but not be allowed to criticise or vice versa.

  Mate i’ve had to argue the right to criticise players, most recently Murphy, where I said if we aren’t allowed to criticise then eveyone is perfect and we never improve.

Theres a right way to criticise a players performance or a passage of play and there’s just spitting the dummy out to vent some anger at the result. We’re all feeling the pain of it but I can’t stand for players who gave everything on Thursday and were clearly knackered but didn’t shite out of the game feigning injury or anything getting called shitebags.

[Ejaria]

1 hour ago, Vanoli said:

Deserves all the abuse he's going to get for that, complete and utter shitebag. Manager and team mates should be giving it to him absolutely stinking. 

How about watching the game on Thursday back before calling him that. Put in a helluva shift and score the goal that essentially got us through but aye a mistake that gave them a goal and a 1-0 defeat makes him a complete and utter shitebag.

he made a mistake whilst he was blowing out of his arse (Gerrard should have had him off before then anyway)

Mistakes need to be addressed by the manager and coaching team but so soon after the performance on Thursday to say that is just bang out of order.

[Ejaria]

9 minutes ago, Sportingintegritymyarse said:

When a player does well he gets praised, when makes costly errors gets criticised. It's being focussed on because it's current, same way that on Thursday praise for a strong performance and goal was focussed on because it was current.

Imagine focussing on breaking down fault for a lost goal in a one mil defeat...

Saying he was at fault for the goal is fine what I was meaning was people start writing him off in general because of this mistake, much like some writing the whole season over or Gerrard as a shit manager because of this game.

Its dangerous to make rash generalisations against a player, team or manager looking at a single game in isolation.

I have no problem with people saying he should have tracked his man, been more aware etc. but it’s not fair to say he’s shit or however some are putting their point across.

[Gaffers reaction]

6 minutes ago, Robmc1 said:

Yes, like Christie’s ridiculous (no other way to describe it) dive. I actually thought he was the one going to be carded for simulation, no Goldson...

That was ridiculous, sums that lot up. 1-0 up and still cheat.

[Gaffers reaction]

2 minutes ago, Supersonic said:

I think his comments about "the ref cost us" are pretty poor as well. Goldson said himself they shouldn't have been able to stroll up 80 yards and score regardless of the ref. Even then, cost us what? The draw? Cause we never once looked like we were going to win. Gerrard was clearly playing for a draw and it backfired. It's a fucking sore one to take for me.

For me Gerrard had 2 options.

Play his preferred 11 but sit deep or make changes to the starting 11 to get fresh legs and play as we do normally.

I don’t think the option was there to play this 11 and have them press, high tempo attacking game.

He probably thought treat it like an away game in Europe, not lose any ground to them and then hopefully the next time we play them we won’t be coming off the back of a 9 hour flight following a game with 9 against 11.

It backfired and we lost a poor goal and the 3 points.

What it does mean is we have to go on a winning run and utilise our squad more. We all knew getting through to the groups meant a lot to us as a club and financially so we couldn’t rest anyone and then events transpired to fuck us over for today.

It also means that Gerrard must surely see the best way of getting at them is to be in their faces from the start therefore if your starting 11 aren’t fit, rest the ones that need it and bring in fresh legs.

If we had a fully fit preferred 11 guaranteed we’d be fine this season, however there are a lot of games and that means tired legs or rotating to use players not as effective. Also losing Murphy and Coulibaly meant our better back-up players were already beeing used and it would mean going down another level in quality if we rotated.

Lessons to be learned for sure and hopefully unlike the previous managers this one actually does learn.

[Ejaria]

31 minutes ago, Tumshie said:

He didn't track his man, same as Tav didn't last week. He's made an arse of it but he isn't a diddy.

This.

Ejaria was immense in Russia but when mistakes like this cost goals that’s all people focus on.

We do need to stamp out these stupid goals of tracking your man at set pieces and also open play as well.

[If?]

28 minutes ago, bordersbear said:

A couple of months ago someone said to you that we would go unbeaten in 12 games, qualify for group stages of uefa cup and lose one nil away to them you would have taken their hand off . Why the big melt down by some?

Because as soon as we started winning games the hype train was well and truly out of the station and many believed it would be a piece of cake for 55 and we’d easily beat them.

However, ask yourself this......when we didn’t put more than one past Ufa in the first leg how many of us were disappointed because it meant we couldn’t rest players in the second leg because we wanted them fresh for today?

Furthermore, when a Ejaria scored in Russia how many of us thought yes, tie over, we can relax and rest some players in the second half.

instead for the first time since the st Mirren league cup final in 2010 we had to play with 9 men and battle like never before to get through to the group stages. We welcome our squad home as heroes and warriors and yet no one then thought maybe we w \ont be able to press them that hard on a Sunday.

expectations never lowered despite the fact we were already a) tired and then had to play with 9 men for 30 odd minutes and 10 for 60.

were we good enough today? no

is the season over? No

People need to look at this game in context rather than in isolation.

[Mcgregor Kick]

We can have no complaints if he gets a retrospective ban and as good as his performance was today and I know he hates them but we need to channel the aggression in the right way, same goes for Morelos.

[Tactics]

4 hours ago, BlueMe said:

Poor performance, but i can totally understand why we chose to try and contain them and hit on the break. We simply wouldn't have the energy to play a high pressing game, we were never going to go into this game chasing everything down with constant pressure 3 days after travelling half way around the world and playing a game with 9 men. 

Poor performance, but a bit of realism is required here i think. This team's been playing together weeks and still gelling, getting into the groups has possibly set the bar a bit higher than it should be at the moment. 

 

Good post and whilst many will say it’s making excuses I don’t think we can just say it’s a shite performance without looking st the context.

There were obvious signs of physical and mental fatigue....slack passing, poor touches and a lack of pace in our general play that for me meant whatever formation we went with we’d have struggled.

The break will remove the tiredness from the equation so if we struggle to beat Dundee then i’ll start to worry but that is going to be our first league game that doesn’t come off the back of a European game so we’ll get a better idea then of what we can do when rested and prepared.

[Thursday - Sunday]

No one is saying that we can’t be critical just because they fought so hard on Thursday but it’s the polar opposite reactions that are ridiculous and make us look like them.

It’s comments like shitebags, cunts, spineless etc. used for a group of players where 9 had started the game on Thursday and showed more character than all of our players since 2012 put together.

We’re no finished article and we will make mistakes but going from saying we are the greatest team in the world to being a bunch of spineless wasters is embarrassing, especially after seeing the draw for our group stage and saying we can finish second.

I have faith in Gerrard and his team because if he can ship out 20 odd players and bring in 13 and get us through to the group stages of Europa league then I know he and the squad will come good and will start spanking teams domestically.

People need to learn to reign in their reactions a bit (if Morelos is being told to them so do we).

[Next Four Games]

The difference with this team compared to last year is they have shown through the European games they have fight, spirit and determination. Whilst it appears this was missing today it shouldn’t be hard to get the players back to their normal selves against Dundee and must target to go on a winning (not unbeaten but winning) run.

[Calm down ffs]

People forget a number of things when they call the players shitebags (who 2 days ago we were lauding as heroes and warriors) so here's some perspective:

• 6 of the starting 11 making their Old Firm debut in front of only 800 Rangers fans (who knows what effect this will have had)
• 9 of our starting 11 played on Thursday where for most of the game we played with 10 men and half an hour with 9 men being barraged but came through it all and then had an 8-9 hour flight back home
• Their lot had an easy home win and were able to rest players
• Our team has been put together since June 1st this year, their team is still largely the same, so give it time
• We still have huge number of games left and if you beat them in the other 3 games then no one will talk about this

However, the manager has to learn. If the plan was to sit deep because we were tired or we feared them then thats not good enough and it needs to change. If we are tired and you want to press then change your starting line-up. If you feared them and told the players to sit in then shame on you and I hope that the lesson is learnt.

I'm not having a go at anyone being pissed off or down about the performance but whether you can see it or not just now this season will be better than last and I have no doubt we will push the scum all the way.

 

[Press the cunts it’s that simple.]

2 minutes ago, CoatbridgeBear said:

Hearts showed how to beat they cunts, get in their faces and they flap. We stood off them waiting on them to do their thing, the goal was coming from the start. Our players don’t believe we can beat them and it’s embarrassing. Ejaria at the goal was a disgrace, also time for Tav do be dropped. Fucking scunnered.

I presume the players were told to sit deep basically taking Thursday nights efforts into consideration. If we had pressed and were shagged our 25 mins in what would the score have been then?

You could see from misplaced passes, poor control and generally and overall lack of sharpness the players were physically and probably mentally fatigued. It was always going to be an ask to win this after the Ufa game but for me it’s a reason to rest the players who played the majority of that game and get bodies on who can and will press for the vast majority of the game.

I guess we’ll never know for this particular game but when the next one comes around we need to be damned sure we go at them with no fear shown.

I know the players will need the rest but I wish we were playing next weekend at the latest because I hate breaks when we lose a game but especially to the scum and I want the players to have the chance to put things right as soon as possible.

[Answers please Steven Gerrard]

8 minutes ago, mitre_mouldmaster said:

We lost an away game to them 1-0 after a massive away trip in europe where we played a big chunk of the match down to 9 men.

Im not losing much sleep over this.

Emotions are running high it’s like comments made by someone when drunk.

Im disappointed we backed off them so much but if we pressed would we have lasted 90 mins?

Gerrard and his team have done so much good since 1st June and there is more to come. Coulibaly to return, Grezda to provide much needed creativity and a team to get some well deserved rest to regroup and hopefully smash Dundee in the next game.

Im gutted losing this as I always am but it needs a bit of perspective but at the same time Gerrard has to see that we can never sit back against that mob.

[We’re still scared of them]

Call it too much respect or fear but if the manager has told the players to sit off them that deep then he’s got it badly wrong. We should have been pressing and in their faces from the off.

Need to regroup over the break, get rested and just get back to business with winning games again. I can’t imagine for 1 second Gerrard will sit in like that against them again especially not at Ibrox. They’ll drop points as they are nowhere near where they were and we are far better than we showed today.

[Steve Gerrard the miracle worker]

No doubt he has ability but like forrester he doesn’t have the right attitude and has clearly got problems.

This is why you don’t take expensive gambles on broken hoods hoping that you might just have the manager to turn it all around and get him to realise their full potential.

He had a chance at redemption here....blew it.

He had another chance at Cruz azul....blew it.

Somehow he got another chance at necaxa....blew it.

Gerrard has good man management skills by the looks of things but Pena is a lost cause.

[Harry Forrester]

1 hour ago, Jack The Flipper said:

The guys as much use as raw chicken ice skates...

 

[Big Rusty released by Norwich]

3 minutes ago, MacBoyd said:

Bring him home. Would be good cover especially with us having three young defenders he could improve them.

Aye ok captain Birdseye

[Which club is bigger? (Talksport vote)]

Just needed to take a peek at periscope last night. We have second to none the best fans in the world. WATP ?⚪️?

[Europa League expectations]

If everything goes well I can see us grab second but in all likelihood third is probably most likely.

Moscow will be first with a 3 way fight for second.

[The Moment We Qualified]

[Morelos]

Watching the sending off back and the ref clearly just takes offence to Morelos swiping the air. As far as dissent goes that is the softest decision you will ever see in your lifetime, ridiculous. He's actually taking the whistle away from his mouth as Morelos raises his hand and then continues to lower the whistle and then out of nowhere just reacts like he's just been told if he doesn't send him off he'll never see his wife and kids again.

However none of it would have come about if Morelos hadn't a) kicked the ball away in the first place and b) just accepted the decision

One last thing. Those Ufa players trying to get the crowd going can go fuck themselves.