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A couple of things that we could improve on...


papaguy51

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There's very little that we could really improve on this year, but after sitting in the freezing cold watching 'that' on Tuesday night, three things stood out;

1 - Throw ins.

Why is it that every time we get a throw in, we struggle to find a man with the ball? Yet every time the opposition get a throw, there's two or three of them available to take it? It's a simple thing, but we lose possession almost every time we get one.

2 - Urgency.

At 0-0, I can take the players walking slowly to take a throw or a goal kick. At 1-0, 2-1 and 3-1 down, I can't. Every time we get the chance to take a quick throw or a quick kick, the taker dawdles up to it so slowly, allowing the opposition to get back and defend. I cannot understand this.

3 - The big gap between defence and midfield.

Although we often start with two apparent 'defensive' midfielders in Thommo and McCulloch, there always seems to be a 15 yard gap between the defence and attack that we never close down. Any ideas why?

As I said, so few things that have stood out this year, but this is the main three. And moaning about throw ins? Christ, I must be bored :lol:

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The throw-in thing bugs me too Papa. For as long as I remember the Rangers have had this fixation with the full backs taking all the throw-ins even when another player is better placed to take a quick one. It is very noticable when anyone other than one of the full backs takes a throw-in as it is such a rare occasion. I could see the point if we were good at them but, as you pointed out, we are not.

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I noticed how poor our throw ins were last Wednesday at Tannadice. Everytime we have a throw in Papac or Whittaker just clob it down the line and hope we get the second ball and the rest of the time the throw in is took and the ball gets returned to the taker at head height or else it just gets kicked out and the opposition have the ball back. It is the same thing every single time, you would have thought that they would have changed their plan of action after it not working previous times.

And every single player on the team should be showing some sort of urgency to win the 4 games that will win us the league. I can understand the tempo and urgency dropping if the league had already been clinched but when there is still work to be done and when we are losing we should be getting the ball back into play ASAP. Too many players with the holiday mindset.

It is clear that our midfield suffers when we have Davis out right. During December we had Davis in CM and he was getting on the ball, dictating the tempo and creating chances and forcing the opposition onto the back foot but with McCulloch and Thomson beside each other they stand on each other's toes and don't dictate the game the way Davis can. We need to get him back in the middle with Thomson/Edu/McCulloch as the player who sits and holds that defensive position. With McCulloch and Thomson together it seems that they don't know who should be going forward and who should be sitting and most of the time they get caught too far up the pitch or else sit too deep and invite pressure on.

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3 - The big gap between defence and midfield.

Although we often start with two apparent 'defensive' midfielders in Thommo and McCulloch, there always seems to be a 15 yard gap between the defence and attack that we never close down. Any ideas why?

Due to one thing, David Weir.

Weir doesn't have the pace to push the defensive line that extra 5-10 yards to plug the gap, also Walter likes the full backs to cut in to fill in the gaps. Limiting the oppositions players to play to our strengths long shots and defending cross balls.

You could also say, Mcgregor doesn't like coming off his line too much. So our defensive line sitting deep helps him out a lot.

All in all the players we have suits a defensive midfielder in a 4-3-3 set up, but that's for another debate.

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The throw ins have been bothering me for a long time. A lot of the time the ball is thrown into a crowd of players instead of one of our own players in space. It is something that is very simple but we rarely get it right.

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Starting matches quickly. We saw how effective this was in December. Not so much scoring early -- which is great -- but the energy levels. Coupled with that, pressing up the park as STU RFC mentioned. Not sure why we can't do this consistently? We have shown that we can.

Throw ins? Right. They are crap.. but let me take you back a couple of seasons... if you think they're bad now... 3 years ago.. we could never find a man.. so a (terrible) argument from me that we have improved!!! lol

McGregor has had a standout season and I agree he still needs to improve coming for the ball.. distribution.. punching... Improve these and he will be bona-fide world class. His shop stopping is now.

Lafferty. Just get on with the match. Moans too much. Not given up on him yet.

Boogie. Try and play for than 1/2 the season mate?

All in all so far so good.. but we need to focus to get over the finish line.

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I would have added

Wilson AND Weir - should not be allowed to try to pass more than 10 - 15 yards. (Weirs 15 yard pass won us the LC IMHO)

Both are extremely guilty of the 'punt' Wilson more so than and he will learn (I hope).

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In Wilson's case, I think he's picked up a lot of Weir's good habits, but also his major bad one and that is the punt.

I went to Dundee to see Wilson's debut, and he was as elegant as could be. Five, ten, twenty and sixty yard passes were all finding the target.

The more he's played beside Davie, the more he's aimlessly punting the ball to no-one.

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