It's about us

[plymouthranger 3,902]

"We're focused on how we play, how we move the football, it's not about what other teams do"

Hollow words which will ultimately be the downfall of a very nice man. We can debate for days about what has went wrong this season, but ultimately this statement alone is why Mark Warburton will not suceed as a Rangers manager.

I've previously compared us this season to Roy Hodgson's England, a side that focuses on possession for possessions sake, without adapting to our opponents strengths and weaknesses. Look at Iceland, a side who you should never play a fluid 4-3-3 against, due to them flooding the midfield and having a physical spine to the side. A side who focus on dead ball situations, and even when counter attacking keep 5-6 players in their own half - meaning building from the back will still result in you being met with two banks of four well drilled players... Sound familiar?

Hearts were always going to press and harry us last night, a game at Tynecastle, Neilsons last game in charge, they would have been raring to go. You counter that by having pacey wingers who you can use as an out-ball, play 1 or 2 strikers who stay within the centre of the pitch to hold play up and bring the midfield forward, and you don't under any circumstances play 3 in midfield - especially when one has yet to play 90 minutes of football. Utter madness, which an amateur manager would have seen.

I want nothing more than to see Mark Warburton do well for us, he's clearly a man of great dignity and class. If he addresses one of his flaws, I hope it is the above, it may just save his tenure as Rangers manager

[Captain Hilts 12,819]

Good post  

I fear, however, that much like McCoist was hamstrung by his "we don't do walking away" remark, I fear Warburton may be heading the same way with his "we won't change the way we play" attitude.

[StaunchLondonGer 1,651]

Spot on. All great victories are achieved by:

1. analysing your opponent
2. identifying their strengths and how to counteract them
3. identifying their weaknesses and how to exploit them

By ignoring your opponent you are going into battle blindfolded!

[SeparateEntityMyArse 54,072]

They studied our tactics. They countered our tactics. They controlled the ball and knew their pitch geography.

They won, unsurprisingly.

It really isn't rocket science. It's an absolute non justifiable arrogance.

One of many things he needs to address quickly to save his job.

[Bearsden bear 2,376]

Couldn't agree more. I like the Manager and as said he is a tremendously dignified guy and has done a terrific job up until recently.

Last season i loved the possession based style and i thought we would improve with better quality additions that would give us more of a cutting edge.

Unfortunately we seem to have gone backwards. We are not anywhere good enough to ignore the opposition and just do our thing. We need to be able to surprise teams and have options to mix it up. This could be a formation change or more directness but we need to give the opposition more to think about.

Just feel gutted as i hoped Warbs would be the answer but i fear for him if we dont improve significantly over the next two games. 

 

[Bearsden bear 2,376]

19 minutes ago, Sportingintegritymyarse said:

They studied our tactics. They countered our tactics. They controlled the ball and knew their pitch geography.

They won, unsurprisingly.

It really isn't rocket science. It's an absolute non justifiable arrogance.

One of many things he needs to address quickly to save his job.

Sean Dyce at Burnley knew exactly how to nullify a MW team and showed the way to deal with us in preseason game.

15 games later we still have no answers on how to combat opposition that press our defence......not good enough

[folkestoneger 8,246]

41 minutes ago, plymouthranger said:

"We're focused on how we play, how we move the football, it's not about what other teams do"

Hollow words which will ultimately be the downfall of a very nice man. We can debate for days about what has went wrong this season, but ultimately this statement alone is why Mark Warburton will not suceed as a Rangers manager.

I've previously compared us this season to Roy Hodgson's England, a side that focuses on possession for possessions sake, without adapting to our opponents strengths and weaknesses. Look at Iceland, a side who you should never play a fluid 4-3-3 against, due to them flooding the midfield and having a physical spine to the side. A side who focus on dead ball situations, and even when counter attacking keep 5-6 players in their own half - meaning building from the back will still result in you being met with two banks of four well drilled players... Sound familiar?

Hearts were always going to press and harry us last night, a game at Tynecastle, Neilsons last game in charge, they would have been raring to go. You counter that by having pacey wingers who you can use as an out-ball, play 1 or 2 strikers who stay within the centre of the pitch to hold play up and bring the midfield forward, and you don't under any circumstances play 3 in midfield - especially when one has yet to play 90 minutes of football. Utter madness, which an amateur manager would have seen.

I want nothing more than to see Mark Warburton do well for us, he's clearly a man of great dignity and class. If he addresses one of his flaws, I hope it is the above, it may just save his tenure as Rangers manager

I agree but have my doubts he is willing to change his philosophy

[folkestoneger 8,246]

6 minutes ago, Bearsden bear said:

Couldn't agree more. I like the Manager and as said he is a tremendously dignified guy and has done a terrific job up until recently.

Last season i loved the possession based style and i thought we would improve with better quality additions that would give us more of a cutting edge.

Unfortunately we seem to have gone backwards. We are not anywhere good enough to ignore the opposition and just do our thing. We need to be able to surprise teams and have options to mix it up. This could be a formation change or more directness but we need to give the opposition more to think about.

Just feel gutted as i hoped Warbs would be the answer but i fear for him if we dont improve significantly over the next two games. 

 

I also feel we all expected better from the likes of Barton.

He should have been the defensive midfielder we needed given his performances last year but it just didn't happen

I still don't think the argument should have been allowed to blow up the way it did.

At worst we should have held on for a few weeks and sold him

Somebody in England would have given us decent money for him

[cushynumber 25,178]

Robbie Neilson didnt ignore us, he analysed the way we play, he targeted out weaknesses and played to their strenghts then came up with a plan which his players could carry out - and royally fucked us in the arse.

[Bearsden bear 2,376]

9 minutes ago, folkestoneger said:

I also feel we all expected better from the likes of Barton.

He should have been the defensive midfielder we needed given his performances last year but it just didn't happen

I still don't think the argument should have been allowed to blow up the way it did.

At worst we should have held on for a few weeks and sold him

Somebody in England would have given us decent money for him

I thought Barton was exactly what we needed. A bit of steel in the midfield, a ball winner. Lets face it we barely make a tackle during a game.

Unfortunately Barton didn't look like it was working out before the incident. Result is we are playing the same lightweight midfield as last year - only this time against bigger, fiitter opposition.

[Courtyard Bear 41,357]

The main gripe I have is we all saw this coming almost a year ago. From January onwards the championship teams had us sussed we were grinding out results due to having better players and losing the top of the table crunch games. 

How Warburton thought it would be any different this season baffles me, the top flight teams were just sitting waiting for us  rubbing their hands in glee. 

[Loyal-Bear 229]

Been saying mostly all season it wont be his talent that gets him the sack it will be his refusal to change his outlook. The stubborn 433 its all about us doesn't work. Every team have us sussed before a ball is kicked.

[NeoGeo7 10,610]

We don't have the players to simply play our way and ignore everyone else.

It sounded great at the time, almost like a battle cry that resonated with us because of who we are.

Its fine making statements like that if you can actually back it up but we really just look like we are they for the taking every week and all our opponents need to do is look at what our last opponents did and copy it.

Warburton reminds me at the moment of someone playing football manager who has one tactic and simply presses continue over and over and just hoping the stars align and we perform well and win.