Central midfield, and the lack of investment

[slimjim1690 4,534]

5 hours ago, SIRB_72 said:

I doesn't help either when Gio plays our best and most expensive (in terms of wages) midfielder in defence.

This is really doing my nut in, he does a good job protecting the CH's but he's much more effective for us further forward. 

[SIRB_72 4,001]

5 hours ago, psb07158 said:

Domestically against most of the shite we need to move to a 4-1-3-2 formation and tbh I'd be playing this v Union next week too

Against the filth etc it's clear the midfield battle is key so I'd move back to a 4-3-3 with more balanced midfield players but we honestly need to just have a fucking go, release the handbrake, play attacking players in an attacking formation and if we concede 1 or 2 goals a game who the fuck cares if we're scoring 4 or 5?

Lundstram is the 1 in midfield, then the 3 in front of him should be creative players. I'd like to see us try Tillman up alongside Colak  

All up for this especially at Ibrox.

We played this at Ibrox a few times during the 20/21 season with Alfie and Roofe up top, Jack holding by himself and a combination of Aribo, Kent, Arfield, Hagi in behind the front two.

We battered a few teams Hamilton & Aberdeen coming to mind and it was some of the best stuff I'd seen us play in years.

[SIRB_72 4,001]

8 minutes ago, slimjim1690 said:

This is really doing my nut in, he does a good job protecting the CH's but he's much more effective for us further forward. 

Defensively I don't mind him filling in between the centre halfs when we're under extreme pressure. We've seen before though, even when starting in midfield when he has to cover out wide it's a clear weakness.

In attack if we don't have him or Davis we lack a forward ball from deep in midfield. Then when he is further forward he's great at winning second balls or slowing the other team down.

[plymouthranger 3,886]

I don’t think our problem is passing through the lines, our problem is movement. 
 

Jack/Lundstram/Goldson etc don’t play forward, because there’s no movement. Players pass a ball and stand still, when they should be immediately on the move 9 times out of 10. 
 

Our off the ball movement is so poor in comparison to other sides and sorry to admit this, but the tarriers are light years ahead of us in this area. It’s why if you see their highlights for domestic games, it’s chance after chance. We barely fill a highlight reel and it’s often half chances off target. 
 

Sort the off the ball movement and you’ll be amazing how much more creative we are. But if we don’t, we’re not winning anything this year! 

[NI 903]

3 minutes ago, plymouthranger said:

I don’t think our problem is passing through the lines, our problem is movement. 
 

Jack/Lundstram/Goldson etc don’t play forward, because there’s no movement. Players pass a ball and stand still, when they should be immediately on the move 9 times out of 10. 
 

Our off the ball movement is so poor in comparison to other sides and sorry to admit this, but the tarriers are light years ahead of us in this area. It’s why if you see their highlights for domestic games, it’s chance after chance. We barely fill a highlight reel and it’s often half chances off target. 
 

Sort the off the ball movement and you’ll be amazing how much more creative we are. But if we don’t, we’re not winning anything this year! 

I hate to admit it but that's so true.

[sausagetrunks 6,025]

4 minutes ago, plymouthranger said:

I don’t think our problem is passing through the lines, our problem is movement. 
 

Jack/Lundstram/Goldson etc don’t play forward, because there’s no movement. Players pass a ball and stand still, when they should be immediately on the move 9 times out of 10. 
 

Our off the ball movement is so poor in comparison to other sides and sorry to admit this, but the tarriers are light years ahead of us in this area. It’s why if you see their highlights for domestic games, it’s chance after chance. We barely fill a highlight reel and it’s often half chances off target. 
 

Sort the off the ball movement and you’ll be amazing how much more creative we are. But if we don’t, we’re not winning anything this year! 

thats what happens when we play will 3 DM. We should play with two CAM and one DM in Scotland. 

 

look at this, this is not attacking football, it was boring turgid pish.

 

 

[molesmole 1,063]

7 minutes ago, plymouthranger said:

I don’t think our problem is passing through the lines, our problem is movement. 
 

Jack/Lundstram/Goldson etc don’t play forward, because there’s no movement. Players pass a ball and stand still, when they should be immediately on the move 9 times out of 10. 
 

Our off the ball movement is so poor in comparison to other sides and sorry to admit this, but the tarriers are light years ahead of us in this area. It’s why if you see their highlights for domestic games, it’s chance after chance. We barely fill a highlight reel and it’s often half chances off target. 
 

Sort the off the ball movement and you’ll be amazing how much more creative we are. But if we don’t, we’re not winning anything this year! 

Or we are set up not to flood the middle of the park like them but to play wide. 

If you want a direct comparison their full backs invert so when the CB (only 2 of them) have the Ball they have up to 5 players in the middle to play too. With 3 up top to try go longer. 

We Pass between CB and fullback, to then try and force up the line. Or go back along the defence. We often have 4/5 players in our half when a CBs is in possession. 

Our CDMs come back to take the ball off the CBs. So when Lundstum for example  takes it he has 3 options. 

Pass to another CDM 5 yards away, Pass to a fullback, or kick long / Diagonally to a high wide winger. 

We did well with Rotations and Triangles before, but one touch, fast, high intensity with the idea we take possession further up the park,. 

[theiconicman 2,992]

The tactics were baffling given the recruitment we made. Noone seemed to have a clue how to play 3 at the back. Jack was our sole midfielder capable of receiving the ball, Kamara had his worst performance in a Rangers jersey ever. He seemed to follow the Union CM around and was his best pal, very rarely was he ever free for a pass.

Matondo came short for ever ball, we never seemed to switch it quickly or have him run onto a ball, whenever we did try it, it was for Tav to run onto.

At times we had 4 people behind their single attacker meaning we were completely outnumbered in attack.

Arfield needs to take every attacking player aside and teach them how to make deep runs and break lines.

[The Blues 375]

We need a creative midfielder with a proven track record that wants to play through the middle. We need to spend the money and pay the wages to get him. 
 

[Ibrox_Nights 429]

7 hours ago, NixonRFC said:

That's Steven Davis job, there's no point renewing his contract to play against St Mirren, he's the one player you can trust to take the ball deep and start a move, I wasn't overly thrilled about his renewal but if he's in the squad I'd rather he played in these type of games until Gio signs someone better than him.

We got away without properly addressing the midfield when we discovered Davis had what he had left in the tank and it papered over the spend / recruitment needed for that area of the pitch.

Even last season there were a few games where he would come on and be the best player for either side. He can't maybe do it as often now and that is a massive problem considering the relatively large amount of average - to bit better than average - players we have in there.

[plymouthranger 3,886]

49 minutes ago, NI said:

I hate to admit it but that's so true.

I hate it also, but it’s staring us in the face currently. 
 

I still trust Gio can change things, but we scrape wins domestically, they blow sides away. Europe is generally different, but last night was dismal and things need to change.

 

More of the same against Killie and I can see people losing patience, for the money we’ve spent, we shouldn’t be this poor in creating chances. I can accept if we’re missing chances/things aren’t falling our way, but we’re not. We’re just creating the bare minimum, or less…

[Rangers Da 1872 61]

Lundstram

Jack

Kamara

Arfield

Davis

Lowry

McCann

Lawrence

Tillman

Hagi

Sands (at a push)

Ofoborh

Kelly

 

13 options for 3 positions.........11 if you take away Ofoborh and Hagi who are unavailable though they are still on our books. I'd happily bin 6 or 7 of them and sign 2 crackers to help Scouse John. The lack of genuine investment in this area is a joke. 6 free transfers, 1 £50k, 1 @ a couple of million, 3 youths and 2 young loans. 

[Juniorsparkie 491]

15 hours ago, graeme_4 said:

Our CMs are not forward thinking, they work hard, they break up play and the recycle the ball - but everything is safe and sideways.

We need someone who plays in the Kamara / Jack / Lundstram positions (either in the 2 or 3) that gets his head up, plays the ball forward at pace and cuts open defences quickly. 

I know we’ve been linked with a few over the last couple of seasons, but we haven’t spent any substantial money on a CM in this squad, despite it clearly being a problem since Gerrard came in. And it shows.

Of all our flaws, and there’s many, not creating enough chances is the biggest.

Time to get the finger out Ross Wilson.

What did we pay for midfield ?

Jack, Lundstram, Davis, Lawrence, Arfield free’s 

Wright £??  Tillman unknown Matondo £2.3M (allegedly) 
Kent £6M ??

Kamara £50K

I think we spent more on some the guys that we’ve binned 

Barker, Jones, etc.

We haven’t really pushed the boat out, especially since we didn’t have the dosh.

Did we pay money for Diallo ?

We expect get into CL when we spent practically zilch on midfield?

[Juniorsparkie 491]

Oops forgot about Hagi 

out of sight out of mind etc.

[the cry was no 3,035]

23 minutes ago, Juniorsparkie said:

What did we pay for midfield ?

Jack, Lundstram, Davis, Lawrence, Arfield free’s 

Wright £??  Tillman unknown Matondo £2.3M (allegedly) 
Kent £6M ??

Kamara £50K

I think we spent more on some the guys that we’ve binned 

Barker, Jones, etc.

We haven’t really pushed the boat out, especially since we didn’t have the dosh.

Did we pay money for Diallo ?

We expect get into CL when we spent practically zilch on midfield?

This might sound mad mate, but we still need to pay these guys wages even though we got the for free. 

Crazy but true

[Juniorsparkie 491]

9 minutes ago, the cry was no said:

This might sound mad mate, but we still need to pay these guys wages even though we got the for free. 

Crazy but true

And I understand that , they are possibly on better wages as no transfer fee involved. But it’s all part and parcel of the game, I can bet the guys we paid money for aren’t on low wages either.

Thats why I mentioned the not having any money aspect that forced us into this route.

Were there not stories that the wage bill would need trimmed this year ?

You read reports of English Championship sides and the wage bills are horrific.

As for the bestest league in the world their wage bills are astronomical, we can’t even attempt to compete.

Diallo with add ons €25 - €40 million. 
 
For a boy who played 4 times for Atalanta.

Bewildering.

[NixonRFC 1,338]

On 03/08/2022 at 15:35, McEwan's Lager said:

Gerrard put a halt on no major sales until after the qualifiers were concluded. I think it's a given that Kamara's new contract last season was because he didn't get a move. I think lack of being open to sales was half of the issue.

Other things like re-signing Balogun instead of making a long term decision about the centre backs, knowing that Goldson's contract was 50/50, and Katic was no longer in Gerrard's plans meant that was delayed until this season.

We can't do major surgery on every area of the squad at the one time so that is why we took the easy option of renewing Davis and Arfield and McGregor this year - and that's because the issues in other areas have mounted up.

 

 

 

I'm sure Gerrard like every manager wouldn't want to lose any of his players before big European qualifiers but what I'm saying is if clubs genuinely wanted them they would've made bids and and forced us into a decision, maybe they did but I'd find it strange if acceptable bids came in and we knocked them back that the club wouldn't be leaking this to their preferred media partners, knocking back big bids is good PR.

 

I have always thought that with direct entry into the CL last season that we pretty much gambled that the tims wouldn't be in a capable position of stopping so maybe that was in the thinking too with regards to not being receptive to offers.