A Tre-Mendes Pairing

[disgruntled_bear 157]

WALTER SMITH believes fans are about to see the best of Barry Ferguson and Pedro Mendes in the Rangers midfield as the skipper hits top form again.

Barry FergusonA number of people have criticised the pair since they first linked up in the Light Blues engine room last month.

They have claimed the duo won't work as a partnership because they are too similar and that one will have to drop out of the side.

Ferguson has always maintained it will take him time to find his feet after spending five months out with an ankle injury which required surgery.

And on Saturday he and Mendes finally seemed to click, with each impressing as Gers drew 2-2 with Dundee United at Tannadice.

Smith is looking forward to seeing more of the same in the weeks ahead, starting this coming weekend at home to Hibernian.

The manager, who confirmed Madjid Bougherra should be fit for that match, said: "We had a situation there where Barry was out of the team for a long time.

"When he returned, he was expected to come into a competitive environment and play the way he did before but that can't be done.Pedro Mendes

"It's a difficulty when you're at Rangers, you come back into the team and people have extremely high expectation levels.

"Any sensible person would know it would take Barry a few games to get up to speed and I think both he and Pedro were excellent on Saturday.

"For me, that was a big aspect of the game. I felt they linked up extremely well throughout the match.

"They are both good players and there is no problem with regards to them playing together.

"It was just a matter of time before Barry started to perform the way he can. Everybody has just had to show a level of patience and commonsense on that front."

http://www.rangers.premiumtv.co.uk/page/Ne...1489400,00.html

[TexasGers 96]

I thought the game on Saturday in the first half showed some glimpses that this partnership will work at some level. Mendes and Ferguson played pretty well together, and I guess you couldn't ask for a better time for the partnership to stark working, before the Old Firm game.

[papaguy51 912]

At top form, both players are (several) leagues above anything the SPL has to offer.

[MayboleLoyal_atb 3,751]

Looked great first half on Saturday. Barry picked up a booking and didn't look as active second half.

[Muff 245]

Bar 15-20 minutes I thought Ferguson was poor and left Mendes with too much to do. After his booking he hid, was sloppy and got caught out.

We are lucky the Dundee United midfield played poorly, especially Gomis, Flood and Robertson.

Barry Ferguson still does not look fit.

[chris_glasgow 2]

why cant everyone stop coming out with stuff like this, its getting boring

[ShootSpeedKillLight 0]

It still worries me that Smith thought it was acceptable for Ferguson to take a number of games (in the first team) to get back to form. Never mind that we dropped points in at least 3 of them, Ferguson takes precedence.

[Muff 245]

I don't understand why we resort to the long ball when we have guys like Mendes, Ferguson, Davis, Boyd in our team?

Could you imagine Guardiola telling Valdes, Puyol, Marques to hit it long at every opportunity and missing out guys like Xavi, Messi, Iniesta....?

[Muff 245]

Every time we keep the ball on the deck and move it around, we tear teams apart.

We then let teams back into matches and resort to the old 'ave it' bullshit which costs us. Why our management and players cannot see this, I do not know?

[Ibroxblue 122]

The pairing was very good in the first half with Barry back to something like his best. Hopefully that's a sign of things to come.

[MosesMcNeil 1,664]

I'm confident that Ferguson and Mendes will prove to be a fabulous combination for us. Add Thomson and Davis into our midfield and we may well have something to seriously enjoy in time.

Smith takes pelters often enough - but doesn't seem to get much credit for having the foresight to bring these four together for us.

If finances and injuries hadn't dictated otherwise we could have been looking at a team like this -

________McGregor

Hutton Bougherra Cuellar Smith

Davis Mendes Ferguson Thompson

________Boyd Miller.

Pity that...

[Muff 245]

Would hate to see Thomson out on the left. There is no width there what so ever.

[BlueStu08 0]

I would agree, startin to click.....gradually but it has taken Ferguson much longer than expected to show some glimpses of form, this has cost us recently, particularly away from home (against Motherwell and more notably Hearts!

Another issue I have with Saturday's team......why put big Broadfoot at centre back when big Sasa is far more adept in that position and can at least deal with cross balls, he could then have Whittaker at left back and Broadfoot at right!

As for McCulloch why that guy is allowed to pull on the jersey I am yet to understand, I only hope Stoke City saves us more misery and take him in January!!

[simplythebest 11,453]

Would hate to see Thomson out on the left. There is no width there what so ever.

Indeed, i am not a fan at all of no wingers in a team.

[Muff 245]

I would agree, startin to click.....gradually but it has taken Ferguson much longer than expected to show some glimpses of form, this has cost us recently, particularly away from home (against Motherwell and more notably Hearts!

Another issue I have with Saturday's team......why put big Broadfoot at centre back when big Sasa is far more adept in that position and can at least deal with cross balls, he could then have Whittaker at left back and Broadfoot at right!

As for McCulloch why that guy is allowed to pull on the jersey I am yet to understand, I only hope Stoke City saves us more misery and take him in January!!

Have you seen Papac in the air? I don't want to see either Broadfoot or Papac in the team or at CB, but if I had to chose, I'd pick Broadfoot everytime.

Papac's positional sense, aerial ability and marking is terrible.

Oh, welcome to the greatest Rangers forum on the planet

[MosesMcNeil 1,664]

Would hate to see Thomson out on the left. There is no width there what so ever.

I'd agree if we had someone capable of even imitating a winger.

Burke and Beasley? No thanks.

[BlueStu08 0]

I would agree, startin to click.....gradually but it has taken Ferguson much longer than expected to show some glimpses of form, this has cost us recently, particularly away from home (against Motherwell and more notably Hearts!

Another issue I have with Saturday's team......why put big Broadfoot at centre back when big Sasa is far more adept in that position and can at least deal with cross balls, he could then have Whittaker at left back and Broadfoot at right!

As for McCulloch why that guy is allowed to pull on the jersey I am yet to understand, I only hope Stoke City saves us more misery and take him in January!!

Have you seen Papac in the air? I don't want to see either Broadfoot or Papac in the team or at CB, but if I had to chose, I'd pick Broadfoot everytime.

Papac's positional sense, aerial ability and marking is terrible.

Oh, welcome to the greatest Rangers forum on the planet

Yeah I'd agree I'd preferably have neither, thankfully Bougherra is fit for Saturday!!!

[Muff 245]

I'd rather see Beasley out on the left than Thomson.

I'd love to see something like this.

_________Thomson___________

____Davis________Mendes____

__________Aaron____________

_________ST____ST__________

with two quality wing backs, two centre backs and a keeper who doesn't always punt the ball.

[Muff 245]

I would agree, startin to click.....gradually but it has taken Ferguson much longer than expected to show some glimpses of form, this has cost us recently, particularly away from home (against Motherwell and more notably Hearts!

Another issue I have with Saturday's team......why put big Broadfoot at centre back when big Sasa is far more adept in that position and can at least deal with cross balls, he could then have Whittaker at left back and Broadfoot at right!

As for McCulloch why that guy is allowed to pull on the jersey I am yet to understand, I only hope Stoke City saves us more misery and take him in January!!

Have you seen Papac in the air? I don't want to see either Broadfoot or Papac in the team or at CB, but if I had to chose, I'd pick Broadfoot everytime.

Papac's positional sense, aerial ability and marking is terrible.

Oh, welcome to the greatest Rangers forum on the planet

Yeah I'd agree I'd preferably have neither, thankfully Bougherra is fit for Saturday!!!

We need Bougherra in there for the next two matches. I'd hate to go into the Old Firm match without him.

[GersDude90 1]

Its amazing that when we have guys like Davis, Mendes, Ferguson and Miller - all players when the ball is on the deck are very capable of creating something - we decide to totally bypass them.

[outlaw69uk 123]

I don't understand why we resort to the long ball when we have guys like Mendes, Ferguson, Davis, Boyd in our team?

Could you imagine Guardiola telling Valdes, Puyol, Marques to hit it long at every opportunity and missing out guys like Xavi, Messi, Iniesta....?

See, for me, thats the biggest question about us at the moment, far more than the manager, who plays LM etc. Why bypass our main assets?

Should be easy, give it to Mendes/Ferguson/Davis, and, the ball will end up, pretty quickly, to Boyds feet around the box, then, as happened Saturday, we will score

Nobody gets near us when we bloody pass it about on the deck

[teddybearjoe 0]

For all our sakes i hope the parnership between mendes and fergie does work i canny go another season listenin to the manky mob gloatin ! we need to play the ball on the deck as most of you seem to agree and we also need a partner for brougerra in the center of defence, preferably someone whos good in the air !

[MarkyMitch 4]

Would hate to see Thomson out on the left. There is no width there what so ever.

Change it to....

________McGregor

Hutton Bougherra Cuellar Smith

_________Thomson

____Davis Mendes Ferguson

________Boyd Miller.

....and we would have had a great team!

Hutton and Smith would have provided the width and Thomson would have given extra protection to the defence.

But this is all if's, but's and maybe's.

[ManchestGer 347]

I hope Mendes and Ferguson can have a good game against Hibs at the weekend then we can go into the OF game with a lot of confidence, and have the Tims worrying about our midfield