Can we really win the league this season?

I don’t know how we can start so defeated, before we’ve even kicked a ball. In my opinion there’s many in the thread that need to bring a bit more positivity about it.

Celtic are not miles ahead of us, they’re not any stronger than they were last season. And we’ve been pretty close for the most part. So there’s no reason we won’t run them close or we won’t better them. Believe in the players and believe in the management team. This isn’t about the old firm games, it’s about beating the rest of the league teams - and this team is more than good enough.

Yes, I’d love a couple of quality additions to go straight in to the first team. Especially another striking option, midfield I would like a bit a strong creative, combative midfielder - but if we don’t get it we’ve got more than enough in that department.

If we don’t believe how can we expect the players to?
 
Well feck me.

What a bunch of defeatists.

It’s the start of a new season & I for one think we have a chance as long as the refs are not compliant, but then again!!!
 
Only in Scotland would there be an expectation that a team with a wage bill around 50% of their rivals, nowhere near the squad depth and the obvious referring bias in place to actually win the league.

I am massively critical of Gerrard tactically, but if we continue to improve then even if he doesn’t win the league, he shouldn’t be sacked.

It’s hard for some to take, but really, it’s very unlikely that we’ll win the league.
 
I think we will have a good enough team if we sort out the CF's.

Can't say I have the confidence in Gerrard though. Our first games against Aberdeen and Kilmarnock will tell us if he has learned anything.
 
It’s more or less the same squad who’ve already shown they can’t take the heat so as it stands with the squad as it is now? No, I don’t think we can.
 
Really all depends on how things look once the transfer window closes. At the moment, I think we'd still come up short, but it would be tight. If we strengthen further (quality, not squad players), we're definitely in with a shout.
 
People always say we bottled it at new year, or blame the trip to Dubai but in reality it's the point of the season where you need the strength in depth to handle injuries suspensions and fatigue due to the number of games we played.

By February we had various injuries and suspensions at different points key players were out.
Morelos
Defoe
Barasic
Helander
Davis
Jack
Tav

These are all key players. Our two main strikers who were joint top scorers in the league at the winter break both out at points, Tav and borna both out at points and helander (3 of our first choice back four)

Even though they were not all out at the same time even just one or two being replaced by inferior players is enough to weaken us enough to drop points against lesser teams.

We need that extra bit of quality to take the load off some players and to compensate for niggly injuries. Helander was a bad one as Niko and big George could not seem to get going which in turn threw Goldson off at times. Haliday or Flanagan at left back for Borna is a huge downgrade. Polster or Flanagan for Tav is the same. Aribo was playing in the front 3 as well which does not suit him.

3/4 quality additions would improve us greatly added to Hagi who we already have in. Think we are ok at the back and in goals maybe better cover for Tav but I think Patterson could definitely do as cover. Another good CM and a couple of strikers depending on what happens with Alfie.
 
Just thinking if we can.
I’m not the pessimistic type but when it come to Rangers that’s sometimes my default position.

I hope we can but I’m not convinced we will, as I don’t see too many leaders in that squad and that concerns me.
Can we? Yes

Will we have a chance to? No way. The powers that currently rule this game in Scotland will NEVER let that happen. They just got away with blatant mismanagement and obvious corruption. They will make sure that there are enough roadblocks in our way.

If not, and we are in the lead, they will call the league and use some convenient new way to declare the winner. I put NOTHING past these scumbags.
 
We need to stop letting going top of the table for a while and humping our hoopy friends make us think we're home and dry. The non-winter break this year may work for us, as for whatever reason both seasons before it fell apart in Dubai. I would also add the mhedia are deluding themselves if they think the pressure is mostly on us. Yes Gerrard has to go if ten comes. But they are obsessing over this, their big decade long dominance certificate. They have no idea how devalued it is viewed upon across the globe with no competition for half the period.

Ten wont happen anyway so chill :))
 
I very much doubt it. Too many hurdles to overcome. Red cards followed by suspensions, dodgy refereeing and constant attacks from the press and media highlighting every decision that goes in our favour and ignoring negative ones. As Clancy has already pointed out, the refs are only human. The propaganda affects them.
 
Could go either way. I think we have a slightly more talented starting 11 as it stands but they have better depth and more experience.
 
If it can be figured out what went wrong during the last two winter breaks.

To me the mini camps in some way resulted in the players coming back having lost their edge and unfortunately looking stale. They should have restarted being reinvigorated and ready to push the yahoos all the way to the finish.

And
We need a good transfer window now.
 
Can we? Yes

Will we have a chance to? No way. The powers that currently rule this game in Scotland will NEVER let that happen. They just got away with blatant mismanagement and obvious corruption. They will make sure that there are enough roadblocks in our way.

If not, and we are in the lead, they will call the league and use some convenient new way to declare the winner. I put NOTHING past these scumbags.

You have to be good enough to be in the position for the so called “cabal” to feel like they need to cheat us to begin with, and I’m sorry but there’s absolutely nothing/zilch/nada to suggest our players can even stay with the scum past January never mind actually get ahead of them at the business end and close in on a championship. I’d worry about us being good enough to mount a credible title challenge before I’d worry about officials or the SPFL trying to trip us up as we approach the finish line.
 
Pathetic, disgusting attitude. Gtf.

I hate this frame of mind that says if a supporter looks at the reality of our situation instead of going into fantasy mode he’s somehow “pathetic” or displaying a “disgusting attitude”.

As it stands the personnel for the two squads is more or less the same as it was last season, and last season their personnel were a huge number of points in front of ours and on course for another treble, so how the fùck can anyone argue against that guy’s point? There’s nothing wrong with being realistic, sticking your fingers in your ears and saying “that’s a pathetic attitude, they’re not better” might get you staunch points but it won’t actually alter reality or make us any better.

At this point our best hope is that they capitulate either due to TLB falling out with his players or due to them suffering some serious injuries, because they’ve demonstrated that when their side is fully fit and functioning they’re much better at putting wins together than us. Of course outside of that our best bet is to get 3 or 4 qualify signings in to go straight into the starting 11, but with the season starting in a couple of days that isn’t likely.
 
If you go through both current squads........

Goalkeeper, we are stronger.

Full backs, we are far stronger, but there is a bit of a drop off, if Tav or Borna get injured.

Central defence, they currently only have Ajer and Jullien, plus Biton in an emergency.
We have 4 quality proper central defenders.

Central midfield, they only have McGregor Brown and Ntcham, compared to our 5 options of Jack, Kamara, Aribo, Davis and Arfield.

Up to this point, we definitely have more quality and depth.

However, in the 2 positions behind the striker, Christie and Forrest made a huge goals contribution last season and they also have Elyanoussi too, although he's flattered to deceive so far.
It's vital that Hagi and Kent really step up to the plate this season and weigh in heavily with goals and assists.

The striker situation for both clubs is currently uncertain.
Alfredo's future is up in the air and Defoe is recovering from injury.
They have Edouard, who on his day is an excellent striker, but has looked totally disinterested so far this season and hasn't scored.
Griffiths is a basket case and has only played 20 minutes for their reserves so far this season and the Pole they signed has been worse than useless.

They are threadbare in the goalkeeping, central defence and centre midfield positions, while we desperately need to strengthen further forward.

Whoever does the best business in their weaker areas will be in pole position, for me.
 
Scum will need to drop more points than they were doing. Up til Xmas it looked like we could but our bottles crashed. Hope we've learned.
 
The whole thing about leaders has been done to death.

Impossible to predict a league with the transfer window open for another 2 months.

Chances are us and the tims will look pretty different by the start of October.

The team that buys/loans right will win the league.

The team with the best players wins the league, the whole leaders argument is just an excuse and majorly overstated on here.
I don’t think it is, we had leaders all over the park in the 90s, it’s why we won stuff! Christ even ex players of every team say you need leaders in the dressing room. We don’t have many
 
Starting on circa -12 points due to corruption is a bit of a handicap.
Add in the bheasts starting on +12 and we have a fight on our hands.
 
If we can finally manage to prevent the collapse after new year then yes, I feel we can.

We have shown last season we can go toe to toe with them when it matters, it's against the diddy teams we went AWOL. If we get the transfers in that are rumoured I believe we are in a very good position.

That said, I remain skeptical about the manager, Gerrard still made mistakes last season which I sincerely hope he has rectified.
I was thinking about this, I think it will benefit us having no winter break
 
We can but I think we will need to win at least 32 games to have any chance such is the quality of the rest of the teams
 
Can? Yes.

Will? That depends on whether or not the players are mentally tough enough and if Gerrard has learned how to break down and beat teams when we're not playing well. There cannot be another post Christmas collapse.
 
Aye ok. Do you genuinely think Rangers are a better team?

If everybody is fit and playing at 100% then it's reasonably close.its certainly a contest.

If not then they have a stronger starting 11 overall and can win the type of ugly games that we struggle with in our post Christmas collapses. We've already seen players commenting that they prefer European games because of the perceived lack of pressure. I think theres an overall quality gap between the 2 teams but it's not as big as the mental strength gap. That's a big concern.
 
Yes because we need Morelos plus another competent striker who can play the one up top.

Selling him is suicide.
The Alfredo we knew and loved is, I think, gone one way or another. He now sees his future as lying elsewhere as is his right. Either he will leave or, if he stays, his mind will be elsewhere. Time to say ’farewell‘ and use some of the cash to strengthen.
 
If everybody is fit and playing at 100% then it's reasonably close.its certainly a contest.

If not then they have a stronger starting 11 overall and can win the type of ugly games that we struggle with in our post Christmas collapses. We've already seen players commenting that they prefer European games because of the perceived lack of pressure. I think theres an overall quality gap between the 2 teams but it's not as big as the mental strength gap. That's a big concern.
Best 11 v each other, Rangers can win. As you and many others have said if everyone plays to potential or if everyone is fit or if we can find the mental strength to grind out the wins against the smaller teams, then yes they have a chance at the league. Too many ifs for me, they have proven over the last few years that they can get results even when they are not playing well.
Its one thing to have hope that Rangers can win the league but we need to be realistic about this squad. They haven't proved that they can sustain a challenge and thats why I dont think we'll win the league.
 
I don't think we are a million miles away from doing it if we can add a bit of quality in the right areas then I think we will do it. Our biggest issues was squad depth last season when we lost Tav, Jack and Alfie we didn't have the same quality to replace them.

Also a big part especially after the winter break was not taking our chances and mistakes that cost us dearly. We also had a few decisions that went against us that cost us a few points and with the tainted 10 we have to make sure refs don't screw us over again.
 
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