performance V expectations

[Camshy 812]

Performance yesterday was well below par but people seem to forget we had an unfamiliar midfield playing and our midfield is the heartbeat of how we play, linking defence and attack together.

Only one true midfield player in Law yesterday and after he was taken off we had no natural midfielders on the park.

For me it was a mistake by Warbs and the team suffered in a creative sense, so much so that we barely had a shot on goal. No the performance was exactly how I expected yesterday and I doubt we will see such a poor showing again this season.........we still won though which is a good sign.

[scarkev 3,540]

Pretty much everyone with a degree of common sense understands this but as others have said I don't believe the gap is that big.....if we improve our spine....(still not sure of the keeper), add a Commanding CB, a natural DM and a striker we will be in a good place IMO.

[sammy cox 664]

6 minutes ago, Camshy said:

Performance yesterday was well below par but people seem to forget we had an unfamiliar midfield playing and our midfield is the heartbeat of how we play, linking defence and attack together.

Only one true midfield player in Law yesterday and after he was taken off we had no natural midfielders on the park.

For me it was a mistake by Warbs and the team suffered in a creative sense, so much so that we barely had a shot on goal. No the performance was exactly how I expected yesterday and I doubt we will see such a poor showing again this season.........we still won though which is a good sign.

I assume you were at the game yesterday.If you were I and im sure plenty more cant understand why you think MW made a mistake taking law off. He could have took him and shiels off at half time as none of the two of them were at the races.Both lacking the engine that is required, lost count of the times both were struggling with pace in getting back and helping out at back.Its no coincidence that without AH and JH our midfield was to say the least poor.I don't think the team played that good but it just shows you the work Halliday and Holt put in as it was missed badly yesterday.

[TonyRice1872 105]

2 hours ago, BridgeIsBlue said:

A speedy centre half,good luck finding one  

My thoughts exactly mate. I think some people take their transfer targets over the top imo. Crooks will probably be either CB or DM when he joins in the summer along with CAM Windass. 

[TonyRice1872 105]

Yesterday for the first time in my memory, in the 2nd half Rangers midfield was all under 22. Dominic Ball CDM, Barrie McKay & Gedion Zelalem. I don't know what some people expect but I was thoroughly happy with the victory, if our final third was a bit more polished which it definitely would be on a normal day we would have done them 3-0. Our defending was much more polished than usual.

[Camshy 812]

25 minutes ago, sammy cox said:

I assume you were at the game yesterday.If you were I and im sure plenty more cant understand why you think MW made a mistake taking law off. He could have took him and shiels off at half time as none of the two of them were at the races.Both lacking the engine that is required, lost count of the times both were struggling with pace in getting back and helping out at back.Its no coincidence that without AH and JH our midfield was to say the least poor.I don't think the team played that good but it just shows you the work Halliday and Holt put in as it was missed badly yesterday.

I wasn't necessarily referring I taking Law off, more about who he started with. Ball and Shiels specifically.

Law was the only true midfielder we had on the park and it was little wonder he struggled but he wasn't the only one who performed under par. I do think in changing the midfield he was the one who should have stayed on, in fact I was convinced either Shiels or big Dom would be taken off as I felt they were pretty poor in a creative sense.

 

We won the game but only just and as I said for me the mistake was made at the beginning of the match with the lineup........yes I was at the match.

[Big Al 55 9,248]

Agree completely, it's a work in progress. I think most people can see that. Doesn't detract from how far we've come in such a short time.

Sometimes it's good to look at the positives instead of focussing on the negatives.

The gap isn't that big, Aberdeen are a poor team and they aren't far behind.

3 or 4 good quality signings could make the difference, interestingly why are free transfers not good enough? The only difference between them and paying a fee is their contract has run down.

Havent you been banging on about living within our means for the last 20 years?

[sammy cox 664]

1 minute ago, Camshy said:

I wasn't necessarily referring I taking Law off, more about who he started with. Ball and Shiels specifically.

Law was the only true midfielder we had on the park and it was little wonder he struggled but he wasn't the only one who performed under par. I do think in changing the midfield he was the one who should have stayed on, in fact I was convinced either Shiels or big Dom would be taken off as I felt they were pretty poor in a creative sense.

 

We won the game but only just and as I said for me the mistake was made at the beginning of the match with the lineup........yes I was at the match.

Well considering the absence of AH and JH who else was he going to start with in the midfield.Keeping in mind that Falkirk are a pretty physical side which may explain the absence of Zelalem from the start.Shiels and Law were both asked to play in midfielder and as I say both could have been taken off at half time as both contributed very little in the middle.Dom wasn't there to be creative he was there to do what he did for most of the game which was try and break down Falkirks attacks.

[RFCRobertson 11,778]

2 hours ago, Sportingintegritymyarse said:

We have enough to win this league and the core of a decent squad. However we do lack quality up the spine of the team (keeper excluded). 

We've also been very fortunate with injuries and imo if we lost two or three key players ie Holt Waghorn McKay we would easily be dropping more points.

A huge summer lies ahead. I hope the board are up for what's required. 

We've no had holt the past two games and we've seen the effects off it. Holt although he goes unnoticed unless he's scoring, the impact he has on the pitch is massive. It's not uncommon to see him next to the back 2, then up the front, then in the middle, at one of the wings. He's all over the place and does great connecting plays. 

Waghorn would be a bad loss, but we've got players who can still score goals. 

McKay is just the same as holt, except he starts a lot of attacking runs. 

[soulboy 2,518]

2 hours ago, THE_Ibrox_Preacher said:

  Celtic will spend some of the money they've been banking

They are skint £4 million loss last year and it'll be a bigger loss this year no champs league money again or commonwealth games money.

 

They also have a £16.9 million loan to repay in 3 years

[TonyRice1872 105]

3 minutes ago, soulboy said:

They are skint £4 million loss last year and it'll be a bigger loss this year no champs league money again or commonwealth games money.

 

They also have a £16.9 million loan to repay in 3 years

 

[THE_Ibrox_Preacher 2,812]

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[AlBear. 8,499]

Oh well, that's it. Stop enjoying the win. At least you allowed us to enjoy it for 12 hours. Appreciated host.

This always happens when we have a hard fought win, despite there rarity this season. 'We're miles off' etc, and can only be applied when you ignore how good we've been for the majority of our games this season.

I fully expect us to keep improving as a team on the same curve under Warburton as we have been doing in the last 7 months, and to be improving the quality of the squad in summer. I see very little currently to be concerned/panicked/worried about.

Also, imo, the premiership standard is nowhere near as far ahead as some think/hope/wish.

[THE_Ibrox_Preacher 2,812]

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[gmcf 34,152]

5 minutes ago, THE_Ibrox_Preacher said:

That's a completely valid point and understated because when you look at it honestly you can say the following;

With Holt (star midfielder of late with Law) and Halliday (almost singular midfield grit outwith law) out, we had Zelalem (passenger playing, Shiels (only good as a sub) starting when we know that doesn't work, Forrester was playing (not match sharp by a matter of weeks) and Billy King playing (despite scoring he is only in the door 2 minutes and it's fair to assume he won't be fully clicked with everyone); all of this combined made the midfield to front very disjointed and ineffective. Essentially we have neither the quality nor the depth to make that many changes and look comfortable, Law was rotten yesterday and that says what kind of effect the changes had on him.

Now with that said it doesn't mean that we are infact ready for the top flight challenge with a fully fit first 11 but it does make it easy to understand why we were struggling yesterday.

Outwith the former we could see by the defensive errors (particularly Wilson in the first half) that we would be easily punished by slightly better teams and in turn confirm again what we all should know, we need some quality improvement there IF challenging on our immediate return is a goer.

We're heading in the right direction, and we've not overextended our resources thus far in a manner where we should have nothing up our sleeve. We should stress that point; for all there is work to be done we have signed 4 players and loaned a 5th who may himself become a permanent addition, that is strengthening even if it's not yet at a level where you can say "That's good enough to get the better of them". So at the risk of sounding overly repetitive it's not that we're light-years away from this current celtic team or that we're fucked, it's just merely stating what should be obvious; there's at least a spine of quality additions needing to be made by the end of the Summer window if going for the league is a sincere goal.

Think you've replied to the wrong post ?

I do generally agree with you , the difference being , as I explained in my next one , is I think it more realistic to be challenging for the title in the season after next , after a year in the spfl with its financial benefits. ?

[TonyRice1872 105]

I'm sure Celtic have a 1-0 win etc. every 5 or so matches, maybe the people on here just don't notice.

[AlBear. 8,499]

11 minutes ago, RangersMind said:

I'm sure Celtic have a 1-0 win etc. every 5 or so matches, maybe the people on here just don't notice.

They were probably too busy celebrating...

[THE_Ibrox_Preacher 2,812]

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[soulboy 2,518]

56 minutes ago, THE_Ibrox_Preacher said:

To insinuate they are skint in a manner that they are somehow worse off than us merely by not qualifying for the Champions League with a shoestring-side, seems delusionally optimistic. 

I never said they were worse off than us the  post I quoted said they are banking money for our return. If they are banking money which I seriously doubt then it's to repay the £16.9 million loan that has to be repaid in full in 3 years

[TonyRice1872 105]

39 minutes ago, THE_Ibrox_Preacher said:

a lot of fans at least seem to be voicing that we're definitely going to challenge and there won't be much in it with the team we have at present - I take the view that such a belief is folly unless they know for a fact we're spending or have top class freebies lined up.

 

your tripping mate. You have let the speculation get to your head. If we asked you in August you would have probably said that this team could do it. This team of players and management will do it, it doesn't matter if the fans prophesize who we are going to sign right now or not.

MW said in his latest pre-match presser, that he asked for 5 players in the summer and got them. I don't think he can make it any clearer not to get upset about not being forced to overpay for signings in this window.

[THE_Ibrox_Preacher 2,812]

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[Corky True Legend 2,682]

2 hours ago, gmcf said:

Not only Hearts this season , but the season previous Dundee and Hamilton finished 6th and 7th after promotion.  

You're quite right about the amount of points dropped previously and I don't think we will attain that level , but outside of c....c , nobody will , so I see no reason for us not to qualify for Europe , first time of asking , or , with a bit of luck get that 2nd Champions League spot ( if Scotland still gets one ).

Let's take the second point first. God knows how long it will be until Scotland gets a 2nd CL place, if ever. If the major associations get their way, we might not even get 1 place.

As to teams going up, are Rangers now to be happy with 6th or 7th next season? Not for me, thank you.

[TonyRice1872 105]

The expecation, even in Ibrox is that we will be in the Champions league within 3 years. I think we're strongly on course to that & we can't try to question it because in all honesty we're on track to it unless we stop doing as well as we are. I think if you consider it as a project then Mark Warburton & Davie Weir have done the best job possible so far as project managers.

[gmcf 34,152]

14 minutes ago, Corky True Legend said:

Let's take the second point first. God knows how long it will be until Scotland gets a 2nd CL place, if ever. If the major associations get their way, we might not even get 1 place.

As to teams going up, are Rangers now to be happy with 6th or 7th next season? Not for me, thank you.

I wasn't sure if Scotland still get a 2nd CL qualifying place , I take it we don't ! 

Just reread my post and I see the confusion so sorted it. I didn't mean I'd be happy with 6th or 7th. I'm expecting at the very least a Euro spot on our return. The season next , once we have the financial benefits of the spfl in our pocket , we can push on for the title. 

[Corky True Legend 2,682]

2 minutes ago, gmcf said:

I wasn't sure if Scotland still get a 2nd CL qualifying place , I take it we don't ! 

Just reread my post and I see the confusion so sorted it. I didn't mean I'd be happy with 6th or 7th. I'm expecting at the very least a Euro spot on our return. The season next , once we have the financial benefits of the spfl in our pocket , we can push on for the title. 

OK. mate. Sorry for the misunderstanding. I hope we can get a Euro spot next season but I think that we need major investment for that. The fact is that we just don't know if our current squad can compete with the top flight on a regular basis, not just on a "one off" cup tie.