the goal machine 7,810 Posted March 8, 2007 Share Posted March 8, 2007 http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/t...ers/6427887.stmWalter Smith admitted that his Rangers side were lucky to escape with a draw at home to Osasuna in the Uefa Cup. "We did not play at all and the 1-1 draw flattered us," said the Rangers manager. "It was the worst performance since I came back to the club. "We were poor in all aspects - possession, passing, pressure on the ball - and it has not been like that in other games. I've had a great reaction. "You've always got to be optimistic and hope we can't play that bad again." Rangers will be without Barry Ferguson for the second leg after the captain received a yellow card that means he is suspended for next week's trip to Spain. "It is another problem, but we are six days away from that one," said Smith, whose side have to face runaway Scottish Premier League leaders and Glasgow rivals Celtic on Sunday. "The problem I have to look at is why we played the way we did. "Stefan Klos made a couple of good saves and the only other thing we can say is that we kept going and Brahim Hemdani got the goal that got us a draw. "At least it gives us something to take to Spain next week." Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
J_RFC87 761 Posted March 8, 2007 Share Posted March 8, 2007 At least he isnt covering up anything. He knows the weaknesses and we should play better next week. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
CanadianGer 1 Posted March 8, 2007 Share Posted March 8, 2007 At least he isnt covering up anything. He knows the weaknesses and we should play better next week.Well said, Jadams. and he gets right to the heart of the matter - why did we play like that? Its amazing that the team can look confident and settled one day and totally lost less than a week later. Glad Walter is on the case to sort it out. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Danny 9 Posted March 8, 2007 Share Posted March 8, 2007 To be fair, PLG never covered anything up either. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest orangpendek Posted March 8, 2007 Share Posted March 8, 2007 like the centre of defence...... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Danny 9 Posted March 8, 2007 Share Posted March 8, 2007 like the centre of defence......Bidum t'sh. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Albahighlander 0 Posted March 8, 2007 Share Posted March 8, 2007 WSalter was as brutally honest as i have ever heard tonight.On the way home from the game I was shocked at how poor and ineffective we were.My hopes for next week were only raised when I heard Walter at least dismissing everything about our performance tonight as poor. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stardog 11 Posted March 8, 2007 Share Posted March 8, 2007 It's pretty obvious what the problem is - Smith's team choice and formation.We were lucky to win 2-0 against Hibs aswell with 2 keeping errors. Novo and Prso have to play in European matches. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
polar bear 0 Posted March 8, 2007 Share Posted March 8, 2007 At least he isnt covering up anything. He knows the weaknesses and we should play better next week.Well said, Jadams. and he gets right to the heart of the matter - why did we play like that? Its amazing that the team can look confident and settled one day and totally lost less than a week later. Glad Walter is on the case to sort it out.Smith picked the team CG.and what a mess he made of that,why start two useless tossers like Boyd and Burke?when it's pretty obvious(to every Bear in my club anyway) that novo wide right and,even a non-striker prso,should have been a no-brainer choice.Smith in Europe ,utter failure Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Canadaready 9,437 Posted March 9, 2007 Share Posted March 9, 2007 At least he isn't one to pull punches. He will need to get it 100% right in the return leg.I am off next week so I will be at the club...I hope its worth it Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
rfc72 0 Posted March 9, 2007 Share Posted March 9, 2007 Hes just being honest he will be raging with the players its probably the worst display since he took over but 2nite just reminded me of Easter road all over again just never looked like creating anything again and the 4-5-1 or 4-2-3-1 has to be ditched cause it simply doesnt work and we dont have the rite players to play the formations either Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
CanadianGer 1 Posted March 9, 2007 Share Posted March 9, 2007 At least he isnt covering up anything. He knows the weaknesses and we should play better next week.Well said, Jadams. and he gets right to the heart of the matter - why did we play like that? Its amazing that the team can look confident and settled one day and totally lost less than a week later. Glad Walter is on the case to sort it out.Smith picked the team CG.and what a mess he made of that,why start two useless tossers like Boyd and Burke?when it's pretty obvious(to every Bear in my club anyway) that novo wide right and,even a non-striker prso,should have been a no-brainer choice.Smith in Europe ,utter failure Agree, PB that you can't start out with one man up front at home and expect a result. Boyd was never going to add anything there. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
excoriate 0 Posted March 9, 2007 Share Posted March 9, 2007 I dont understand why we played with 1 striker tonight.It wasn't like we were playing Barcelona or Man Utd.It was Osasuna.At HOME. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
minstral 5,375 Posted March 9, 2007 Share Posted March 9, 2007 I dont understand why we played with 1 striker tonight.It wasn't like we were playing Barcelona or Man Utd.It was Osasuna.At HOME.he has done it for years. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
delparlane 5,711 Posted March 9, 2007 Share Posted March 9, 2007 Hes just being honest he will be raging with the players its probably the worst display since he took over but 2nite just reminded me of Easter road all over again just never looked like creating anything again and the 4-5-1 or 4-2-3-1 has to be ditched cause it simply doesnt work and we dont have the rite players to play the formations eitherSpot on. It was astounding how truly inept we looked tonight - Osasuna must be raging at Hemdani's equaliser, 'cause we should've been humped at least 3-nil the way we played tonight. Still... we didn't, and ya have to love that. Frankly, if I were a Gers player that would give me a lot of confidence, because we would be hard put to play that badly again. As has been said elsewhere, though, we HAVE to ditch the Boyd on his Todd Sloan up front idea (though our delivery tonight was too piss poor all night to create any kind of threat, even if we played 2 strikers up front). The boys, from top to bottom have a LOT of homework to do between now and next week if they want to avoid being humiliated, and that starts with WS picking an appropriate formation. Thankfully, we salvaged something from f*** all here, so hope remains. Along with all other Bears, I would expect to see a much better showing by us next week. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
rfc_no1fan 13 Posted March 9, 2007 Share Posted March 9, 2007 Yeah well........Why did it take him over an hour to make a tactical alteration?Why did Boyd play for 86 mins when he was awful?Its ok sitting there at the end of the game and saying this went wrong and that went wrong. He is paid a vast amount of money to Manage the team during the game, Not state the obvious once the game has finished.Very disappointed with his approach to the game, very disappointed with his Tactics, But even more disappointed be his inability to have a Plan B and change the game plan whilst we were playing. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Muff 245 Posted March 9, 2007 Share Posted March 9, 2007 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
CanadianGer 1 Posted March 9, 2007 Share Posted March 9, 2007 Yeah well........Why did it take him over an hour to make a tactical alteration?Why did Boyd play for 86 mins when he was awful?Its ok sitting there at the end of the game and saying this went wrong and that went wrong. He is paid a vast amount of money to Manage the team during the game, Not state the obvious once the game has finished.Very disappointed with his approach to the game, very disappointed with his Tactics, But even more disappointed be his inability to have a Plan B and change the game plan whilst we were playing.True - and not just tonight. He was sometimes too hesitant with Scotland too. I remember watching us at home v Belarus. Took him about 25 minutes to decide to make a substitution and I'm not kidding. He and Tommy Burns stood with their heads together for almost the entire half chatting about it. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Albahighlander 0 Posted March 9, 2007 Share Posted March 9, 2007 listening to Clyde at the game - 32 minutes gone - Rangers need to change it up front , it's not working22 minutes gone, people round me at the game - Rangers need to change it up front, it's not working12 minutes gone, Osasuna fans - Hope Rangers don't change it up front, it's not workingWhy can we all see it ? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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