Match Thread Rangers v Coventry City, Friendly, Saturday 25 July 2020 - 5.15pm kickoff - live on Premier Sports 1

DoubleWhopper said:
I have to be honest with you.

I haven’t seen anything that says Alfredo is expendable. He isn’t and he’s single handedly hauled us through so many big games.

which is why it’s so galling to see his current slump. Actually to call it a mere slump is doing it a disservice.

Expendable ? No. But also not beyond criticism. Fanboys seem to act like any criticism of Alfredo is doing a disservice to what he has achieved for us in the past.

I know what he can do for us, and we need him to start doing it again.
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We need to move forward without Morelos his touch and his head is elsewhere, the sooner he goes the better for me, get 2 or 3 strikers in. We need to adopt more set ups also, always prefer 4-4-2, but we have to shake it up but we need to have the players to do it.
 
Barisic's Bandage said:
Are you on glue! We have a young striker worth 8 figures scored 14 goals in Europe last year.

You think if he stays we don't have a chance of winning the league??
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Clever spin on what I actually said.

I said if we want to win the league, we need the Morelos of the first half of last season.

I said we don’t stand a chance of winning the league if his goal output is what it has been in 2020.

Do you think that’s a shocking statement? Do you think I’m on glue? You’re welcome to look at our results since he stopped scoring.
 
TBH the way Alfie came off and the way nothing came off for him when he was trying to finish, I wouldn't be entirely confident in him next week. He looks like he could get wound up very easily and McKenna does it to him every time.
 
Aribo is some player. Proactive, wins balls and actively pushes to attack. Thought Hagi was a baw hair from sliding in a few one on one's. Kent with good bursts of space. Barjonas ball was fantastic. Stewart looked lively and Arfield added a bit of life into midfield.

Concerned with how passive Jack can be sometimes he'll win a ball pass it and just stand like his jobs just done. Needs to move into space wanting the ball, see him stand with an opposition player in line, rendering him useless.
 
DEJA BLUE said:
We need to move forward without Morelos his touch and his head is elsewhere, the sooner he goes the better for me, get 2 or 3 strikers in. We need to adopt more set ups also, always prefer 4-4-2, but we have to shake it up but we need to have the players to do it.
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Absolute nonsense
 
Now let's get a midfielder and striker in.

First half was crying out for a midfielder to turn the screws, move the ball with authority, spray it long and short, hit the box. Was too predictable and pedestrian at times - a lot like last season.
 
imvaison said:
Decent performance except for a sluggish period in the first half.
Thought Arfield added a bit of strength when he came on and a good run-out for Helander ah
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I think Davis, Arfield, Kamara, Jack, Barjo have a big opportunity to grab a shirt and nail a place down. Nobody has excelled in there except Superstar Aribo
 
Blue Lew said:
In fairness, they were awful in the first half but they deserve all the plaudits going for their second half performance.
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That's where I tend to disagree from the "general opinion" of a lot of the posts on here at half time.
I quite enjoyed the first half and thought there were a lot of positives although we didn't score and was surprised (well not really) at the outpouring of negativity but that the matchday forum for you in a nutshell!
 
Probably the best workout of all the friendlies so far. Some worrying defensive moments aside a good overall display. As for Alfie, he needs to start realising he's not the only player at our club. Heading up the tunnel after he was subbed is disrespectful to his teammates , the manager and the watching fans.
On to next week now, we need a strong start.
 
Decent test against a side who shaped up a lot like quite a few of the teams we’ll face in the league. Generally well organised and hard to break down. I liked the look of the little Brazilian player in the first half.
 
Danger Zone said:
No player is beyond criticism. But on this thread I’ve seen people criticise his passing and his general input in these friendlies which tells me one of two things; that they’re one of the clan who have made it abundantly clear over the last few years that they don’t like him, or they know hee haw about football.

His form in front of goal is worrying, his overall player was good, and much better the majority of the side.
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Which is fine, but I’ll repeat, and I’ve just been told I’m on glue for saying this, but we don’t stand a hope in hell this season unless he actually starts finding the back of the net.

You only need to look at our post torbett towers run of form to accept that we win most games when he’s finding the back of the net, we haemorrhage points when he isn’t.
 
Those Coventry fans are a peculiar breed. They must have some size of squad as despite making 9 changes in the 2nd half apparently none of the players who played today are considered part of their first 11.

They would "batter us" under normal circumstances
 
DoubleWhopper said:
Clever spin on what I actually said.

I said if we want to win the league, we need the Morelos of the first half of last season.

I said we don’t stand a chance of winning the league if his goal output is what it has been in 2020.

Do you think that’s a shocking statement? Do you think I’m on glue? You’re welcome to look at our results since he stopped scoring.
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He had a barren spell over 2/3 months which coincided with the team playing poorly over that period.

What we need to win the league is for everyone to up their game to his 'usual' level.
 
Hard to know what we are really learning in pre season games, but I’ll go for 4 things:
1. Looking more solid at the center of our backline
2. Aribo is stronger and will be a more significant player
3. If we score early, first 15, we will open teams up and be ok, if we don’t it will be a grind because we still don’t know how to open up packed defences as the first half showed
4. Tav has competition at last

I think next Sunday will tell us whether we have the mindset for this season.
 
I thought Morelos linked up well and it seems like a plan to get him to drop and create space in behind, but if want to get the best from him he needs to play further up imho
 
Full backs not as effective as recently tho great delivery for 2nd from Tav

Cbs were solid apart from a couple of Helander wobbles but given his time out, understandable

Kamara and Aribo good
Jack not quite so

Kents really got the bit between the teeth
Hagi quieter than usual

Alfredo struggling to find the finish
But him being raging at being subbed - good shows he cares and wants to do well
 
A good run out against a decent Coventry side who defended in numbers just like what we'll be up against in the SPFL a little bit sluggish in the first half however much better afterwards Alfie hasn't found his position in our attack yet, we've got Aribo Hagi and Kent all playing very high not what we had last year but that said he is starting to find his place and he is more of a team player with his touches and lay offs ,all in all a very good match
 
Barisic's Bandage said:
He had a barren spell over 2/3 months which coincided with the team playing poorly over that period.

What we need to win the league is for everyone to up their game to his 'usual' level.
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With respect you sound more like an Alfie fan than a Rangers fan.

I won’t dispute the whole team let us down from January onward. Because they did. But you seem to rather blame everyone else and give Alfie a free pass. He wasn’t good after that red card at the Piggery. That’s beyond doubt. He lost his mojo....as I said above, he could single handled haul us through games...

What was our most abject European 45 minutes? I’d say away to Feyenoord in the first half....and boom, he puts us 2-1 up single handedly.

That’s how special he can be, that’s how special we need him to be. It’s clear he can be on a different level to the rest of our squad and that’s what is required, it won’t cut it to just say “well they were all shite”

Morelos is a special player, a unique player in both ability in mindset. Rangers and their fans have stuck with him, both when our enemies have come for him and also when his own undoubted petulance has cost us.

We need him to sparkle again.
 
Macdonsj said:
Full backs not as effective as recently tho great delivery for 2nd from Tav

Cbs were solid apart from a couple of Helander wobbles but given his time out, understandable

Kamara and Aribo good
Jack not quite so

Kents really got the bit between the teeth
Hagi quieter than usual

Alfredo struggling to find the finish
But him being raging at being subbed - good shows he cares and wants to do well
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I agree with most of that but I thought Hagi was a magician today and he's really got my juices flowing for this season.
I really think he'll be the difference between success and failure for us!
 
Beanzie said:
Did anybody notice the way The Manager went up to Collum at the end and pointed to an area of the field. Looked like he was pointing out one of his errors and perhaps putting a wee bit of pressure on Collum ahead of the next time he's involved in one of our games
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gollum then probably did his most angry face and scowled “I’m the referee!” at SG.
 
Can some of our more cerebral tactics chaps explain what Kent's role was today? From what I saw he'll be burned out before Christmas, he was all over the park, closing down, winning the ball, collecting the ball on the halfway line, going down the wing, cutting in, shooting; everything.
Asking too much of him to do this over the course of a season.
 
Game exposed again the lack of a guy to stand in the middle of the park and control the game - far too often we need to use our defenders to drive forward which leaves us exposed to one bad pass or good tackle and the opposition countering.

1st half Coventry hit our right flank every breakdown - Tav upfield, Goldson pulls wide and we are exposed - lost an offside goal to such a move.

I know only pre-season etc but these failings carry on from last year
 
Maxiglw said:
Game exposed again the lack of a guy to stand in the middle of the park and control the game - far too often we need to use our defenders to drive forward which leaves us exposed to one bad pass or good tackle and the opposition countering.

1st half Coventry hit our right flank every breakdown - Tav upfield, Goldson pulls wide and we are exposed - lost an offside goal to such a move.

I know only pre-season etc but these failings carry on from last year
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Correct, when Edmundson had to come to the other side of the six yard box in the first half he had a real go at Goldson for getting pulled out of position. You'd hope by now Tav and Jack had worked that out.
 
The weakest performance of our preseason, yet we still won and haven’t conceded a goal. I think it’s clear there is no real depth in the squad once you get beyond our starting 11. We don’t appear to have strengthened in any significant way from last season that I can see and I’m starting to believe Plan B is still to do Plan A better.

Still, it was good to see Helander back. He looked rusty but I was beginning to think he had a really serious injury. Another great goal from Aribo, and I fancy those quick feet will cause some havoc with opposition defenceS this season. Young Patterson put in another great shift and looks ready to step in whenever needed. It’s just a pity it’s the captain he is deputizing for, or he might get more starts.

Today was all about fitness so no sense going OTT. However, I am a bit concerned the gaffer hasn’t addressed the weaknesses from last season. The mentally challengeds don’t seem to have improved either mind you, and we did have their measure head to head. I just hope the team have the fortitude needed for when the going gets tough.
 
Maxiglw said:
Game exposed again the lack of a guy to stand in the middle of the park and control the game - far too often we need to use our defenders to drive forward which leaves us exposed to one bad pass or good tackle and the opposition countering.

1st half Coventry hit our right flank every breakdown - Tav upfield, Goldson pulls wide and we are exposed - lost an offside goal to such a move.

I know only pre-season etc but these failings carry on from last year
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I would have preferred to play their strongest team for most of the 90 to see if we could eventually break them down.
 
Haveblue said:
91 games 44 goals. for someone who can’t be arsed that’s not a bad return, he has his faults but ffs give the boy a break. He scored nearly 30 goals before the break last season, we will be lucky to get a striker that scores that in a whole season, the rest of the team need to start chipping in.
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I'm not saying he hasn't been arsed in his time with us, I'm talking about now. Just now he is not the answer and I don't know how someone who has won nothing with us and let us down so many times is still held in as high regard?
 
Danger Zone said:
Given how much of the burden he carries for the side at times, im extremely confident we’d end up with a lot of groans about how much worse off we’d look. Especially when we exit the Europa at the group stages at best.
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He absolutely carries a burden and I don’t want to see him leave. I actually want us to splash some cash to bring in proper alternative competition for him (even if it’s a bit of succession planning).

But anyone who thinks that Dykes (or anyone of that level) will be the replacement IF Morelos is sold really does need there head looked at.

Also, it’s not so inconceivable to think that the overall team might get better if Morelos is sold. Buy low, sell high, reinvest in the team. It’s not an option I’d personally look at but there’s certainly an argument for it.
 
Commentator said:
Can some of our more cerebral tactics chaps explain what Kent's role was today? From what I saw he'll be burned out before Christmas, he was all over the park, closing down, winning the ball, collecting the ball on the halfway line, going down the wing, cutting in, shooting; everything.
Asking too much of him to do this over the course of a season.
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I get your point.
Of course there's nothing wrong with these attributes but I still can't help but feeling he's trying too hard at times rather than picking his moments.
As I say it's difficult to criticise a player for putting in too much effort but he might be better playing more intelligently rather than just enthusiastically.
 
Had a quick look on there forum
Scottish football is shit
They were best team in 1st half
We were playing there 2nd string and under 23's 2nd half
There 1st team from last season would beat us
Nathan Patterson is a nasty piece of work.
C%=&£c will have no prob winning our league
The commentary team must have been from Rangers TV
So basically all positive stuff :oops:
 
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Arkansasgerstill said:
Hard to know what we are really learning in pre season games, but I’ll go for 4 things:
1. Looking more solid at the center of our backline
2. Aribo is stronger and will be a more significant player
3. If we score early, first 15, we will open teams up and be ok, if we don’t it will be a grind because we still don’t know how to open up packed defences as the first half showed
4. Tav has competition at last

I think next Sunday will tell us whether we have the mindset for this season.
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3. We ran Coventry all over the park in that 1st Half. We didn't penetrate and it was too side for my preference but realistically the tempo and possession was good enough that it would have paid dividends by tiring out the opposition had it been a league game.

I'll add a couple more.

5. When Kamara moved in at 6 the ball started to move faster forward and we started to find more incisiveness. I think he's nailed a place alongside Aribo and hopefully it's now Jack in a competition for (the RM) shirt.
6. Barjonas, Barker and Murphy have helped themselves alot. In Barker and Barjonas' case they look like Rangers players now. Murphy is looking fit enough to be an option.
7. Two concerns for me - need a striker whch I'm sure is in hand. If Barisic gets hurt we don't have a left back I'd feel confident about. Bassey is VERY raw.
 
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