Backline looks more promising

[Beaujolais 1,371]

I am firmly in the "it's to early to say" camp. It is my biggest concern. That may be due to our to often clear and ever present vulnerabilities in defence last year. However it does look as if there is serious intent to sort the problem.

[Orangeclement 570]

How fucking dare you post a positive thread in the BD you must have known the negative nancy types would be right in there. 

 

Still too early to say for sure but I can see the improvements 

[left winger 14,183]

8 hours ago, lewislaudrup said:

The first 20 mins against motherwell, the back line was no where to be seen

The Motherwell games was really repeat of last season. Poor defending when we could have lost a few goals, then in the end a decent performance and comfortable win, with basically last season's team.

The three games since have told us absolutely nothing about our defence for the coming season. Hopefully, the Burnley game will see them react positively to a bit of pressure.

[Bluepeter9 5,167]

8 hours ago, RFCRobertson said:

In the past 4 games, I've noticed a good improvement with our backline. Although it's not been properly tested yet, it looks that they've had a telling off regarding positions. 

There was a good constant back line of 3 minimum and 4 at most times. Barton and Rossiter looks like the part in terms of CDM, it's just the thing we were missing last season was someone capable to stay back and just provide a bit of support. No offence to Halliday but he's too aggressive minded to do CDM work, Barton on the other hand just sits comfortably in the middle of the two Centrehalfs at the half way line and eases the ball to players. 

The fullbacks look to be doing a better job defensively too, again they've not been tested yet but the fact that the communication seems to be sorted in terms of 1 going forward and 1 staying behind seems to be down. I don't think I saw Tavernier/Hodson and Wallace both up the park. There was usually one holding back. 

So early stages but so far it looks like it's promising. 

Not really tested yet but our back 4 is nowhere near as bad as people make out - my concern about them is more The ability to deal with high balls and crosses than anything else. Barton in that holding role looks like he offers real protection. 

[sammy cox 664]

The back four/five is not perfect but how many teams have a perfect back four/five. There have been multi million pound Rangers defences in the past concede goals to Motherwells,St Mirrens etc.Lets see how they get on this season before we start making judgements.The whole team will have to be at their best every game not just certain individuals but hence the reason for the squad as it is now.

[Turnberry18 3,204]

Too early to say, but I liked  that Kiernan looked comfortable on the ball the other night. We'll see when they play better teams; but a stronger midfield should go a long way to helping our defence.

[Vanoli 4,625]

It's impossible to say anything like that to be honest. We were massively lucky to get out of Motherwell with a clean sheet. Can't just overlook that because we played well second half. Since then we've had 3 mismatches, can't make any conclusions overall based on them imo. I will say protection for the defence looks improved with Barton and Rossiter, and communication looks to be much better with Hill. Hopefully those things lead to an improvement, but you really can't say yet. 

Burnley will be a really good test, despite them being a premier league side i still think we will take control of possesion. They'll offer plenty of quality on the counter, which is the biggest threat in most of our games. 

[WGOH 2,344]

Absolutely no point in this thread, it's basically pre-season, we don't judge the defence or the team in general. 

Repost after 4/5 games, which you probably will anyway

[.Williamson. 82,225]

Haven't been tested enough 

[cushynumber 25,178]

god no. Against Motherwell they were woeful - we could have been 2 or 3 down no problem. Theres a long way to go yet.

[VladimirWeiss69 802]

Barton and rossiter will definitely go a long way to helping them but I just dont trust either Kiernan or Wilson. After a few clean sheets against part timers and one against motherwell who we really could have been 2-3 goals down against in the first half at the end of the day it is still the two centerhalves that were causing us problems with some of there defensive displays last season.

Against a better team that will test the defence, that would be a better indicator, like burnley for example. If we want to push for 55 we need better centerbacks than those two, Hill could be one of them and I am excited to see who the other one is!

[RFCRobertson 11,778]

59 minutes ago, WGOH said:

Repost after 4/5 games, which you probably will anyway

[Ben10 2,272]

Danny Wilson doesn't get enough credit

[rossj6 96]

Same problems are still they're for me. Said it for months, we need a pacy centre back for the way we play. 

[To Be A Ranger 4,032]

Wilson seems to have improved a bit with a little more urgency in his game. I'm still disappointed in Kiernan whose passing and positional play still needs sorted.

[lidorfc 6,665]

7 hours ago, MasterD said:

The jury's still out.

A defence that included Faure at RB, McCulloch, Mohsni went 4 and 5 games in a row without conceding against these types of teams. Sure it's a start but we'll see how it goes in the first 4/5 league games.

That team was enough to give PTSD, holy fuck. 

What a difference.

[jackrfc95 4,255]

Kiernan and Wilson get a hard time, think with a midfielder that will actually sit in front of them and Hill playing beside one of them defence will be ok. The games which Ball played in front of them last year the defence did reasonably well in my opinion.

[plumbGER 24,518]

4 minutes ago, jackrfc95 said:

Kiernan and Wilson get a hard time, think with a midfielder that will actually sit in front of them and Hill playing beside one of them defence will be ok. The games which Ball played in front of them last year the defence did reasonably well in my opinion.

What about the game away to Falkirk with Ball sitting in front of defence?

Throw away a 2 goal lead to get beat 3-2

[RFCRobertson 11,778]

4 minutes ago, plumbGER said:

What about the game away to Falkirk with Ball sitting in front of defence?

Throw away a 2 goal lead to get beat 3-2

Ball was learning his trade, I'd be interested to see how that played out now. 

Also I love that Falkirk sells signed portraits of those goals now. 

[jackrfc95 4,255]

6 minutes ago, plumbGER said:

What about the game away to Falkirk with Ball sitting in front of defence?

Throw away a 2 goal lead to get beat 3-2

Take your point but on the flip side I'd say that the games against Celtic and Dundee were arguably our best performances of the season.

Don't get me wrong I'm not saying we don't need a defender that's going to command, organise, lead etc but just think it wouldn't be a compete disaster if we didn't bring someone in.

 

[Turnberry18 3,204]

1 hour ago, yermaw145 said:

Danny Wilson doesn't get enough credit

I agree with this. Something else that is plainly overlooked by the critics of our defence is the burden placed on them by our style of play. Against Motherwell, we had two at the back- the back like was slightly inside the Motherwell half of the park for much of the match, hovering around the half-way line. I love our style of play, but lets not overlook the demands this places right through the whole team.

[plumbGER 24,518]

9 minutes ago, RFCRobertson said:

Ball was learning his trade, I'd be interested to see how that played out now. 

Also I love that Falkirk sells signed portraits of those goals now. 

I liked Dom Ball,but he was a centre half playing out of position and it showed.

Aye we are a big deal to teams like Falkirk.

5 minutes ago, jackrfc95 said:

Take your point but on the flip side I'd say that the games against Celtic and Dundee were arguably our best performances of the season.

Don't get me wrong I'm not saying we don't need a defender that's going to command, organise, lead etc but just think it wouldn't be a compete disaster if we didn't bring someone in.

 

I don't think it would be a disaster either,but you see what a wee bit of competition (from Clint Hill) has done to Danny Wilsons game.

Someone else mentioned how he looked a lot more alert and i had noticed myself,he knows he has to improve to stay in the team.

Last season Wilson was strolling around as lax as fuck and got caught out plenty. 

[RFCRobertson 11,778]

14 minutes ago, plumbGER said:

I liked Dom Ball,but he was a centre half playing out of position and it showed.

Aye we are a big deal to teams like Falkirk.

Yeah pretty much, he's still learning even under Spurs. That goal they conceded proves it. We lacked a proper CDM to provide cover for our CB last season, Ball was a slight improvement over Halliday. There also wasn't an experienced CB or someone in that area to guide them like what the Strikers had with Miller. 

[jackrfc95 4,255]

13 minutes ago, plumbGER said:

I don't think it would be a disaster either,but you see what a wee bit of competition (from Clint Hill) has done to Danny Wilsons game.

Someone else mentioned how he looked a lot more alert and i had noticed myself,he knows he has to improve to stay in the team.

Last season Wilson was strolling around as lax as fuck and got caught out plenty. 

I agree that completion was missing in that position last year but think they showed in the big games they're capable of raising their game. 

Hopefully they can maintain that level over the course of the season against better opposition. 

[JR 1,480]

I think it's no surprise we've looked better at the back since we added some quality DM's to our lineup. But the truth is anything launched into our box causes mayhem and it's the CB pairing that ultimately marshalls those situations. I'm hoping Hill sorts that out but I'd be happier with a commanding CB brought in to shore us up.  

In open play we don't look too shaky but at set pieces I still get the fear.