'Our 4-4-2 simply doesn't work'

[Bluepeter9 5,167]

If it wasn't for McShagger then Bougherra would have been responsible for yet another goal as once again he let lovell slip in behind him - twice, and this is NOT the first game this has happened - he is an OK centre back but no way is he a standout.

Mendes hit as many bad passes as Fergie but Fergie gets pelters and not Pedro - and Pedro has caught the "Lets not beat the first man with a corner kick" disease. I thought they played well together - there were times when we played keep ball utilising them both and did really well. Fergie gets slated for short free kicks - Pedro does the same from a corner and it ends as a Falkirk throw in!

Davis gets dragged all over the park and 4 or five times last night ended up on the left of the park - I often think he leaves Broadfoot exposed - good player though and when he keeps his positional discipline brings a lot to the team.

[Carsons Dog 9,878]

Good evening Rm'ers, hope you had a good one.

Just back from the traffical (is that a word?) nightmare that is Hampden and I did actually enjoy the game.

I can't see our 4-4-2 working without a proper defensive midfielder though. The gaps that appeared between defence and Ferguson/Mendes at times tonight were vast and a half decent team would have killed us.

Hemdani anyone?

[Blue Stars Bearette 1]

Good evening Rm'ers, hope you had a good one.

Just back from the traffical (is that a word?) nightmare that is Hampden and I did actually enjoy the game.

I can't see our 4-4-2 working without a proper defensive midfielder though. The gaps that appeared between defence and Ferguson/Mendes at times tonight were vast and a half decent team would have killed us.

Up front, Boyd was anonymous for the first half but really very, very good in the second period of play. Won freekicks (still falls on his arse too much though), troubled the defenders, ran at a few players and generally got up well for his linkup play. Won a tackle in the rightback position as well after chasing the ball down, so to you Kris.

Ferguson was absolutely woeful. A few decent first time passes, but the amount of 'hospital' passes he played tonight was terrifying. I went into the game in the mindset of being 100% fair on him and he didn't deliver at all. Totally undeserving of his automatic selection and captaincy at the moment.

Mendes, Novo and Bougherra were a league above the others tonight. Novo's goals and all round play were great, Bougherra was dominant in the air and calmed things down at the back and Mendes ran the show (although his final delivery was shocking at times). He did manage to keepie uppie a ball over Darren Barr's head twice though, so I enjoyed that.

Comfy night, but we must start looking more urgent and perform to a higher tempo against better teams. The surface was abysmal though, to be fair.

thanks for the info Papa G ....I was hoping Edu could do a job between the defence and midfield ...it sounds like its about time Baz was put on the bench

[papaguy51 912]

If it wasn't for McShagger then Bougherra would have been responsible for yet another goal as once again he let lovell slip in behind him - twice, and this is NOT the first game this has happened - he is an OK centre back but no way is he a standout.

Mendes hit as many bad passes as Fergie but Fergie gets pelters and not Pedro - and Pedro has caught the "Lets not beat the first man with a corner kick" disease. I thought they played well together - there were times when we played keep ball utilising them both and did really well. Fergie gets slated for short free kicks - Pedro does the same from a corner and it ends as a Falkirk throw in!

Davis gets dragged all over the park and 4 or five times last night ended up on the left of the park - I often think he leaves Broadfoot exposed - good player though and when he keeps his positional discipline brings a lot to the team.

I feel you just come on to disagree with me

If you can't see that Mendes did indeed perform better than Ferguson last night, then either your eyes are painted on or you're so bias towards supporting Barry that you can't have a bad word said about him.

[TMWWBK 0]

I've no idea why Smith was so desperate to move into a 4-4-2. It died on the continent years ago and is generally treated with the same contempt as the awful 3-5-2.

I just can't fathom why it's still relatively popular in Britain. An awful tactic.

[TMWWBK 0]

If it wasn't for McShagger then Bougherra would have been responsible for yet another goal as once again he let lovell slip in behind him - twice, and this is NOT the first game this has happened - he is an OK centre back but no way is he a standout.

Mendes hit as many bad passes as Fergie but Fergie gets pelters and not Pedro - and Pedro has caught the "Lets not beat the first man with a corner kick" disease. I thought they played well together - there were times when we played keep ball utilising them both and did really well. Fergie gets slated for short free kicks - Pedro does the same from a corner and it ends as a Falkirk throw in!

Davis gets dragged all over the park and 4 or five times last night ended up on the left of the park - I often think he leaves Broadfoot exposed - good player though and when he keeps his positional discipline brings a lot to the team.

Your positional defense of Davis is absolutely laughable. His positional sense isnt at all impressive.

"He's a good player though" seems to be the let off for him. I'd drop him.

[Bluepeter9 5,167]

If it wasn't for McShagger then Bougherra would have been responsible for yet another goal as once again he let lovell slip in behind him - twice, and this is NOT the first game this has happened - he is an OK centre back but no way is he a standout.

Mendes hit as many bad passes as Fergie but Fergie gets pelters and not Pedro - and Pedro has caught the "Lets not beat the first man with a corner kick" disease. I thought they played well together - there were times when we played keep ball utilising them both and did really well. Fergie gets slated for short free kicks - Pedro does the same from a corner and it ends as a Falkirk throw in!

Davis gets dragged all over the park and 4 or five times last night ended up on the left of the park - I often think he leaves Broadfoot exposed - good player though and when he keeps his positional discipline brings a lot to the team.

I feel you just come on to disagree with me

If you can't see that Mendes did indeed perform better than Ferguson last night, then either your eyes are painted on or you're so bias towards supporting Barry that you can't have a bad word said about him.

At no point did I say that Fergie was better than Pedro - BUT by no means was he as bad as you would make out - I do feel you have blinkers on with respect to how well Barry is performing - now I would agree he has yet to reach his best game BUT he is playing well, and to say otherwise is nonsense (IMHO) - and Barry is certainly playing better than Davis at the moment but the blinkered also refuse to see that.

For the record I do not come on here to disagree with you - however when I see any post that I think is 'misguided' I reply with my opinion - its just rarely our opinions match.

[papaguy51 912]

If it wasn't for McShagger then Bougherra would have been responsible for yet another goal as once again he let lovell slip in behind him - twice, and this is NOT the first game this has happened - he is an OK centre back but no way is he a standout.

Mendes hit as many bad passes as Fergie but Fergie gets pelters and not Pedro - and Pedro has caught the "Lets not beat the first man with a corner kick" disease. I thought they played well together - there were times when we played keep ball utilising them both and did really well. Fergie gets slated for short free kicks - Pedro does the same from a corner and it ends as a Falkirk throw in!

Davis gets dragged all over the park and 4 or five times last night ended up on the left of the park - I often think he leaves Broadfoot exposed - good player though and when he keeps his positional discipline brings a lot to the team.

I feel you just come on to disagree with me

If you can't see that Mendes did indeed perform better than Ferguson last night, then either your eyes are painted on or you're so bias towards supporting Barry that you can't have a bad word said about him.

At no point did I say that Fergie was better than Pedro - BUT by no means was he as bad as you would make out - I do feel you have blinkers on with respect to how well Barry is performing - now I would agree he has yet to reach his best game BUT he is playing well, and to say otherwise is nonsense (IMHO) - and Barry is certainly playing better than Davis at the moment but the blinkered also refuse to see that.

For the record I do not come on here to disagree with you - however when I see any post that I think is 'misguided' I reply with my opinion - its just rarely our opinions match.

What do you think it's down to then?

Ferguson MUST be at full fitness by now, but he's been more lethargic than I've ever seen him in the last 2/3 games. I had pretty good seats last night and to be honest, after the first goal I was more concerned with watching Ferguson's performance than I was with anything else just so I could come on here and try to be totally honest about how he done.

[docspiderman 1,234]

If it wasn't for McShagger then Bougherra would have been responsible for yet another goal as once again he let lovell slip in behind him - twice, and this is NOT the first game this has happened - he is an OK centre back but no way is he a standout.

Mendes hit as many bad passes as Fergie but Fergie gets pelters and not Pedro - and Pedro has caught the "Lets not beat the first man with a corner kick" disease. I thought they played well together - there were times when we played keep ball utilising them both and did really well. Fergie gets slated for short free kicks - Pedro does the same from a corner and it ends as a Falkirk throw in!

Davis gets dragged all over the park and 4 or five times last night ended up on the left of the park - I often think he leaves Broadfoot exposed - good player though and when he keeps his positional discipline brings a lot to the team.

This has happened a lot although last night I was very close to the action and same as our last game against Falkirk and the goal we lost against St Mirren when McCulloch played instead of Bougherra, the problem was Broadfoot abstaining from involvement which allowed the through ball and the run without opposition. Three similar goals and two different central defenders and one constant.

The other points are maybe what people do not want to hear but are very true.

[papaguy51 912]

When a player is running at our defensive line, they all back off like scared sheep.

No-one goes out to make the challenge. It's obviously something that they've been told to do by the manager but I cannot understand why.

[docspiderman 1,234]

When a player is running at our defensive line, they all back off like scared sheep.

No-one goes out to make the challenge. It's obviously something that they've been told to do by the manager but I cannot understand why.

That has been very noticeable and really scares me, good opposition with a decent class of striker could do a lot of damage.

[papaguy51 912]

When a player is running at our defensive line, they all back off like scared sheep.

No-one goes out to make the challenge. It's obviously something that they've been told to do by the manager but I cannot understand why.

That has been very noticeable and really scares me, good opposition with a decent class of striker could do a lot of damage.

It's the main reason why, IMHO, 4-4-2 doesn't work with Ferguson and Mendes.

We need a destroyer in there just in front of the back four.

[Polo 1,433]

Sadly Ferguson doesn't appear to be the player he once was.

I don't think he was awful last night though. Fair enough he slowed the pace down from time to time, but there weren't a whole lot of options for him when on the ball. He retained possession well, played some sensible passes and had a couple of nice give and go's with Mendes. For all the stick that Fergie's been taking, I don't recall too many Hollywood passes from anyone else on the field either.

Barry and Pedro dominated the game. However, I agree with Papa re. the holes in front of our defence. There were a few instances where Falkirk players were getting the ball into feet and turned in that area and that's something which we should address. A better side would have exploited that. Perhaps we should bring Big Lee back into the side

Davis still looks out of form. Broadfoot was pretty awful again. Naismith is never a LM but I suppose it's good to see him building up some match fitness all the same.

It was good to see Shagger getting back to his best Hopefully Nacho will retain his place on Saturday on the back of that display too.

[papaguy51 912]

Sadly Ferguson doesn't appear to be the player he once was.

I don't think he was awful last night though. Fair enough he slowed the pace down from time to time, but there weren't a whole lot of options for him when on the ball. He retained possession well, played some sensible passes and had a couple of nice give and go's with Mendes. For all the stick that Fergie's been taking, I don't recall too many Hollywood passes from anyone else on the field either.

Barry and Pedro dominated the game. However, I agree with Papa re. the holes in front of our defence. There were a few instances where Falkirk players were getting the ball into feet and turned in that area and that's something which we should address. A better side would have exploited that. Perhaps we should bring Big Lee back into the side

Davis still looks out of form. Broadfoot was pretty awful again. Naismith is never a LM but I suppose it's good to see him building up some match fitness all the same.

It was good to see Shagger getting back to his best Hoepfully Nacho will retain his place on Saturday on the back of that display too.

I think Ferguson and Mendes have a tendancy to overplay as well.

It takes three touches each before they move the ball and that didn't happen with Thomson.

I also felt like Broadfoot and Papac really panicked if they weren't allowed a customary 4 touches of the ball before hoofing it up the park, but maybe I'm being harsh. The ball looked like a hot potato at times.

[Polo 1,433]

I think Ferguson and Mendes have a tendancy to overplay as well.

It takes three touches each before they move the ball and that didn't happen with Thomson.

I also felt like Broadfoot and Papac really panicked if they weren't allowed a customary 4 touches of the ball before hoofing it up the park, but maybe I'm being harsh. The ball looked like a hot potato at times.

Broadfoot especially. Papac showed that he can actually play a reasonably good pass in behind the full back though - Kirk can't! Sometimes they didn't have many options.

Hutton would have just skipped past a couple of the Falkirk players and made the defenders commit themselves, freeing up some space in the process. Anyway, I digress....

[Bluepeter9 5,167]

If it wasn't for McShagger then Bougherra would have been responsible for yet another goal as once again he let lovell slip in behind him - twice, and this is NOT the first game this has happened - he is an OK centre back but no way is he a standout.

Mendes hit as many bad passes as Fergie but Fergie gets pelters and not Pedro - and Pedro has caught the "Lets not beat the first man with a corner kick" disease. I thought they played well together - there were times when we played keep ball utilising them both and did really well. Fergie gets slated for short free kicks - Pedro does the same from a corner and it ends as a Falkirk throw in!

Davis gets dragged all over the park and 4 or five times last night ended up on the left of the park - I often think he leaves Broadfoot exposed - good player though and when he keeps his positional discipline brings a lot to the team.

I feel you just come on to disagree with me

If you can't see that Mendes did indeed perform better than Ferguson last night, then either your eyes are painted on or you're so bias towards supporting Barry that you can't have a bad word said about him.

At no point did I say that Fergie was better than Pedro - BUT by no means was he as bad as you would make out - I do feel you have blinkers on with respect to how well Barry is performing - now I would agree he has yet to reach his best game BUT he is playing well, and to say otherwise is nonsense (IMHO) - and Barry is certainly playing better than Davis at the moment but the blinkered also refuse to see that.

For the record I do not come on here to disagree with you - however when I see any post that I think is 'misguided' I reply with my opinion - its just rarely our opinions match.

What do you think it's down to then?

Ferguson MUST be at full fitness by now, but he's been more lethargic than I've ever seen him in the last 2/3 games. I had pretty good seats last night and to be honest, after the first goal I was more concerned with watching Ferguson's performance than I was with anything else just so I could come on here and try to be totally honest about how he done.

Sometimes getting back to your best just takes time - look at McGregor - only in the last couple of games has he started to look like the player he was last season. Also if you did nothing but watch ferguson last night then its kind of sad that you didn't notice he had a decent game. FFS we controlled the whole tempo of the game for huge swarthes of time - and most of that was down to Pedro and Barry working together.

[1690 Posts 71]

When a player is running at our defensive line, they all back off like scared sheep.

No-one goes out to make the challenge. It's obviously something that they've been told to do by the manager but I cannot understand why.

That has been very noticeable and really scares me, good opposition with a decent class of striker could do a lot of damage.

It's the main reason why, IMHO, 4-4-2 doesn't work with Ferguson and Mendes.

We need a destroyer in there just in front of the back four.

I completely agree and so does Smith imo. I think he'd prefer to go 4-5-1 to give some cover to the back line but the hue and cry last season is affecting him and it shouldn't. Any manager should have the stones to go with what he believes to be his strongest formation.

If Cousin had even a bit of Novo's attitude then he was the perfect man to play striker in a 4-5-1, sadly I'm not sure if we have a player like that at the club. Miller's touch is just about the worst in professional football, seriously, and when he's playing like a pub team player he's absolutely no use to the team.

[TMWWBK 0]

When a player is running at our defensive line, they all back off like scared sheep.

No-one goes out to make the challenge. It's obviously something that they've been told to do by the manager but I cannot understand why.

That has been very noticeable and really scares me, good opposition with a decent class of striker could do a lot of damage.

It's the main reason why, IMHO, 4-4-2 doesn't work with Ferguson and Mendes.

We need a destroyer in there just in front of the back four.

I completely agree and so does Smith imo. I think he'd prefer to go 4-5-1 to give some cover to the back line but the hue and cry last season is affecting him and it shouldn't. Any manager should have the stones to go with what he believes to be his strongest formation.

If Cousin had even a bit of Novo's attitude then he was the perfect man to play striker in a 4-5-1, sadly I'm not sure if we have a player like that at the club. Miller's touch is just about the worst in professional football, seriously, and when he's playing like a pub team player he's absolutely no use to the team.

I agree with this.

Miller had two good games for Scotland in the lone striker role against Norway and Italy (where in fairness, he was absolutely phenomenal) and all of a sudden the media portrayed him as this Klose like lone striker. Cousin just wasn't replaced, it's as simple as that.

Without emphasizing, i'd go as far as saying that the Boyd/Miller strikeforce is probably the worst i've ever seen in my time supporting Rangers. Only McLeish's totally static combination of the finished Michael Mols and self explanatory (winger!) Nuno Capucho beats it.

[ShootSpeedKillLight 0]

Without emphasizing, i'd go as far as saying that the Boyd/Miller strikeforce is probably the worst i've ever seen in my time supporting Rangers. Only McLeish's totally static combination of the finished Michael Mols and self explanatory (winger!) Nuno Capucho beats it.

I never understood why so many people seemed to think the Boyd/Miller thing was brilliant. I can't remember the last time it produced a goal, now that I think of it.

[TMWWBK 0]

Without emphasizing, i'd go as far as saying that the Boyd/Miller strikeforce is probably the worst i've ever seen in my time supporting Rangers. Only McLeish's totally static combination of the finished Michael Mols and self explanatory (winger!) Nuno Capucho beats it.

I never understood why so many people seemed to think the Boyd/Miller thing was brilliant. I can't remember the last time it produced a goal, now that I think of it.

Two totally awful footballers without a first touch or any sort of techincal ability between them. The McCoist/Hateley comparison was probably the worst thing i've ever read, and i've read Mein Kampf.

[delparlane 5,692]

When a player is running at our defensive line, they all back off like scared sheep.

No-one goes out to make the challenge. It's obviously something that they've been told to do by the manager but I cannot understand why.

This stood out like a sore thumb all night; I was amazed that we didn't end up getting punished for it. Any team of a higher calibre would surely have taken advantage of that.

[BigSlim 0]

Good evening Rm'ers, hope you had a good one.

Just back from the traffical (is that a word?) nightmare that is Hampden and I did actually enjoy the game.

I can't see our 4-4-2 working without a proper defensive midfielder though. The gaps that appeared between defence and Ferguson/Mendes at times tonight were vast and a half decent team would have killed us.

Up front, Boyd was anonymous for the first half but really very, very good in the second period of play. Won freekicks (still falls on his arse too much though), troubled the defenders, ran at a few players and generally got up well for his linkup play. Won a tackle in the rightback position as well after chasing the ball down, so to you Kris.

Ferguson was absolutely woeful. A few decent first time passes, but the amount of 'hospital' passes he played tonight was terrifying. I went into the game in the mindset of being 100% fair on him and he didn't deliver at all. Totally undeserving of his automatic selection and captaincy at the moment.

Mendes, Novo and Bougherra were a league above the others tonight. Novo's goals and all round play were great, Bougherra was dominant in the air and calmed things down at the back and Mendes ran the show (although his final delivery was shocking at times). He did manage to keepie uppie a ball over Darren Barr's head twice though, so I enjoyed that.

Comfy night, but we must start looking more urgent and perform to a higher tempo against better teams. The surface was abysmal though, to be fair.

Agree with your comments thought Mendes wasnt that good with corners etc so maybe those who had a pop at Fleck for taking them will now understand why.

had Ferguson made those passes you talked about in a Selic game we d have 3 or 4 players out with long term injuries but just glad Falkirk played a passing game so no real damage

Broadfoot looked pretty cumbersome at times and you can see why Hutton was miles better HE took the ball to the byeline and was much quicker as well.

novo was excellent but im still of the opinion that Smith is right using him mainly for the last 25 minutes

[reddrock 107]

Good evening Rm'ers, hope you had a good one.

Just back from the traffical (is that a word?) nightmare that is Hampden and I did actually enjoy the game.

I can't see our 4-4-2 working without a proper defensive midfielder though. The gaps that appeared between defence and Ferguson/Mendes at times tonight were vast and a half decent team would have killed us.

Up front, Boyd was anonymous for the first half but really very, very good in the second period of play. Won freekicks (still falls on his arse too much though), troubled the defenders, ran at a few players and generally got up well for his linkup play. Won a tackle in the rightback position as well after chasing the ball down, so to you Kris.

Ferguson was absolutely woeful. A few decent first time passes, but the amount of 'hospital' passes he played tonight was terrifying. I went into the game in the mindset of being 100% fair on him and he didn't deliver at all. Totally undeserving of his automatic selection and captaincy at the moment.

Mendes, Novo and Bougherra were a league above the others tonight. Novo's goals and all round play were great, Bougherra was dominant in the air and calmed things down at the back and Mendes ran the show (although his final delivery was shocking at times). He did manage to keepie uppie a ball over Darren Barr's head twice though, so I enjoyed that.

Comfy night, but we must start looking more urgent and perform to a higher tempo against better teams. The surface was abysmal though, to be fair.

Stuck doon here as an anglo Papa so couldnae even watch on sultana as it was on the irish channel , agree with ya on the fergie , mendes thing and as good as fergy has been in days gone by i believe thats where is best is in the past .

be interesting to see whit happens when tommo is back

[simplythebest 11,453]

Without emphasizing, i'd go as far as saying that the Boyd/Miller strikeforce is probably the worst i've ever seen in my time supporting Rangers. Only McLeish's totally static combination of the finished Michael Mols and self explanatory (winger!) Nuno Capucho beats it.

I never understood why so many people seemed to think the Boyd/Miller thing was brilliant. I can't remember the last time it produced a goal, now that I think of it.

Two totally awful footballers without a first touch or any sort of techincal ability between them. The McCoist/Hateley comparison was probably the worst thing i've ever read, and i've read Mein Kampf.

It was working for a while, but its gone downhill which seems to be largely due to Miller's shocking form.

[Stuart_RFC 41]

Felt Boyd looked much better actually played beside Novo (who is a FAR better option to have than Miller) and actually showed some very good play especially in the 2nd half. Mendes is top drawer but i just feel Ferguson is slowly becoming non existant in games these days. He just doesnt seem to have the same raw enthusiasm and passion that we loved him for, maybe due to having career threatening injuries but whatever it is, its simply not working for us.

But up front we actually looked dangerous for once, Miller is brutal ..and i think a lot of people forget how good Nacho is as a striker, as its very rare we see him through the middle, but when he is played there, he can be devastating, almost as much as Boyd as well and will get a shed load of goals.