Are we too 'nice' as a team at times?

The Crimson King

Well-Known Member
Something that's been bugging me for a while and Kevin Thomson actually touched on it in commentary. Firstly this isn't a downer or complaint post because we're top of the league and talent wise the best team in the country, but if there's one thing I wish I could change it would be for us to do the 'dark arts' a bit better.

There have been so many times I've felt we let the opposition put muscle on the game, without someone to bite back and let them know we're stronger than they are as well as more talented. Maybe Arfield and Morelos (when he's on one) aside, I can't think of many in the team that would put a marker down at the beginning of a game, or even just get in the faces of the opposition if they start going in hard on team mates. There's been a frustrating number of times someone has been subjected to a bad tackle and instead of showing their displeasure en masse, everyone just sort of walks away.

Which is another thing this team doesn't do a lot of - pressure the referee. Not so much tonight but again there have been loads of times when we've had very, very good penalty shouts or possible opposition red cards, and instead of everyone shouting for it, at most a couple of hands go up and then everyone walks away. Even if you don't get it we should be trying to get under the referee's skin - our opponents are certainly not shy in doing so. Prime example would be Aberdeen last week.

I don't doubt we have what it takes to win without it, but I also don't think a bit of a bad streak would hurt this team at all.
 
The days of Rangers enforcers are gone in this league set up, they’d be hounded out the country by our parliament.
 
Something that's been bugging me for a while and Kevin Thomson actually touched on it in commentary. Firstly this isn't a downer or complaint post because we're top of the league and talent wise the best team in the country, but if there's one thing I wish I could change it would be for us to do the 'dark arts' a bit better.

There have been so many times I've felt we let the opposition put muscle on the game, without someone to bite back and let them know we're stronger than they are as well as more talented. Maybe Arfield and Morelos (when he's on one) aside, I can't think of many in the team that would put a marker down at the beginning of a game, or even just get in the faces of the opposition if they start going in hard on team mates. There's been a frustrating number of times someone has been subjected to a bad tackle and instead of showing their displeasure en masse, everyone just sort of walks away.

Which is another thing this team doesn't do a lot of - pressure the referee. Not so much tonight but again there have been loads of times when we've had very, very good penalty shouts or possible opposition red cards, and instead of everyone shouting for it, at most a couple of hands go up and then everyone walks away. Even if you don't get it we should be trying to get under the referee's skin - our opponents are certainly not shy in doing so. Prime example would be Aberdeen last week.

I don't doubt we have what it takes to win without it, but I also don't think a bit of a bad streak would hurt this team at all.

Maybe the fact we are Rangers and not Celtic, when it comes to challenging the refs. As soon as we confront a card will come our way, nothing surer.
 
It’s a catch 22 because we fight fire with fire: watch the cards come out selectively like confetti.

That is the harsh reality - we bite back and the cards will come out and there will be media frenzy and the weirdo that is the compliance officer, whoever it may be at the time, will have their orders to serve a notice of complaint.

We rose above it last season and got our reward.

The pisser is, I think every one of our players could handle themselves if the gloves came off. Especially Borna - I think he'd be a complete nutter if he lost it.
 
Far too nice but also believe the reason is the refs are too quick to card our players and let others of with the same challenges. The boy Omeonga for Livi tonight should’ve been off for constant fouling, none of our players approached the ref any time he gave a foul away. You know if this is other sides they are in the refs face at the 1st sign of a foul after the first yellow card.

It feels like we’re playing a handicap each week, regular fouls/yellows not given to opposition because it’s ‘only Rangers’ and they need to fight for their win.
 
We've been very passive of late. I'm not sure if we need to be more aggressive but we definitely need to be more decisive.
 
Something that's been bugging me for a while and Kevin Thomson actually touched on it in commentary. Firstly this isn't a downer or complaint post because we're top of the league and talent wise the best team in the country, but if there's one thing I wish I could change it would be for us to do the 'dark arts' a bit better.

There have been so many times I've felt we let the opposition put muscle on the game, without someone to bite back and let them know we're stronger than they are as well as more talented. Maybe Arfield and Morelos (when he's on one) aside, I can't think of many in the team that would put a marker down at the beginning of a game, or even just get in the faces of the opposition if they start going in hard on team mates. There's been a frustrating number of times someone has been subjected to a bad tackle and instead of showing their displeasure en masse, everyone just sort of walks away.

Which is another thing this team doesn't do a lot of - pressure the referee. Not so much tonight but again there have been loads of times when we've had very, very good penalty shouts or possible opposition red cards, and instead of everyone shouting for it, at most a couple of hands go up and then everyone walks away. Even if you don't get it we should be trying to get under the referee's skin - our opponents are certainly not shy in doing so. Prime example would be Aberdeen last week.

I don't doubt we have what it takes to win without it, but I also don't think a bit of a bad streak would hurt this team at all.

Yes.
 
It wasn't our niceness that was holding us back tonight - simply a lack of quality in key areas of the pitch and we gave as good as we got against a very physical team.
 
I don’t think we are. We might not have an ‘enforcer’ but in 2022 you don’t need one. The likes of Kamara, Aribo and even Hagi and Kent aren’t afraid of getting stuck in and even wee Lowry was the same tonight.
 
All you need to do is look at the way our club have been vilified and even tried to be ridiculed by a large majority of the MSM for having the audacity of complaining to the SPFL about Clancy's performance.
Our players would definitely receive the same treatment on the park and post match if they tried to "game" the officials the way the likes of Broonaldo does.
I think our players don't shirk from challenges and can dish it out like the best of them but in a way I'm glad we don't resort to some of the antics that some other players and clubs resort to.
 
One of the bug takeaways from the Aberdeen game was how we allowed Brown to influence the game. Every time he fouled we should have been in the refs face. When Borna got elbowed we should have been in the refs face. Everytime Brown goes near the ref we should have someone fighting back against his pish.

Many have said the ref let Brown bully him. Our players played their part in allowing for the ref to be bullied.
 
An example tonight was Goldson getting caught late and then skipping and hopping a further 10 yards. Any other teams players would have dropped down like a stone and flung themselves about a bit to entice a booking or make the referee have a think. We are just too honest at times and do not play the game.
 
It’s a catch 22 because we fight fire with fire: watch the cards come out selectively like confetti.

Every team in this League can leave a late leg in and receive a yellow at best. We know it would be an instant red card for us. Our players don't aggressively surround the ref looking for decisions either, again, as we know the outcome. I remember Alfie before at Ibrox simply asking a ref why he wasn't given a foul after a terrible challenge from an opponent. He was then booked.
 
We play by the rules too much. Early in the game a Livi player went down under a challenge and hit the deck, screamed, rolled grabbing his foot etc, but when the ref waved play on and we were attacking, he was up within a split second totally fine.

It’s totally embarrassing, but more and more teams are doing it. Yet again we had all the possession but many more fouls, just because the other teams know how to con the ref. We need to start calling it out, telling the referee to acknowledge it, surrounding him at bad fouls and breakaways when we get pulled back etc.

The other teams act as if it’s a travesty whenever we win the ball and a foul isn’t given, yet when we are actually fouled, the players don’t say much at all. We need to get more savvy.
 
For being too nice we seem to get a lot of fouls giving against us and yellow cards.
It is what it is, we need to box clever against the refs and authorities which will prevent us from being able to play with the same aggression as our opponents.
 
Cast your mind back to Kent's red card. Sent off for absolutely nothing, we're not allowed to play with the same rules as everyone else.

This squad have learnt that we have to be perfect to win games, we are up against 12 men.

Look at Kevin Clancy and ask yourself is their corruption in Scottish Football and an agenda against our club.
 
Every team in this League can leave a late leg in and receive a yellow at best. We know it would be an instant red card for us. Our players don't aggressively surround the ref looking for decisions either, again, as we know the outcome. I remember Alfie before at Ibrox simply asking a ref why he wasn't given a foul after a terrible challenge from an opponent. He was then booked.

This, it's a disgrace.
 
As soon as we get the slightest bit aggressive the cards come out like a game of poker.
But I feel when free kicks and decisions don’t go our way we’re not in the ref’s face disputing it.
So when 50 50s happen the ref has an easy decision to make to give them to the opposition.
 
We are refereed to a different standard than any other team in the league, and so are the tramps. The bookings per fouls tells you that. We’d never finish a game with eleven men, if we behaved like them.
 
I feel that the players have in part been conditioned by the way we are treated by the referees, media and authorities.

If we had the “enforcer” type players they would constantly be on suspensions and hounded out the game.

It’s been a long game for them and it appears to be paying off.
 
I don’t think we need to go out and be aggressive but I think we try to play fast passing football but get muscled out all the time and thrown off our game plan.

We are missing a player or few players who are a bit physically stronger to enforce the game and can go head to head with opponents who try to outmuscle us.

We have see it over the last few years where teams get in our face, don’t give us time to play, go into tackles a bit harder or with more shoulder to through us off our game.

People say the game has changed and we don’t want hard men midfield generals anymore but for me that is what every team needs especially us.

Teams know that to stop us playing they have to go in and muscle us off the ball and through us off our game as they can’t out skill us or allow us to control the flow of the game and their only way to do that is go in tough on us.

There is a difference between going in too hard and getting a card and being a bit more physical and we need to be more physical.
 
Don't agree.

Haven't seen us outmuscled by anyone this season.

I've watched Goldson physically dominate every striker in our league (as he did again last night) and I don't see opposition midfields going through our midfielders and putting a marker down.

What I did see last night was a team that struggled to find their rhythm at times, in pretty much impossible conditions to try and play football in.

We still created plenty of good chances though and got the job done against a side that have already taken 4 points out of 6, against the scum.
 
Something that's been bugging me for a while and Kevin Thomson actually touched on it in commentary. Firstly this isn't a downer or complaint post because we're top of the league and talent wise the best team in the country, but if there's one thing I wish I could change it would be for us to do the 'dark arts' a bit better.

There have been so many times I've felt we let the opposition put muscle on the game, without someone to bite back and let them know we're stronger than they are as well as more talented. Maybe Arfield and Morelos (when he's on one) aside, I can't think of many in the team that would put a marker down at the beginning of a game, or even just get in the faces of the opposition if they start going in hard on team mates. There's been a frustrating number of times someone has been subjected to a bad tackle and instead of showing their displeasure en masse, everyone just sort of walks away.

Which is another thing this team doesn't do a lot of - pressure the referee. Not so much tonight but again there have been loads of times when we've had very, very good penalty shouts or possible opposition red cards, and instead of everyone shouting for it, at most a couple of hands go up and then everyone walks away. Even if you don't get it we should be trying to get under the referee's skin - our opponents are certainly not shy in doing so. Prime example would be Aberdeen last week.

I don't doubt we have what it takes to win without it, but I also don't think a bit of a bad streak would hurt this team at all.
Look at Pittodrie. Broon laughing after his dive saw one of their team mates sent off and he's openly laughing about it. Not one of our players took any interest. Rangers teams of the past would have been over at the prick and calling him out.

We just accepted it.
 
Don't agree.

Haven't seen us outmuscled by anyone this season.

I've watched Goldson physically dominate every striker in our league (as he did again last night) and I don't see opposition midfields going through our midfielders and putting a marker down.
Sadly this true observation will get lost amongst the musings of savvy, experienced, hard as nails professional footballers and athletes on this thread. :))
 
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Imo we are naive. We get too close to a player with his back to us at times or lay a hand on them and they drop and get a fk. Yet when he opposition do same to us we shrug it off. We need to be cuter.

The one thing I think we must start doing is getting in refs ear re keepers and time wasting. Tav needs to highlight it from the start and keep on about it. Does my head in that it seems to be acceptable.
 
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