Brandon Barker over Stewart

Stewart should a been on with aribo coming off, don't get when your looking for goals you've got a guy on the bench that can score but bring on barker , same in the Aberdeen game, ojo got the nod yet the hearts game he took ojo off for Stewart, surely Stewart should be getting a chance at right wing
 
I didn't like Defoe coming on for a midfielder, because I think if your man up the it's important to be much stronger in midfield; I'd rather maintain that strength by keeping the same number in the middle. Two seasons ago, at Ibrox, they had someone sent off and I'm sure Murty took a midfielder off and they, ironically, looked stronger than us. If Defoe was to come on then I'd rather it had been either Arfield or Kent off.
100%. I have been saying this except I forgot about the same thing happening with Murthy in charge.
Gerrard took a gamble in getting another forward on which is fair enough, but it's also been pointed out that Defoe and Morelos haven't been great when playing together in the past. He's a good young manager but obviously doesn't have much experience in making the big decisions yet. He needs to learn from his mistakes and play the percentages more.
 
Not the manager's fault that we had 6 or 7 clear chances and none went in. That's not tactics, that's a combination of bad finishing/bad luck/great goalkeeping.
 
Brandon Barker is an awful signing. Nowhere bear the standard required.

Shocking Stewart didn't see game time today!
 
Absolute madness.

Barker I have yet to see him use any pace hes supposed to have control is woeful and can't beat a man.

Heart sunk when he came on

Bit of guile something different with Stewart not to mention the 2 goals against Hearts. Must be wondering what he needs to do.

Absolutely useless

Baffling decision, the boy just looks so far out of his depth it is frightening. I would have liked to have seen Stewart get a run out, he has not let us down in the few appearances he has been given to date.

Bloody hell, I am not a fan of Ojo, think he is a waste of a jersey, but I would have brought him on before Barker.
 
His strength at Hibs was his pace and the ability to carry the ball at great speed into the final third. Even if there was little end product, it still gave an attacking advantage and caused a bit of chaos.

Where the hell has this pace gone?!
 
Not read all 4 pages

The thing I cannot fathom is

Ryan Kent

The situations Barker was in Kent wouldve absolutely battered them at 10 men

It was agonising to watch. Not only that but he was getting in Barisic’s way also

I cannot believe we left a 7 million pound guy that can hurt the opposition playing quarterback like some half baked Steven Davis.

Kent eventually ended up getting clear in yhe 94th minute but why the hell waste the half hour previous
 
Not read all 4 pages

The thing I cannot fathom is

Ryan Kent

The situations Barker was in Kent wouldve absolutely battered them at 10 men

It was agonising to watch. Not only that but he was getting in Barisic’s way also

I cannot believe we left a 7 million pound guy that can hurt the opposition playing quarterback like some half baked Steven Davis.

Exactly this.

Putting on Barker moved Kent to the middle and he was acting like the pivot spreading the ball. This should have been Stewart with the ball coming out wide to Kent on one side and Tav on the other. It was absolutely ridiculous but to be expected when your manager has one and a half years experience under his belt.
 
I'd love an explanation. Either directly or by someone in the know if the information is sensitive.

Something is wrong, we should be seeing far more of Stewart.
 
Kent was cutting inside majority of the game and offered no cover for barasic whole 90 mins
Get him and aribo off when they go down to 10
They both were poor
Why kamara ? Fs the whole dynamic changed as soon as the first sub came on ..... wrong change imo again stevie g
 
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3 year deal. Absolute madness. I really hope this was a Mark Allen deal. The thought of whoever was behind that signing still being at Ibrox worries me.

That being said as long as he wears our famous jersey I’ll give the boy all the backing in the world.
 
Tactically Gerrard isn't very good

More often than not his subs hinder us rather than improve us, Barker today was baffling as was Ojo on Wednesday.
 
Barkers key (and only ) attribute is his pace. The Celtic back four were camped on their big box. I don't understand how he was meant to get behind them and put a cross in? It just seemed a bizarre decision at the time, especially when we were crying out for a bit of finesse. I think there is a time and a place for Barker, but that could only be in Europe when we are playing against a team utilising a high line. Yesterday (and generally), our opponents are going to be sitting deep. It was crying out for a Greg Stewart, who probably should have started before Aribo, imo. All perfect hindsight, of course.
 
Not read all 4 pages

The thing I cannot fathom is

Ryan Kent

The situations Barker was in Kent wouldve absolutely battered them at 10 men

It was agonising to watch. Not only that but he was getting in Barisic’s way also

I cannot believe we left a 7 million pound guy that can hurt the opposition playing quarterback like some half baked Steven Davis.

Kent eventually ended up getting clear in yhe 94th minute but why the hell waste the half hour previous
Keep Kamara on and Kent can play as you say; we were not the team with ten men.
 
Kent was cutting inside majority of the game and offered no cover for barasic whole 90 mins
Get him and aribo off when they go down to 10
They both were poor
Why kamara ? Fs the whole dynamic changed as soon as the first sub came on ..... wrong change imo again stevie g
I'd have kept Aribo on as well; I'm not a fan of weakening the midfield when playing against a ten. Perhaps Kent may have got more joy, playing his natural position, when they go a man down.
 
Barker is horrific. Punt him out the door (either on loan or permanent) at the earliest opportunity please.

It’s painful watching him try and beat a man.
 
Kent was cutting inside majority of the game and offered no cover for barasic whole 90 mins
Get him and aribo off when they go down to 10
They both were poor
Why kamara ? Fs the whole dynamic changed as soon as the first sub came on ..... wrong change imo again stevie g
Kamara was on a yellow, Wully Bhoy would have taken the first chance to even it up....
 
For someone who is meant to have “blistering pace”, I think most of us could take him in a foot race going by what I’ve seen so far
Yeh this is what has surprised me. I had an image in my head of him being absolutely rapid when he was at hibs, but he really isn't. Doesn't look like he has the strength to be a powerful runner either. It's a strange signing in general.
 
Gerrards tactics last two games and subs have been woeful. He’s all over the place at times. It his biggest weakness.
 
Kamara was on a yellow, Wully Bhoy would have taken the first chance to even it up....

Agreed.
And I don't think that Kamara was having a particularly good game.

Bringing Stewart on at that point would have been my move, and then bring Defoe on a few minutes later if/when required.

btw, I also thought that when Aribo went off several minutes afterwards, we lost a lot of the physical holding-up that he had been doing. He wasn't spectacular but he was certainly missed when he was subbed.
 
Kent was cutting inside majority of the game and offered no cover for barasic whole 90 mins
Get him and aribo off when they go down to 10
They both were poor
Why kamara ? Fs the whole dynamic changed as soon as the first sub came on ..... wrong change imo again stevie g
Whilst I agree with you, that was clearly the way we were set up. Both sides.

Aribo and Kent were told to tuck inside to defend the space Brown and McGregor were in and leave the full backs to Kamara and Arfield to get across to. After our frantic start, it took maybe the next 20 mins for them to settle into this pattern. Aribo and Arfield were furiously debating at one point when they had both moved into the same space. The manager pulled Aribo to the touch line and from then on, that side worked much better.

Which made the Kamara substitution all the more baffling. Personally, two defensive mistakes aside, I thought he’d grown into the game and was playing well. His replacement did not... and it broke that pattern and we didn’t find a new one.
 
Ojos pace is probably best used with space. Celtic just sat in. I can understand why Barker came on but I too would’ve like to see Stewart.
This is contradictory to me. Barker offers the same attacking attributes as Ojo. There was no space to run into, so his pace couldn’t be put to good use. And in any event, the ball was holding up on the sodden park so running at players at pace wasn’t working either (see Kent).

Stewart was the right option and I’m fairly sure the manager will be thinking that this morning too.
 
I can understand why he tried Barker over Stewart. Barker is about 3 yards quicker than Stewart, he must have though with us having the extra man a bit more pace would expose them more. Stewart is technically very good but he is slow.
 
That should never happen again.

Barker is a reserve team player, you can see it in his approach.

Terrible decision by Gerrard.

Stewart should have been on for Kent after an hour, as Ryan just didn't turn up. Aribo left and Stewart right.
 
This is contradictory to me. Barker offers the same attacking attributes as Ojo. There was no space to run into, so his pace couldn’t be put to good use. And in any event, the ball was holding up on the sodden park so running at players at pace wasn’t working either (see Kent).

Stewart was the right option and I’m fairly sure the manager will be thinking that this morning too.

Absolutely smashed in those two sentences.

The weather was a major factor, why oh why were we not hitting low shots from around the box, bouncing them around the 6 yard box.

It would have been much harder to deal with.
 
Absolutely smashed in those two sentences.

The weather was a major factor, why oh why were we not hitting low shots from around the box, bouncing them around the 6 yard box.

It would have been much harder to deal with.
I was screaming the same at the game yesterday. We seemed to try to hit the roof of the net with almost every effort (Morelos and Arfield both wildly skying efforts trying to do that late in the game). Low and hard on a dreadful pitch is always going to be a tester for a keeper, especially when you’ve got a brilliant penalty box striker in Defoe looking for spills. I didn’t understand it at all.
 
Shocking decision in terms of form but one that's easy to see why it was made.

His pace against their tiring defence, just never happened for him. Gutted.
 
I was screaming the same at the game yesterday. We seemed to try to hit the roof of the net with almost every effort (Morelos and Arfield both wildly skying efforts trying to do that late in the game). Low and hard on a dreadful pitch is always going to be a tester for a keeper, especially when you’ve got a brilliant penalty box striker in Defoe looking for spills. I didn’t understand it at all.

Spot on, those were the tactics that would have gotten a better result imo.

How can we expect to beat a 6ft 3 keeper with high shots? Mental tactics.
 
Barker has produced a couple of really good performances for us, notably away in Europe. He has a place in the squad and can develop further. I don't buy this writing him off stuff.

However yesterday was not the time to deploy Barker. We needed a goal, he is not going to provide that. The decision not to deploy Stewart was strange and for me typifies the shortcomings of Gerrard and his team.

He regularly struggles to make the right changes during a game. He goes with the tried and tested add Defoe after 60 minutes, other than that he lacks the ability to see what needs changed.

Stewart would have been a far better option. Subs yesterday meant we lost shape and rhythm of the game. High crosses and long range shots helped make Forster look good.

Failings yesterday were as much in our management team as they were on the park.
 
What I'd have given to have Candeias in that squad, today. Anyone else reckoned he looked at the options and that's why he asked to be guaranteed game time/not willing to be behind the alternatives seeing as he's considerably better and more game savvy than them
 
Forget Ojo and Barker it was Stewart that should have 100% came on same as last Wed night
 
Stewart is no world beater but how on earth he was overlooked for Ojo midweek and then Barker yesterday is just beyond me. Just bizarre.
 
SG was wanting to stretch the game!


2 strikers and 2 wide men!! If you can’t see the logic in this then I can’t help

It doesn't really work when a team is sitting in as they were. There really wasn't the space to get in behind them. In that situation you need a clever ball player to unlock the defense.
 
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