Match Thread Rangers v Malmö - 20:00 Tuesday - Premier Sports

Embarrassing to say we done wit the the poets have been dane , expecting the same team to get it over the line before investing in the squad . Fuckin terrible .ban me if ye want. Fuckin too many passengers!!!
 
Discombob said:
We conceded 2 with Helander in defence, and 2 with Balogan in defence. I'm inclined to blame all of our defenders.
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Try Helander with a top drawer partner. Goldson and Balogun are not up to it. Clean sheets galore in the league is great...no complaints at all....but by not being ruthless and getting rid of those two we are standing still just as them did every year before the champions League. You don't win things standing still. How many clean sheets in last 12 euro games? One. That defending will never get us to the champions League.
 
iaatpies said:
Not good enough in either leg. Criminal defending. A midfield that couldn't control the game. Poor service to the strikers. Malmo didnt go through because of freak goals. They went through because over the 2 legs they were better than us. Very little in the first leg but tonight it was really clear.

We started well tonight. The high press was causing them real problems and we deserved to be 1 ahead. Morelos was really good. Kent and Wight were showing in patches. The biggest influence on the early part of the game was Joe Aribo. Malmo genuinely couldn't cope with his pressing and his runs into the box. They looked panicked at the back. Their midfielders didnt have any time on the ball to set things up from in front of their own box because Aribo was on them.

And for some reason we decided to sit back, 35 minutes, 2-2 on aggregate and we decide that we're going to abandon what was working for us. Innocent was unfortunate to see a second yellow but he was stupid to give the ref a decision to make. Rangers might have thought that the sending off would have changed the game, but Malmo didnt sit back and try and hold the 2-2. They were aggressive and actually looked to go forward. We rather bizarrely sat off them and let them have the ball. Their 2 goals in the first leg came from defensive errors. Their 2 goals tonight came from defensive errors. There's a pattern there. We dropped the only defender who emerged from the first leg with any credit and his replacement tonight was involved in both goals. Thats not bad luck on our part. Malmo took advantage of some really sloppy play.

The subs didnt do anything to change the game. We lost any last hope of having shape and structure and nothing we did going forward was going to rescue the tie.

It's early in the season and there's enough time to turn things around. That said, 3 losses in a row isnt good and going out by losing both legs against Malmo is poor. Is the starting 11 good enough? The squad in general? For me the answer has to be no - and worryingly no at that.

The back 4 tonight - none of them played well. Tav and Goldson aren't good defenders and we've got decisions to make with Patterson arguably now deserving a run in the team and Goldson's future needing sorted out. Tav starts because of what he offers going forward, but over the 2 legs he's looked poor and his defensive frailty was shown last week. Barasic doesnt look remotely fit and seems to have regressed. Midfield? I know fans love Steven Davis, but for me he's finished at this level. Absolutely no involvement in tonight's game. Arfield was a waste of a jersey and Aribo disappeared from the game when he dropped deep and we stopped pressing. He's just not a central midfielder. Kamara is a huge miss, but its a worry that our midfield is essentially down to 1 player (and arguably Ryan Jack if he can regain fitness). Kent disappeared when we stopped pressing and he's started the season poorly. Morelos clearly can't do it all on his own up front. The options from the bench - particularly in midfield and up front - weren't game changers. Hagi is still carrying the knock from the first league game. Itten just doesnt seem to be the right fit for us. Sakala needs time but hasn't started particularly well.

Gerrard needs to pick the team up. We now focus on the Europa League and it's not where we want to be playing. We need to improve on our league defeat. Fans will rightly be angry at the way we've gone out of the Champions League and that's going to put pressure on the players. At the same time I don't think Celtic are complete no-hopers. We can laugh at Joe Mangle and the mess Celtic appear to be in but they'll still provide a challenge to us this season and it's a challenge we need to show that we're capable of meeting.

On the basis of the 2 league games and the 2 CL matches, I think our squad needs investment. It's time for Bassey and Patterson to be given a run in the team because neither Barasic nor Tav are playing remotely well enough. They shouldn't be allowed to rely on being guaranteed starters. We also need to address the issue of Goldson. He's not so good that we can't replace him. I thought Ahmedhodzic looked good tonight and was far better than Goldson. I think Helander can be genuinely angry that he was dropped for Baogun. I don't think Davis is capable at the level we want to be playing and Arfield is completely done. Would other realistic targets offer more to our squad? Right now I don't believe that Ali McCann or Lewis Ferguson would offer less than Arfield, and I don't rate either as good enough to be regular starters for Rangers. We've got to be asking questions of Ryan Kent and whether or not he has the mentality to be a big game player at a big game club?

The past week has shown where our flaws are and where we need to improve. The big question now is whether or not Gerrard has learned enough in his managerial career so far to make those improvements and whether or not we can afford to address the weaknesses in our starting 11 and the squad in general? Theres's enough time to find out, but we're kidding ourselves if we don't admit that there are warning signs.
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Sorry but your comments about Davis are bordering on lunacy. He was as furious as anyone of us with the majority of the team tonight and gave absolutely everything. The amount of times it was left for Davis try and find the forward pass, or clean up after someone's mistake was frankly ridiculous. Yet, he showed up every time. A couple of stray passes? Maybe. Outside of that, he played well.
 
Lumping it into the box from deep with over 30 mins to go was a piss poor tactic. Not got a target man in there for that to come off.

the defending was poor - outside of the league, we’ve shipped goals and struggle against sharper players.

going forward, lack of patience. Lack of ideas and lack of quality.
 
May be hyperbole to some, but this feels worse than an OF defeat. Their manager openly mocked us, and we have been embarrassed twice by them, most recently with 10 players.

I said it on Twitter during the first game and was called out on it, but WE ARE MILES OFF IT. We had an intensity for the first half hour that we should have been able to continue for the 90 minutes but weren't able to. Folk said Dundee Utd couldn't keep their pressure up for 90 minutes and look what happened there.

And I don't care what anyone says, we should play our strongest 11 at all times. No thinking about future games, no thinking about squad harmony. The best 11 plays. And if that is to be followed, Balogun and Arfield don't start tonight.
 
Goldenboot said:
Barasic wasnt at fault for the 2 goals mate. Bad defending in each game has cost us. This is what needs addressed not bringing in the younger players.

We also need to improve big time on our attacking power
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You're correct but was absolute shite regardless.
 
Wait, so explain dropping Helander for Balogun again?

That's as brutal a feeling I've had in Europe in a long time. I suppose it's a positive for my expectations, but painfully brutal.
 
Azzurri said:
Bit early to call for Gerrard’s head, ffs, two games into the season and yes we lost a tie we all thought we would win tonight, there is definitely something not right at the moment, big changes to come bet you he is as raging as we all are.
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He was angry at one of the press conferences. So unlike him. Something aint right.
 
CCCS cancelled. Champions league prices to watch a second rate tournament with players that dont actually look capable of trying, drag myself through 11 hour shifts and miss putting my son to bed to watch Goldfish flap about at the back? Cowardly Croat shit it from 50/50s? Houdini hiding in “pockets of space” and a “manager” that fails to make one telling substitute and leaves the 2 worst players on the park for the entirety? Or a Sporting Director that has signed 2 free agents that so far, havent improved the match day squad let alone the first 11.
Happy days are here again eh.
 
VMS said:
Bad result against dunfermline and sg is gone and I would not bet against it
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No he isn't.

We'll beat Dunfermline. Won't be pretty but we'll beat them.

Fail to make the Europa League, lose the OF game and struggle to convince through to the end of September? Different story.
 
Skyy Bluenose said:
Wait, so explain dropping Helander for Balogun again?

That's as brutal a feeling I've had in Europe in a long time. I suppose it's a positive for my expectations, but painfully brutal.
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The only reason I can think of is him being quicker than Helander and his pace allowing us to play further up.
 
Kubala said:
I don't know how to respond to the lack of intelligence in this point.
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The Rangers I grew up with regularly won doubles and trebles. Under Gerrard we've only played in one final, and been knocked out at the quarters four times in six attempts.

Our league run was special last year but the key criticism of Gerrard's Rangers is that when it's not happening, it doesn't happen at all and everyone can see it. Too many big occasions have seen us passing the ball from side to side pinging in aimless crosses that are comfortably handled by the opposition. No question we've improved consistently under Gerrard each season, but we're currently underperforming where we should be
 
Amateurish - and apologies to anyone who plays amateur by the way

ZERO pass marks to the players and the coaching staff

Half time

tie essentially 0-0

Versus 10 - TEN men

and get beat - easily 0-2

TBH prob ably saved us from a worse doing from better teams than Malmo ( who are simply smarter than us )
 
DeeCeeTee said:
"Play teams and players at this level"

What level? There is absolutely nothing about Malmö that we should have feared. We blew it.
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Everyone, myself included, believed we got a favourable draw and for last seasons Rangers both legs would have been won. We lost both legs to a no better than average side. This season's Rangers are unrecognisable, dare I say it, as poor as the Rangers just before Lockdown in March 2020, when we feared SG was going to walk.

I am in shock at what I have witnessed in the last 3 games, sloppy performances, dreadful goals conceded, apart from first 30 mins tonight we lack drive and hunger. I'm sure making the CL play-off, which comes with £5m payment plus at worst EL group stage guaranteed, would have been the Boards demand - the chance of new faces before the window closes has probably gone.
 
StuGers said:
Has there been some tactical change for Tav? Is he no longer to run forward with the ball? Play 1-2s? Has he been instructed to pass back as much as possible?
Also, what’s happened to Barasic?

the most frustrating thing is that Malmö were a team of absolute shite. Cheating, cowardly shite, and we absolutely handed that to them.
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They really weren't.

They worked hard. They were well organised. They had a dangerous striker who finished his chances well tonight. Shite teams don't beat us 2-1 in both legs of a Champions League qualifier. Gerrard and the coaching staff need to learn from these games and understand what went wrong. Is it a shite pre-season that has us really poorly prepared against a sharper Malmo side? Did they expose our weaknesses in defence and midfield?

It's folly to write Malmo off as shite. They deserved to beat us.
 
universer said:
We had belief, we didn't had as much as Malmo had, also what they had more was hunger to fight on.

Then we got scared, crumbled mentally and reverted to Tav and Barisic crosses that today went to nobody, fingers crossed Morelos can catch it. Play the damn ball, Sakala was there, Hagi and Wright were there, hell even KENT was there !
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We crumbled when they scored the first, same as the first leg
 
Dashboard Jesus said:
People can dress things up say we were unlucky but for me there a serious issues with this team. Not sure if it is mentality or one or two are unsettled. It needs sorted quick or we could continu on a downward spiral
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Ferrybear73 said:
That is unforgivable imho. Our biggest games of the season, and we BLEW it
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I really don’t know why we didn’t shift a player (who might be angling for a move anyway) and bring in a Veerman and Bright-Samuel (spelling) earlier in the window.

Players like that would have given us something extra in the final third.
 
LOL 133 said:
He was angry at one of the press conferences. So unlike him. Something aint right.
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Yip I agree, we can't go from a team who went undefeated to a team who look like they just have to turn up to win, said in another thread that something isn't right with us, heads been turned with moves away?, complacency?, or teams sussing us out?.
 
audiorealis said:
The Rangers I grew up with regularly won doubles and trebles. Under Gerrard we've only played in one final, and been knocked out at the quarters four times in six attempts.

Our league run was special last year but the key criticism of Gerrard's Rangers is that when it's not happening, it doesn't happen at all and everyone can see it. Too many big occasions have seen us passing the ball from side to side pinging in aimless crosses that are comfortably handled by the opposition. No question we've improved consistently under Gerrard each season, but we're currently underperforming where we should be
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Aye and we're getting back to that level, bit by bit from being in the fourth tier.

Winning the league was a massive step for us. If we win the League and Scottish Cup this season but don't win the league will you really give a fuck about them?

Winning a treble or double is nice, but how often has it actually happened in our 150 year history? 25 out of 150 according to Google. 1 in every 6 years suggests Gerrard still has a few goes to even meet that minimum, arbitrary benchmark. That isn't exactly regular and your expectations are mental.
 
ShieldhallBear said:
That second goal is an absolute disgrace. Not just Balogun, there’s 4 players dragged to the ball and Aribo just runs past the player. They literally threw it into a near empty box, one touch, goal. Absolute joke it’s crazy to watch.
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That was the killer blow. Two good touches from that boy done our defence like a kipper. First one was a sublime finish. Second one was Sunday league defending. The sending off galvanised them. It made us complacent.
The worry is now that we have no real form across the full team. Very few are performing at anywhere near the level required.
 
CumnockBear said:
Just read a comment on Twitter from a bear who was talking to a former board member who was telling him 5 players are wanting away, could pick them a mile out
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Even through all the crap and mentalists on twitter, I could believe this, and the quicker they go the better as it's dragging us down. I believe tonight will be the start of movement. A few will have been hanging for the possibility of playing in the Champions League. Ain't happening now, so they will make their moves.
 
CumnockBear said:
Just read a comment on Twitter from a bear who was talking to a former board member who was telling him 5 players are wanting away, could pick them a mile out
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If you've learned one thing recently, it's that we keep our cards close to our vest.

A twitter poster, who may or may not know a former board member, who may or may not know anything about 5 players in our squad, knows %^*& all.
 
Skyy Bluenose said:
If you've learned one thing recently, it's that we keep our cards close to our vest.

A twitter poster, who may or may not know a former board member, who may or may not know anything about 5 players in our squad, knows %^*& all.
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I absolutely agree. However our striker and now coach, Jermain Defoe, openly stating on a podcast that a number of players were unsure if they wanted to go out on a high after last season adds a lot more weight to it mate
 
AppleBear said:
Sorry but your comments about Davis are bordering on lunacy. He was as furious as anyone of us with the majority of the team tonight and gave absolutely everything. The amount of times it was left for Davis try and find the forward pass, or clean up after someone's mistake was frankly ridiculous. Yet, he showed up every time. A couple of stray passes? Maybe. Outside of that, he played well.
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He might still be passionate.

Legs are gone. He wasnt involved in anything constructive tonight. He's off the pace of the game at this level and it's his 4th match in 11 days. He needs to sit really deep as he can't cover the ground if he plays further forward. He only went forward in either leg when we had to chase the game.

I get why Davis is popular but if you look at him objectively? He's done at this level. The goal over in Sweden aside, his performance in both legs have been poor. He can get away with it in the SPFL against most teams. He'd potentially be a good sub to make in the bigger games where the fitness gap won't be as telling and where his technical ability might help retain possession.

Games like tonight or last week in Sweden? Offers nothing.
 
iaatpies said:
They really weren't.

They worked hard. They were well organised. They had a dangerous striker who finished his chances well tonight. Shite teams don't beat us 2-1 in both legs of a Champions League qualifier. Gerrard and the coaching staff need to learn from these games and understand what went wrong. Is it a shite pre-season that has us really poorly prepared against a sharper Malmo side? Did they expose our weaknesses in defence and midfield?

It's folly to write Malmo off as shite. They deserved to beat us.
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I think it just showed how bad we were.
Malmö technically had nothing. They were outplayed in both matches apart from us completely switching off four times. They were literally handed their chances on a plate. Fair play to them they never handed us any chances, but they were successful in playing a boring block and really clever at diving and time wasting.
If they get into the CL it will probably be embarrassing for them, but that’s bit saying much for us.
 
L/COLNEYBEAR said:
Both Tav and Barasic were no great shakes tonight, I have no printable words for Balogen's performance. Wouldn't mind seeing Patterson and Bassey as fullbacks next time out.
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The two full backs have been getting selected on reputation so far, SG has some big decisions to make.
Tonight makes you wonder if the defenders practice ball watching in training.
 
Kubala said:
Aye and we're getting back to that level, bit by bit from being in the fourth tier.

Winning the league was a massive step for us. If we win the League and Scottish Cup this season but don't win the league will you really give a fuck about them?

Winning a treble or double is nice, but how often has it actually happened in our 150 year history? 25 out of 150 according to Google. 1 in every 6 years suggests Gerrard still has a few goes to even meet that minimum, arbitrary benchmark. That isn't exactly regular and your expectations are mental.
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Scotland has been a two horse race most of my lifetime. Of the last six domestic cups we've only made the top four twice. I strongly disagree that expecting more than that is mental.
 
Rt. Hon. Bearman said:
One word to describe us tonight.

Meek.

We didn't want it enough. We went 1-0. Still didn't want it. They went down to 10 men. Still didn't want it.

I just can't fathom it at all.

What is wrong with the players?

They should have been playing like men possessed tonight, but it was all so pedestrian.

It was almost like they didn't realise it was a CL qualifier and thought it was just a friendly, where a run out and avoiding injury was the order of the day.

A total wasted opportunity and I'm disgusted with all of them.
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I couldn’t have said it better myself. Where was the never say die attitude that we saw against the likes of Braga?
 
More or less back. Long walk home this for an half hour walk.

Today we did try. We just wasn't good enough. They are just 10x better. Also Defensively that was worst I've seen for a while for the second goal.

I love tav but does he like to have 1 good season then 1 pish one?

Our defensive needs improving quickly. We probably can't now as we've tossed it up today.

Morelos
Fashion when he came on was only the ones looking lively.

Others tried which I can't fault but wasn't good enough.
 
Agre
iaatpies said:
He might still be passionate.

Legs are gone. He wasnt involved in anything constructive tonight. He's off the pace of the game at this level and it's his 4th match in 11 days. He needs to sit really deep as he can't cover the ground if he plays further forward. He only went forward in either leg when we had to chase the game.

I get why Davis is popular but if you look at him objectively? He's done at this level. The goal over in Sweden aside, his performance in both legs have been poor. He can get away with it in the SPFL against most teams. He'd potentially be a good sub to make in the bigger games where the fitness gap won't be as telling and where his technical ability might help retain possession.

Games like tonight or last week in Sweden? Offers nothing.
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Agreed. We really do need someone who can play his position in replacement or ready to come through. He was woeful season before last but seemed to really click last season.
 
Gascoigne said:
He's just back from injury remember. I'm sure that will be a factor in SG's decision. He might not be fit enough for the full 90 minutes.
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Rangers record in Europe when Hagi STARTS is 9 wins and 1 draw away to Slavia Prague. Hagi came on against Leverkusen when we were losing 2-0 at Ibrox and he came on when we were losing 1-0 away to Leverkusen and he was an unused sub in the 2-0 loss at home to Slavia Prague after making the away goal and he comes on tonight when we are losing 2-1 after surrendering a 1-0 lead to ten men.Hagi and Helander cannot be happy at who started that game tonight in front of them.It is one thing losing but when you see players left on the bench especially when we are already depleted with Roofe and Kamara suspended that compounds the situation.Team selection was THE major factor tonight without a doubt.
 
StuGers said:
I think it just showed how bad we were.
Malmö technically had nothing. They were outplayed in both matches apart from us completely switching off four times. They were literally handed their chances on a plate. Fair play to them they never handed us any chances, but they were successful in playing a boring block and really clever at diving and time wasting.
If they get into the CL it will probably be embarrassing for them, but that’s bit saying much for us.
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They weren't outplayed.

First leg was close but we weren't ahead of them. Tonight we stopped playing around 35 minutes in and Malmo looked comfortable.

We've shown up better than Malmo for 35 minutes in 180 over 2 legs.
 
Just back from Ibrox. My worse game experience ever. Massive queues to get in, ticket never worked, cash registers not working at half time, wee girls using calculators instead. It was terrible.
If we win though u can live with that but then a total cluster fck of a performance. Not one player gets pass marks or any of the management for that matter. Feeling dejected after watching that.
Massive opportunity for us to earn big money and start an era of dominance. Hard one to take on so many levels.
 
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