nvager 498 Posted April 27, 2008 Share Posted April 27, 2008 It was obvious that with Weir off injured we had to take control of the game and put them under pressure. We needed our midfield to take over. Instead Barry got clugged a couple of times and that was that. Just where was our midfield in the second half? The scum were always first to the ball and wanted it more. No one stepped up instead they all stepped back. Whittaker, Davis, Hemdani, Novo, and a battered Barry - all just disappeared. That is our weakness - we have no dominant and creative mid fielders. S Davis again disappeared when needed most. Once Barry was slowed up the rest gave in. Feckin sad. On top of that Whittaker is an idiot getting himself booked twice. Just what we needed more suspensions. I do not see this team in this form with so many injuries and suspensions winning the SPL. I hope to feck I am wrong. We brought a lot of grief on ourselves today because of our utter lack of self belief in the second half. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
J_RFC87 766 Posted April 27, 2008 Share Posted April 27, 2008 The two halfs were like day and night from our midfield. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
demise 3,718 Posted April 27, 2008 Share Posted April 27, 2008 Why you blame Whittaker for the red card,man ? You really think he wanted it ? C`mon..The guys played really well in the first half,but they all dissapiared in the second.So we lost this game.It`s over now.Let`s try looking forward for the next game. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
liquid111 51 Posted April 27, 2008 Share Posted April 27, 2008 It was obvious that with Weir off injured we had to take control of the game and put them under pressure. We needed our midfield to take over. Instead Barry got clugged a couple of times and that was that. Just where was our midfield in the second half? The scum were always first to the ball and wanted it more. No one stepped up instead they all stepped back. Whittaker, Davis, Hemdani, Novo, and a battered Barry - all just disappeared. That is our weakness - we have no dominant and creative mid fielders. S Davis again disappeared when needed most. Once Barry was slowed up the rest gave in. Feckin sad. On top of that Whittaker is an idiot getting himself booked twice. Just what we needed more suspensions. I do not see this team in this form with so many injuries and suspensions winning the SPL. I hope to feck I am wrong. We brought a lot of grief on ourselves today because of our utter lack of self belief in the second half. We needed to PRESS in the second. Instead, we backed off. I think the underlined/emboldened points you make are the most significant. Davis needs to show that he is a "big game" player. Needless to say, we also missed our injured+suspended players. It hurt us. A positive for me is that Cousin performed very well / dominated. Still in our hands -- big characters / will-to-win required now. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
delparlane 6,007 Posted April 27, 2008 Share Posted April 27, 2008 Absolutely with you on this. Someone should let Hemdani know that we're supposed to be going towards the OTHER goalkeeper. We could have carried this game to them and put them under, but again we start dropping back and letting them come on to us. All right I'll say it, even though some may slag me for it. I thought it before the game started, "Why not get someone like Buffel in there to create a threat of our own?"? Even throw wee Fleck on at the end - they haven't faced him yet, he just might have a surprise in store for them like DJ did in his first match way back when. Of course, this SHOULD have ended at least a draw, and hindsight is 20/20 but we NEED to find some more creative thinking instead of being so bloody one-dimensional. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thermopylae 15,288 Posted April 27, 2008 Share Posted April 27, 2008 Unfortunately Davis seems to struggle at septic park. I don't know if the occasion is too much for him but he doesn't look the same player over there Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
nvager 498 Posted April 27, 2008 Author Share Posted April 27, 2008 It was obvious that with Weir off injured we had to take control of the game and put them under pressure. We needed our midfield to take over. Instead Barry got clugged a couple of times and that was that. Just where was our midfield in the second half? The scum were always first to the ball and wanted it more. No one stepped up instead they all stepped back. Whittaker, Davis, Hemdani, Novo, and a battered Barry - all just disappeared. That is our weakness - we have no dominant and creative mid fielders. S Davis again disappeared when needed most. Once Barry was slowed up the rest gave in. Feckin sad. On top of that Whittaker is an idiot getting himself booked twice. Just what we needed more suspensions. I do not see this team in this form with so many injuries and suspensions winning the SPL. I hope to feck I am wrong. We brought a lot of grief on ourselves today because of our utter lack of self belief in the second half. We needed to press in the second. Instead, we backed off. I think the underlined/emboldened points you make are the most significant. We also missed our injured players. It hurt us. A positive for me is that Cousin perfored very well / dominated. Still in our hands -- big characters / will-to-win required now. Do we have them? We missed Cuellar badly in defence and then Weir who had been playing well. If weir is injured that is bad news. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeBlue 136 Posted April 27, 2008 Share Posted April 27, 2008 Davis played well in the first half. Anyone who was at Ibrox on Thursday will have seen that he was really struggling at the end with cramp and is clearly feeling the effects of having to play so many games. He played most of the cup semi last Sunday too. Hardly suprising that he faded along with several other players. Unlike last time, we were unlucky today. It's tough, but we can still win the league. I'd still rather be in our position than theirs. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
jamd1986 8 Posted April 27, 2008 Share Posted April 27, 2008 Exactly, the goal was coming in the 2nd half. Its frustrating that we did not learn from what happened last time we played Celtic: DONT BACK OFF! We gave them too much room and it was a total shadow of the first half performance. How we went in at half time 2-2 I'll never know. Their first was offside and before they scored their 2nd I was crying out that we were not tight enough on McGeady or McDonald.... stupid!!! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy 69 Posted April 27, 2008 Share Posted April 27, 2008 at 3-2 down with 5 mins to go the one thing your not looking to do is give stupid fouls away in the corners. and we done it bout 5-6 times. So Stupid, and there no accidental . there just giving up and putting the celtic players on their arses, which is exactly where they wanted to be at the time. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
jackthelad69 0 Posted April 27, 2008 Share Posted April 27, 2008 We still rely far too much on BF IMHO, if he plays half decent, so do the rest, if not they disappear. This has to be sorted out before we can go to the next level. WS must sort this out in the transfer market and from what I've seen in the last few games, Davis is not the answer, he doesn't have the presence that Albertz, Van Bronckhurst or Gazza had. I know we can't afford that class of player these days, but we need to get one or two who are as close to that quality as soon as possible. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
delparlane 6,007 Posted April 27, 2008 Share Posted April 27, 2008 We still rely far too much on BF IMHO, if he plays half decent, so do the rest, if not they disappear. This has to be sorted out before we can go to the next level. WS must sort this out in the transfer market and from what I've seen in the last few games, Davis is not the answer, he doesn't have the presence that Albertz, Van Bronckhurst or Gazza had. I know we can't afford that class of player these days, but we need to get one or two who are as close to that quality as soon as possible. Bloody H, we have Buffel and he can't get a game. The guy is creative, and we NEED that - get him in there!!! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
nvager 498 Posted April 27, 2008 Author Share Posted April 27, 2008 Barry got clugged twice and that was that. He then disappeared and so did Rangers as we just do not play when Barry is off his game. The rest of the midfield take their cue from Barry it seems. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
liquid111 51 Posted April 27, 2008 Share Posted April 27, 2008 We still rely far too much on BF IMHO, if he plays half decent, so do the rest, if not they disappear. This has to be sorted out before we can go to the next level. WS must sort this out in the transfer market and from what I've seen in the last few games, Davis is not the answer, he doesn't have the presence that Albertz, Van Bronckhurst or Gazza had. I know we can't afford that class of player these days, but we need to get one or two who are as close to that quality as soon as possible. I'd tend to agree with those points. RE Davis: I think Davis is a very fine player, but for me, he's not demonstrated (so far) that he can be a "lynch-pin"/"game-changing" type player. He is still a very talented and useful player though (with exceptional touch/ball control). And I did note some great corner kicks and dead-ball usage from him today. However, I'd like him to develop his game so he becomes that kind of "big game" player that can "grab a game by the scruff of the neck". Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thermopylae 15,288 Posted April 27, 2008 Share Posted April 27, 2008 That's the wonder of Walter, unfortunately we have to take the rough with the smooth Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
delparlane 6,007 Posted April 27, 2008 Share Posted April 27, 2008 Isn't it ironic, though? We swapped the way we normally play and played our 2nd Half first today. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thermopylae 15,288 Posted April 27, 2008 Share Posted April 27, 2008 We still rely far too much on BF IMHO, if he plays half decent, so do the rest, if not they disappear. This has to be sorted out before we can go to the next level. WS must sort this out in the transfer market and from what I've seen in the last few games, Davis is not the answer, he doesn't have the presence that Albertz, Van Bronckhurst or Gazza had. I know we can't afford that class of player these days, but we need to get one or two who are as close to that quality as soon as possible. I'd tend to agree with those points. Davis is a fine player, but he's not demonstrated that he can be a "lynch-pin" type player. He is a useful player to play along-side a lynch-pin type player. I hope he proves me wrong over time in any case. He may settle over time (if he stays), it is after all early days for him playing for a genuinely big club for the first time Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
delparlane 6,007 Posted April 27, 2008 Share Posted April 27, 2008 We still rely far too much on BF IMHO, if he plays half decent, so do the rest, if not they disappear. This has to be sorted out before we can go to the next level. WS must sort this out in the transfer market and from what I've seen in the last few games, Davis is not the answer, he doesn't have the presence that Albertz, Van Bronckhurst or Gazza had. I know we can't afford that class of player these days, but we need to get one or two who are as close to that quality as soon as possible. I'd tend to agree with those points. Davis is a fine player, but he's not demonstrated that he can be a "lynch-pin" type player. He is a useful player to play along-side a lynch-pin type player. I hope he proves me wrong over time in any case. He may settle over time (if he stays), it is after all early days for him playing for a genuinely big club for the first time I have no problems with Davis, but some of the supporting cast need a good hard look at themselves. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
liquid111 51 Posted April 27, 2008 Share Posted April 27, 2008 I have no problems with Davis, but some of the supporting cast need a good hard look at themselves. This is a very good point. There are probably more pressing issues than Davis -- perhaps our expectations on Davis are a little higher because we can see that he is a player of good quality. I still want him to impose himself more on these "big games" though. Needless to say, the loss of our injuried+suspended players hurt us, in addition to some questionable refereeing decisions, the loss of Weir, and dare I say, a lack of "pressing play" in the second half. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
nvager 498 Posted April 27, 2008 Author Share Posted April 27, 2008 We still rely far too much on BF IMHO, if he plays half decent, so do the rest, if not they disappear. This has to be sorted out before we can go to the next level. WS must sort this out in the transfer market and from what I've seen in the last few games, Davis is not the answer, he doesn't have the presence that Albertz, Van Bronckhurst or Gazza had. I know we can't afford that class of player these days, but we need to get one or two who are as close to that quality as soon as possible. I'd tend to agree with those points. Davis is a fine player, but he's not demonstrated that he can be a "lynch-pin" type player. He is a useful player to play along-side a lynch-pin type player. I hope he proves me wrong over time in any case. He may settle over time (if he stays), it is after all early days for him playing for a genuinely big club for the first time I have no problems with Davis, but some of the supporting cast need a good hard look at themselves. Davis can be good, but he is not the dominant midfielder we need. He has been missing when needed a few times now. Better than some others all the same. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
jackthelad69 0 Posted April 27, 2008 Share Posted April 27, 2008 I do think we should sign Davis, he is a quality player, but we do need a commanding central midfield player to complement him and BF. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Canadaready 9,437 Posted April 27, 2008 Share Posted April 27, 2008 Our midfield has to find itself FAST Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
nvager 498 Posted April 27, 2008 Author Share Posted April 27, 2008 Lets be honest - we have struggled all season in midfield going forward. Defensively hard to beat, but very stilted going forward. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Canadaready 9,437 Posted April 27, 2008 Share Posted April 27, 2008 Well, do we have pieces to go forward with? Buffel is a likely choice? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
nvager 498 Posted April 27, 2008 Author Share Posted April 27, 2008 Well, do we have pieces to go forward with? Buffel is a likely choice? Yes and I would give Fleck a shot too. Looks better on the ball than half the first team. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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