Are you confident we'll finish second?

[eejay the dj 31,964]

9 hours ago, theiconicman said:

Sorry mate but that is delusion. We're 7 points behind Celtic with them a game in hand. They've run over us in two games this season and we're lucky to not have shipped more than 6 goals to them. 

There has been NOTHING shown by our team since about last December that says we've the ability to adapt our game now we've been found out. 

2nd place is a stretch at the moment. Aberdeen are second and beat us. 

Can we get second? Perhaps with a huge improvement in team performance and tactics. 

First place is just a pipe dream. 

You are spot on but you would have to believe if you weren't a quitter that the beggars will have a dip in form . They also will probably have the fall out from the Euro games they play .Injuries etc.

There is 3/4s of the season still to play . Experience tells me ,that's a hell of a lot of football to be played .

Our target should be ,to win all our games with no allowances until Christmas . Lets attack and forget all about this farting around the back shite  in which we persist in doing.

Come 31st .See what position we are in then .

Back to 5/6 pts then it would be game for the second half of the season . Realistic?

 

 

[Jack The Flipper 5,936]

It's going to be a relief if we win tonight against st Johnstone - that is where we are.

If you are not thinking the same way you have either not been watching us or you're fucked in the head and can sit alongside bp9.

Does that sound like a premier winning side?

It doesn't even sound like a 2nd place winning side.

[Swagger 7,967]

If we can find a settled team that can go on a bit of a run then yes we should have enough for second. If Warburton keeps giving game time to those underperforming and can't get past his stubbornness then we will be top 4 at best. 

 

[BlueSuedeSambas 53,789]

I think we will but it's not going to a case of strolling to it like some people expect.

We have been awful this season but if we win tonight we still go equal on points with Aberdeen and if Hearts win too we are only two points behind them which isn't a disaster when there will still be 28 games to play.

[theiconicman 2,991]

1 hour ago, eejay the dj said:

You are spot on but you would have to believe if you weren't a quitter that the beggars will have a dip in form . They also will probably have the fall out from the Euro games they play .Injuries etc.

There is 3/4s of the season still to play . Experience tells me ,that's a hell of a lot of football to be played .

Our target should be ,to win all our games with no allowances until Christmas . Lets attack and forget all about this farting around the back shite  in which we persist in doing.

Come 31st .See what position we are in then .

Back to 5/6 pts then it would be game for the second half of the season . Realistic?

 

 

I don't think so.

cant see us winning all our games t be honest. We're at 0 goal difference after 9 fucking games.  Our problem is not just defence but our inability to score or create.

The filth look a more resilient outfit under Rodgers so I don't see a run of bad results coming in this league

[left winger 14,185]

Last season we played four premier league teams and only managed to beat one in 90 mins. This season playing one every week is, obviously, a struggle so far, yet if we win tonight we're only two points behind second, at worst. I think we'll finish second, but it wouldn't surprise me if it took till the split to cement that position. 

[WGOH 2,344]

finishing 4th behind Aberdeen, hearts and the tarriers is a disaster season, no matter where we've come from or how we've been playing. 

Finishing 2nd isn't even good enough at this club, but will be enough for MW to keep his job, anything worse and he has to go.

[eejay the dj 31,964]

1 hour ago, WGOH said:

finishing 4th behind Aberdeen, hearts and the tarriers is a disaster season, no matter where we've come from or how we've been playing. 

Finishing 2nd isn't even good enough at this club, but will be enough for MW to keep his job, anything worse and he has to go.

Even 2nd won't be enough for me if we keep getting beaten in big game matches 

He is not the winner ,I thought we had unearthed 

[WGOH 2,344]

45 minutes ago, eejay the dj said:

Even 2nd won't be enough for me if we keep getting beaten in big game matches 

He is not the winner ,I thought we had unearthed 

If he keeps losing the big games he won't finish second anyway, the game away at Tynecastle will be massive for the season and MW's future. 

Even tonight is a big game, StJ are no pushovers. 

[Jack The Flipper 5,936]

Is everyone fully confident we will even get third?

That's how bad things are.

For me this year is fucked into oblivion, I'm just going to support as best I can and hope we make progress. There's nothing left as a goal in my opinion other than progress.

[Brubear 2,920]

Only voted confident on the basis of Aberdeen and Hearts being poorer this year than last    We have been very poor so far but are only a couple of points off 2nd and actually didn't deserve to lose to Aberdeen   

[googglebot 4,736]

6 hours ago, loyalfollower said:

Nice football won't win us anything on its own though.  Look at every team we play and I include Celtic in this, you can see it in their faces how much they want to get the ball back and how much they want to win.  Going by Sunday then only Clint hill is showing the same determination to get the ball.  We're too easy to defend against and too easy to attack and until we get 3 dogged players who are happy getting stuck in and giving the ball to the better players we'll continue to be push overs 

Spot on

[Blue Avenger 22,567]

5 hours ago, Swagger said:

If we can find a settled team that can go on a bit of a run then yes we should have enough for second. If Warburton keeps giving game time to those underperforming and can't get past his stubbornness then we will be top 4 at best. 

 

Settled? MW plays the same old every week, no matter bad they are, when he has better options on thd bench. Too well settled and that's one of our problems..I've seen more fire from dead candle.

[Gaz52 11,837]

A lot of people changing their minds after the mighty Aberdeen get beat off Hamilton. 

That's what we're up against. That's what you're afraid of. 

Rangers fans my arse

[jackrfc95 4,255]

We've been utter shite this season, yet come Saturday night we could be sitting in second place 3 points clear of Aberdeen.

[plumbGER 24,518]

7 minutes ago, Blue Avenger said:

Settled? MW plays the same old every week, no matter bad they are, when he has better options on thd bench. Too well settled and that's one of our problems..I've seen more fire from dead candle.

No he doesn't.

He has his favourites but he chops and changes constantly.

[chipster 6]

75 points has been good enough to take 2nd the Last two years in this league. There's 29 games left to play (87 points up for grabs). If as some on here believe that celtic,aberdeen & hearts are all better than us & we lose all 10 of the remaining games against them (30 points) but we beat everyone else that would give us 57 points plus the 15 we already have that gives us a total of 72 for the season. Personally I don't believe we'll win every game against the other teams but I also refuse to believe that'll we'll loose all ten against the so called "top three" I have a feeling the points we get will be somewhere between 72 & 80 which should secure 2nd comfortably.

[Reformation Bear 6,453]

When Warburton said a number of times pre-season and around the start of the season that his aim for the first team was that it would be 'more than competitive' many - including me - thought this was a reflection of our tradition and that the firm aim was to be going for 55 this season.   After all, the Club reinforced this by its continued use of the phrase 'going for 55' but which it now seems to be quietly playing down on its website and twitter material.   It served its purpose though in helping to encourage massive numbers of ST sales.

Warburton modified his 'more than competitive' message recently in press interview when he said he believed Rangers would be 'highly competitive'.  I take that to be a slight watering down of ambition.

King made it clear in interviews a while back that he expected Rangers to be (just) 'competitive' this season.  And qualified that by adding the expectation was to achieve a european slot for next season.  Which means finishing 2nd (or 3rd) or winning the Scottish Cup.

None of the statements by Warburton or King hold true to the tradition of Rangers.    

But its a transition year I hear you say, and the money isn't there to replace the £30m of talent that defected from Ibrox when we went to Div 3, so it was always going to take longer than one season to be really going for 55.    Pity then that King and Warburton did not do a better job about setting that expectation level   The massive sales of STs was of course great from Club funding point of view but it seems to me it meant that King and the Board needed to work less hard to find new investment or to dip into (shallow)) pockets to fund the acquisition of better quality players who might have made more of a fist of challenging for 55 this season.  

So, to the OP's question about confidence in winning 2nd.   Response at this time - No. Reasons - the evidence of games (league and the OF league cup semi) points to a team that is stuttering, struggling to score, still probably prone to losing goals at set pieces and on the break, and with a manager whose strengths seem to lie more in analysis than they do in inspiring and motivating players .     There is a great deal for the manager and team to prove with a quarter of the season already gone.

But perhaps more than that, a deliberate dumbing down of traditional ambition to one where we settle for 2nd is not something I find to be readily acceptable.   When you know as players that 2nd is really the target then there is a risk that you set your own personal and team standards to be just second.   The edge goes off your game.   Your attitude to losing points (or more to the point not winning points) risks becoming casual in the belief that because you are part of a chasing pack the others in the pack will take points of each other and as long as you are in reasonable contention at the business end of the season then that will do.    For clubs other than Rangers that might be a respectable (and realistic) approach.   But not, I think, for Rangers.  

That watering down of ambition and becoming just part of a chasing pack does not fill me with confidence that we can actually achieve 2nd as if it comes down to a real dog fight at the end of the season there is nothing I've seen in Warburton's sides and approach to the game that indicates to me that sleeves can be rolled up and the team adopting a win-ugly habit game after game if necessary.    Warburton could not organise and direct a team to close out the Scottish Cup final last season when we were ahead.   His 'no change' philosophy was arguably a contributor to losing the game where a win would have seen us playing European football this season.   By botching that prize which was in our hands it is an indicator that Warburton and Weir and this current squad may not have the battling capability needed to grab 2nd place.  

One more factor.  Last season we heard a lot about the value in having players hungry for success, players keen to prove themselves.    None of that this season though.  Seems like for many of them there appetite for success has been sated, or modified to consider success as being second best.   

[Lidl 191]

[Bruno's Manbun 2,631]

I voted confident....

I'll be the first to admit that we've been less than outstanding so far this season, but we're only one win away off sitting in 4th (3rd if Hearts drop points tonight) with a game in hand. If there's one thing you can be sure of, It's the sheep shaggers bottle well and truly crashing after new year, as is the same very year for them, and THIS year, we will capitalise on it.

[delparlane 5,660]

Guts me to say it, but based on what we've been seeing I do not have confidence this team will turn it around. Too many passengers & not enough steel in this side. Wonky defence, midfield that constantly goes missing, and strikers that are allergic to the goal; the whole team (barring Kenny and one or two others ) needs to be re-educated as to what it means to wear that blue jersey. That said, let them all hate me for saying this and make me eat these words - I'd welcome it with open arms.

[JCDBigBear 10,825]

Another game of huffing and puffing.   A home draw v St. Johnstone and MW will talk the same after match guff we have been hearing all season.   There is simply no sign of any improvement for me.  

 

 

[VallancesDog 2,051]

We'll be lucky for third.

[weeto 112]

Every then I think there is potential for a turnaround, things turn for the worse rather than better.

If you'd said to me we'd be behind at this stage of the season by more than a couple of points in the summer I would never have believed you. I expected to be about six points ahead already but they've improved and we're actually WORSE than at the same stage last season, even taking in the fact we were playing in the second tier then.

Our attack couldn't penetrate a snotty hanky and our defence is at sixes and sevens at the best of times.

When Warburton came to Ibrox, he actually stated that he was with Leicester when Jock Wallace was at the club and he wouldn't allow the way he treated players to be tolerated at Ibrox.

Maybe if he'd pin Joey Barton and the likes to walls with a hand round their throat we wouldn't be in the position we're in as he seems to have little control over the players and plays the same repetitive system and style.

While his style can hardly be compared to Ally McCoist's 'blooterball' style with long ball play and depressingly defensive formations, Warburton's MIA wing backs and attempts at the Ajax system are sadly just as one dimensional and inflexible. Ajax actually used players used to that system and often technically light years ahead of the dross at Ibrox at the moment. We could have played this style under Advocaat or someone like that with a team full of high class continental stars but a bunch of guys collected from the English lower leagues and some washed up veterans are not going to turn into a technical football machine in a short time.

In fact, while it probably sounds horrible, we'd probably be doing better with the long ball caveman tactics as they're often the same as those used by our opponents while we're playing a passing game which isn't creating the opportunities that a quick ball forward would.

We either need far better players or tactics better suited to the players available.

I think the title is drifting away to the point where unless Celtic hit a major slump, it'll be over for us before the New Year game.

If we continue as we are, we will struggle to ensure second but I think we will improve at least to an extent and that should be enough to drag us clear of the pack. It would take a dramatic improvement to even challenge for the title but at this stage of the season, it is possible but you would normally say that in the case of a team that have been playing patchy football with glimpses of great play but that has not been the case so far and we'be been consistantly substandard rather than going between a team looking like potential champions and one in the chasing pack.

Celtic have major vulnerabilities but we just don't seem capable of breaking through their defence. If we even had a team on the level of the three in a row team under Walter Smith before we got into the financial problems, we'd be crushing Celtic into the ground already as almost every team we've fielded in the modern era before the lower league situation would have been top of the league at this stage.

Celtic are poor but we're playing even worse and that is the problem.

I'd say this is the worst Rangers team I've seen in the Premier since 1986 when Souness took over after Jock Wallace left.

There are obvious financial reasons for that but I'm genuinely worried about what the club can do as I'd think we probably couldn't manage to get another manager any better than someone like Derek McInnes and he'd maybe not even want to join us. As for players, we're probably only capable of getting lower end Championship players from England, Scottish Premiership players not targeted by major English clubs and a few assorted MLS style veteran mercenary signings which probably would be as bad as Barton or Kranjcar.

[foghorn leghorn 608]

Earlier in the season I said jokingly to a mate that we'd be lucky to finish 4th and now it's looking that way I'm afraid.