*****The official PSV v Rangers Champions league play-off match thread*****

[JackAlex93 11,442]

Not feeling overly confident. We need to defend much better than we did at set pieces last week.

[ElBufalo20 7,923]

7 minutes ago, G.E.C. said:

If we go through we’ll be the highest seeded team in pot 4.

Doesn’t really matter still in it. Would only have mattered if Benfica didn’t make it and we moved up.

[CR3 12,724]

Same team as the 1st leg for me, the lack of attacking options is a concern if needing something off the bench. Hope the players treat it as a cup final and go for it.

[Dickie 12,905]

41 minutes ago, ShanksRFC said:

Only himself to blame for that.

So what have Gio and the other coaches been doing to get him fit and playing,if I’m not pulling my weight at work then my boss doesn’t just say ignore him he’ll come around shortly. Gio didn’t just wake up yesterday morning to find he had a fat huffy striker in his squad.

[jaywalker 377]

2 minutes ago, Dickie said:

So what have Gio and the other coaches been doing to get him fit and playing,if I’m not pulling my weight at work then my boss doesn’t just say ignore him he’ll come around shortly. Gio didn’t just wake up yesterday morning to find he had a fat huffy striker in his squad.

Hopefully putting a lock on the fridge and cutting down on his oestrogen intake.

[The No.9 760]

31 minutes ago, Leeds_Bear said:

Home crowd benefit will be key unfortunately, can see us taking a good 20 mins to settle - about holding on until then. 

(please repost this when we are 3-0 up after 15 minutes)

Haha aye sadly that’s how I see it as well, really hoping for a dortmund style out of no where first half 

[ShanksRFC 3,870]

4 minutes ago, Dickie said:

So what have Gio and the other coaches been doing to get him fit and playing,if I’m not pulling my weight at work then my boss doesn’t just say ignore him he’ll come around shortly. Gio didn’t just wake up yesterday morning to find he had a fat huffy striker in his squad.

Turning up 3 hours late for training won't have helped his fitness.

Morelos isn't interested at the moment, you seen that on Saturday.

[BlueThunder 8,454]

1 hour ago, Smell the hotdog said:

Noticed Rangers Review yesterday peddling the "it's only about 10/15m difference between CL & EL" line which was bound to be trotted out at some point.

That may be true, but us not progressing gives the filth more cash. They really have lucked out by winning the league last year.

[.Williamson. 82,846]

41 minutes ago, esquire8 said:

What I think GvB will go with

McLaughlin 

Tav Goldson Sands Barisic

Davis Lundstram Kamara

Wright Colak Kent

Now I don't think this 11 could do the job but probably keep us in the game until the 70th when hopefully bringing on Lawrence and Tillman to try go win it by a goal.

If set pieces haven't been fixed then theres no hope.

We will get battered if we try that approach, our defending is awful 

[The Dude 20,026]

9 minutes ago, ShanksRFC said:

Turning up 3 hours late for training won't have helped his fitness.

Morelos isn't interested at the moment, you seen that on Saturday.

If he turned up three hours late for training, he should never have been on the bench for the following game.

[esquire8 43,072]

1 minute ago, .Williamson. said:

We will get battered if we try that approach, our defending is awful 

Possibly but I think we all know that's the managers approach to matches.

[NixonRFC 1,377]

44 minutes ago, jaywalker said:

What would you prefer to use for comparison? Dreams perhaps.

stranger things have happened, it’s a 90 minute game, 1 break of the ball, 1 dodgy decision in our favour, 1 deflected shot any one of these could get us through.

Instead of singing about not surrendering, we could try living it.

There's absolutely nothing wrong with using old games as a point of comparision, particularly when the 'old game' in question was only three months ago, yes the team has changed a bit since then but Morelos has been a talismanic figure for Rangers in Europe and Gio and the remaining players would've learned how to cope without him in those grand stages.

 

While it's not as simple as saying "well we beat Lipzeig so we'll pump PSV" there's absolutely no reason we can't go into the game confident inspite of not having said talismanic figure again and the past experiences without him will hopefully give Gio and the boys a better understanding of what's needed.

[BlueAvenger 10,331]

I’m not confident at all and fear the worst because of the way we have been playing. I just hope the players are up for it and give it a go. Come on Rangers 

[Smell the hotdog 4,021]

22 minutes ago, BlueThunder said:

That may be true, but us not progressing gives the filth more cash. They really have lucked out by winning the league last year.

Agreed but they never lucked out, we’ve only ourselves to blame.

[AdzKyle 7,901]

McGregor isn’t a bad shout. He always performs superbly in Europe and we will need a massive GK performs de tonight. 

1 hour ago, GabrielTomato said:

There's a few different things I'd like to do in this game, but realistically we can't with the lack of CBs. I'd prefer us to go into that 3-5-2 formation which worked last Season, but would prefer to keep Lundstram in the CM position as I think he's vital to us. 

I'd also flirt with the idea of bringing back in McGregor, can't see right now what McLaughlin is bringing to us as he's been poor with his distribution and set piece play.

Injuries at the back just leave us in a position in which it's probably not smart to do either of those things.

 

[AdzKyle 7,901]

32 minutes ago, ShanksRFC said:

Turning up 3 hours late for training won't have helped his fitness.

Morelos isn't interested at the moment, you seen that on Saturday.

If he’s turning up 3 hours late then he should be disciplined and we are quite right to leave him out the squad. As short as it leaves us, he is not bigger than the club. If he doesn’t want to be here he needs to go

[ShanksRFC 3,870]

32 minutes ago, The Dude said:

If he turned up three hours late for training, he should never have been on the bench for the following game.

He was late for Sundays recovery session, maybe not full training but extremely unprofessional for a football player.

This has obviously been the tip of the iceberg.

[The Dude 20,026]

1 minute ago, ShanksRFC said:

He was late for Sundays recovery session, maybe not full training but extremely unprofessional for a football player.

This has obviously been the tip of the iceberg.

This is the thing, the stories keep changing any time there's any questions asked. So far (in this thread alone) he was drunk at training last week, then he was drunk at training twice but it might have been the week before it, then tav had him up against a wall on sunday, then he was three hours late for training and drunk at the same time, now he was three hours late for a recovery session on Sunday.

[Big Al 55 9,281]

3 minutes ago, ShanksRFC said:

He was late for Sundays recovery session, maybe not full training but extremely unprofessional for a football player.

This has obviously been the tip of the iceberg.

Tbf he only played 10 mins or so, not much to recover from 👍

[GA1972 9,755]

25 minutes ago, AdzKyle said:

McGregor isn’t a bad shout. He always performs superbly in Europe and we will need a massive GK performs de tonight. 

 

We already had a nightmare at set pieces last week, there’s at least hope McLaughlin might come and claim some 

[graeme_4 34,774]

21 minutes ago, The Dude said:

This is the thing, the stories keep changing any time there's any questions asked. So far (in this thread alone) he was drunk at training last week, then he was drunk at training twice but it might have been the week before it, then tav had him up against a wall on sunday, then he was three hours late for training and drunk at the same time, now he was three hours late for a recovery session on Sunday.

I don’t think anyone knows, but going by Boyd’s chat over the weekend and yesterday, it’s pretty clear there’s a build up of unacceptable behaviour. 

[RockwellGers 14,731]

Looking forward to the mood shift on here when we win.

[graeme_4 34,774]

1 minute ago, RockwellGers said:

Looking forward to the mood shift on here when we win.

Be some buzz. 

[.Williamson. 82,846]

I would say overall I am strangely less confident for this than I was for the EL final

[DMax399 3,783]

1 hour ago, JackAlex93 said:

Not feeling overly confident. We need to defend much better than we did at set pieces last week.

I’ve got no idea how it’s going to pan out, but it’s possible that it will be a completely different game from last week.  No reason why we can’t win it if our guys turn up.  Very little between the teams.