Time required to play nice football

[NeoGeo7 10,558]

In patches under Warburton I've seen some of the best football we have played since Advocaat's sides and for that I am grateful and I think that he was a breath of fresh air after the journey's delay in the championship.

I get what he is trying to but to do that you need quality and to have quality requires either money to bring in quality or developing quality. Neither of these will happen overnight so what is the solution? Admit defeat and simply play the way all the other teams do around us or take the high road and get days like today where it just doesn't work?

The answer for me is somewhere in the middle.

Warburton should have used the summer window and pre-season to come up with a Plan B something not quite as pretty but more than capable of grafting out results for the hammer throwing teams like today. Sign players who can outmuscle their opponents on the deck, in the air and use them when required. Get a blend of passing on the deck and lifting the ball when required. That way when your keeper is pressed and they hoof it up the park we might actually have the personnel who can win the ball in the air.

The new league cup format gave us a great opportunity to try something different both formation wise and the approach play.

Not playing from the back or playing possession based football doesn't need to be 90 minutes every week because then we'd end up in the same (but reverse situation) where everyone knew that we'd play that way (McCoist's sides for instance).

If the opposition can't guess what you are going to do ahead of the game they have to adapt and thats where you can exploit the weakness during the game.

Every week we set up the same way, we play the same type of football, we have the same subs, the subs are at the same time, the subs lead to no change in shape.....we all see it, we all know it. Yet the manager is undeterred in his quest to play football the right way (as he sees it). I used to think it was commendable, now I feel it is stubborn and i'm also wondering if its all he knows.

Had we formed some sort of Plan B who knows how things might have turned out so far. A 3-5-2 or 5-3-2 wingback or a 4-4-2. I think its the fact he won't even try anything different that will ultimately see him succeed triumphantly and pull off a masterpiece or he'll walk due to the pressure or the board will sack him.

I also wonder if he truly understands the consequences of them getting 10 in a row? If he did them surely this season would have been about doing what was required to challenge. Play ugly when required to get the ball over the line and get 3 points each week. At least that way we might make it into Europe and get some much needed income that would hopefully make its way back into the team by funding new signings.

The big problem for Warburton (and any other potential manager) is that the current squad has been tailored to suit the possession based playing from the back patient build up approach. So that means it's going to be impossible to just switch to playing long balls against certain teams or being more physical in the middle and absolutely bossing a game. However I don't feel this gives a free license to not changing anything.

Games like today needed brave management during the match to acknowledge that last weeks XI that played well against Kilmarnock was not having the desired effect today and that we needed to try something different. Bring on WIlson for Halliday, Crooks on for O'Halloran and go to 3-5-2. That would have given us more physicality and more bodies in the middle of the park as well as providing Garner with some much needed assistance with Miller playing off his shoulder. Now had we signed some different players who weren't quite as good with the passing game in the summer and we had tried different tactics against Annan, Stranraer, East Stirlingshire, Linfield etc. we might have something up our sleeve and be able to get the points that ultimately keep us in the hunt and allow us to play for the end game of beautiful football with real quality.

I say it after every poor performance that maybe Warburton will surprise us at some point but with each passing week I feel that just won't be the case and the outcome will be inevitable but more a question of when rather than if.

[RangersMedia 35,961]

The type of players you've mentioned don't come cheap and certainly won't be found in the English lower leagues where it appears we do most of our transfer dealings. 

[Inspector Sams 1,950]

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I say it after every poor performance that maybe Warburton will surprise us at some point but with each passing week I feel that just won't be the case and the outcome will be inevitable but more a question of when rather than if.

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I say it after every poor performance - I thought we had a rich owner who was willing to put money into the side. MW is doing the best he can with limited resources, grabbed from lower division teams who ‘might’ prove a bargain. 

 

[K.A.I 36,183]

It's not time that's required mate.

They played right good football from the word GO last season.

That's because they were playing against part-time and lesser players. 

We can give this current lot of players 5 years worth of time but it won't make a blind bit of difference. They've gelled best they ever will.

Time or settling in isn't the problem. They are trying their hardest, they simply aren't the standard required.

I think maybe Windass could play better in a superior team although that's just a hunch other than that none of them would still be here with serious investment. 

Warburton isn't blameless. The players can't play these systems of his. Maybe if he changed his approach and tweaked things we might have more joy. Then again we might not as I think he's bought these players with certain systems and formations in mind and under-estimated what's needed to do it the right way. King being a lying cunt doesn't help either but both are at fault equally. 

 

[NeoGeo7 10,558]

@Inspector Sands the sad truth is that no one at the club is blameless for where we are right now. The board, the management, the players.....each has had a part to play in us underperforming.

My point in this thread was that given the constraints surely it would have been better to say "Ok we don't have the quality yet that we need to be able to play this way week in week out against any team in the country and know we will outplay them and get the result".

If the board gave the manager £15m in the January window would that solve all of the problems in one fell swoop? Of course not. If the manager went with a 4-4-2 instead of 4-3-3 would that solve all of our problems either? No.

There are times where you have to live within your means and if the board are holding back funds and duped the fans (whilst that is not right in any way shape or form) the manager knows what he has to work with and when things aren't working just doing the same things over and over again expecting it to magically come together just isn't going to work.

[NeoGeo7 10,558]

2 minutes ago, K.A.I said:

It's not time that's required mate.

They played right good football from the word GO last season.

That's because they were playing against part-time and lesser players. 

We can give this current lot of players 5 years worth of time but it won't make a blind bit of difference. They've gelled best they ever will.

Time or settling in isn't the problem. They are trying their hardest, they simply aren't the standard required.

I think maybe Windass could play better in a superior team although that's just a hunch other than that none of them would still be here with serious investment. 

Warburton isn't blameless. The players can't play these systems of his. Maybe if he changed his approach and tweaked things we might have more joy. Then again we might not as I think he's bought these players with certain systems and formations in mind and under-estimated what's needed to do it the right way. King being a lying cunt doesn't help either but both are at fault equally. 

 

What I meant from it taking time was it takes time (and money) to put together a squad capable of playing that way as you progress through the levels. So we had free transfers and nomads in the championship where we outspent every club by a country mile which flattered us (plus we caught a few SPL teams off guard). We get promoted and now the same group of players (largely the same group) are struggling to perform. It's not really a surprise. Lets just say we do finish second and get into Europe. Can anyone see Waghorn, O'Halloran, Kiernan, Halliday etc. being able to step up to the mark?

So I was saying to buy some time for the manager to get to his end game sometimes you have to have a back-up plan to ensure you win games and keep progressing.

[STEPPS BOY 74,178]

Last seasons team was full of championship level players, we signed 11 players yet it's almost still last seasons team playing.

 

is it any wonder we are struggling.

 

Still unable to defend cross balls.

Insipid in Midfield.

Toothless up front.

[jim beam 2,188]

We played fantastic football last season due to the fact that the opposition were crap and we where better than the average clodhoppers that ply their trade in the Scottish lower league.

This season we are failing due to the managers naivety and the players he has recruited are no better than the average clodhoppers that ply their trade in the Scottish premier league.

For the most part the utter dross that manage the other teams in our league have easily outwitted our manager that's why the fantastic football seems like a distant dream.

[RDFM 3,809]

He's had more than a season... It's not about time. I hate using them as an example but look at the tims, after their first 3/4 games they've been playing good football, Pep's Man City started playing well right away too as another example. He's just not up for the job, it's as simple as that.

[Gascoigne8 3,378]

In any form of football you need a soild base.  Every club that wins a league has a point where they play poorly but scramble a result, im not bothered how long it takes us to play good football i just want a league title under our belt to stop the tarriers from heading for 10. The tippy tappy expansive football can come when we have time on our side. We need to stop these cunts and i'll take a season full of 1-0 backs to the wall games over a newcastle style season where you get pats on the back for being second

[Gazza1212 1,212]

Sorry but I Don't subscribe to this "we're up against superior teams now we're in the premier". Not a bit of it. Football in this country has never been at a lower level than it is now. I certainly don't see a big difference in quality in this league. 

Teams are most certainly better organized and fitter I'll concede that , but better quality? Not For me. The main reason we're struggling so badly just now is they've all worked out how to combat our tactics which never ever alter. Today was just another example of what's been happening for a long time now. Going back as far as the latter part of last season if we're honest.

We will get games like last week from time to time when everything clicks and the benefits of the football philosophy is there for all to see. Trouble is though, these performances are few and far between because we are so predictable and too easy to nullify.

The personal we have at our disposal are clearly far too lightweight to stand up to any sustained physical challenge and in my opinion are also hamstrung by rigid tactics.  I think it's fair to say most of us admire what he's trying to do nobody wants the man to fail,  only to adapt and tweak the system to suit.

Our defense has been criticized since day one and rightly so because the deficiencies are largely still very evident. Looking on at that today though the most frustrating thing was watching six attacking players look as though they are incapable of taking responsibility and doing something off the cuff. 

When the subs came on nothing changed at all and that's become the norm which is very worrying. The standard in this league is SO  poor I firmly believe you only need one or two quality individuals performing at a  greater level than those around them to win the points 95% of the time.

To date  we have been unable to add any real quality and are relying far too much on the same tactics that got us promoted last year. It works of course it works, better teams than us have proven that but you have to adapt at the same time. What worries me is that now we're well into our stride I see no real evidence the manager can adapt.

Hopefully come January he can manage to bring guys in with enough quality to see us through games like today's. Surely we can still maintain the football ethos and grind out results when needed. 

[aitch12 47]

I still believe the approach and style is the right way forward. That said today we made poor decisions and executed passes poorly. Way too slow to play the football warburton wants. When teams sit back you have to move the ball quickly and pull them out of position. We carried little or no threat. It looked like we were playing a pre season friendly with the entire team moving at about 75% full pace. That's the part I can't accept. You're wearing a Rangers shirt and you're playing at 3quarter pace. The team need a serious kick up the arse. Bring back some of the past legends to speak to this bunch of slackers and tell them to shape up or ship out. They all need to wake up ffs. think quickly move quickly. Same week in week out doesn't matter who we''re playing. Maybe we can't afford the players Warburton wants to deliver the style of football. I still believe we'll get there and Warburton will deliver. Everyone raises their game against Rangers. The players must get used to it and perform like every game is their last. If the fans give them crap for today's performance, tough! The players must man up and earn the respect of the fans. Warburton should get Terry Hurlock in for a motivational speech.Get the players to explain that performance to him face to face. That'd straighten a few of them out.I'm going up the effin pub!