Get used to it

Livingston played to their strengths today and were very good. Today it might look like a bad performance from us but I think they deserve credit and expect them to finish top six this year.
 
Northampton_Loyalist said:
Other than a couple of brief flashes in the latter stages, Livi spent 90 minutes in their own half, and most of that in their first third. Home this season will see every game bar the odd one play out exactly the same.

It is going to be a long and frustrating time, teams will show nothing in the way of attacking intent and we will be forced into watching some absolute shite.

We can only hope we get better at cutting teams open surgically as the season goes on.
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Frustratingly accurate. We found a way to win today but I'm not sure it will be the same outcome every week
 
I didn't feel they sat in as much as others have done recently, especially the likes of St Mirren a few weeks ago.
 
Yes its frustrating I think we overplay around the box with the passing would like to see our midfielder have a dig at about 25 yards now and again if the goalie saves it and it breaks off him Alfie is usually sniffing about to poke it in, we seem to shuffle it out to Tav to cross it into the box ,yes it does work at times but a bit of variation would not go amiss.
Also we seem to be to honest playing our one twos at the edge of the box other players in other teams go down with the slightest contact we seem to stay up .
 
We’re too slow and teams realise that they can attack us in numbers and have time to get back if they lose possession. Also, the referees allow the other teams to use time-wasting tactics, and we know that the amount of added time doesn’t reflect the time wasted.
 
These teams love when we try to go down the wings. Congested 451 and doubling up on any of our wide players. That leaves gaps through the middle. Going through the middle also blows their game plan to pieces. We have he footballers to play through these teams. The last 5 games of last year we were forced to switch it up and used Arfield and Defoe linking through the centre and teams couldn't cope.
 
CaptainCourageous said:
Get used to it?

It's only been going on for the best part of 12 months. We know how the opposition will play against us yet it's the same struggles time and time again.

You get ripped on here for mentioning the concerns yet they continue to happen.

Our defence is appalling. There isn't the right balance in our midfield. Our tempo is too pedestrian, when we don't take early chances we become complacent, move the ball too slow, resort to punts (aimless) from the back and become slack.

Our top players out with Morelos just are not producing the goods, a few undroppables in there (Goldson and Arfield). We haven't addressed areas of weakness with the right quality and the constant chopping and changing does no one favours.

Tough away game next week against a side who will play the same way as Kilmarnock, Livingston and St. Mirren.
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I wouldnt say our defence is "appalling". Goldson and katic got weirdly rag dolled today. However against legia warsaw katic was sweeping up everything in sight. Its odd. Definitely not appalling. Do you remember a guy called Rob Kiernan?
 
supersonic said:
I wouldnt say our defence is "appalling". Goldson and katic got weirdly rag dolled today. However against legia warsaw katic was sweeping up everything in sight. Its odd. Definitely not appalling. Do you remember a guy called Rob Kiernan?
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Only in the second half and to be fair to them the swirling wind looked like it was causing them problems.
 
alex wright said:
Only in the second half and to be fair to them the swirling wind looked like it was causing them problems.
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I didnt notice the wind but could have been a factor. Although katic had the ball in one instance and instead of just putting it out for a throw tried to play and got robbed and they were in. Clear your lines and let the team get back into shape.
 
Northampton_Loyalist said:
Other than a couple of brief flashes in the latter stages, Livi spent 90 minutes in their own half, and most of that in their first third. Home this season will see every game bar the odd one play out exactly the same.

It is going to be a long and frustrating time, teams will show nothing in the way of attacking intent and we will be forced into watching some absolute shite.

We can only hope we get better at cutting teams open surgically as the season goes on.
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Livi also hit the bar , forced McGregor into a cracking save and scored another goal which we were lucky to get a soft foul for , don’t really think they just parked the bus like you are making out.
 
Northampton_Loyalist said:
Other than a couple of brief flashes in the latter stages, Livi spent 90 minutes in their own half, and most of that in their first third. Home this season will see every game bar the odd one play out exactly the same.

It is going to be a long and frustrating time, teams will show nothing in the way of attacking intent and we will be forced into watching some absolute shite.

We can only hope we get better at cutting teams open surgically as the season goes on.
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This is why I'm bemused we didn't bring in a credible No10 to challenge or replace Arfield.
 
Has Steven Davis had a shot on goal since he came back? Every game he seems to pick up the ball around the D and just when you think he's going to have a pop, he moves it along to someone else.
 
It can be frustrating to watch us play against teams who sit in. The first half today epitomised that. We did create two or three great chances first half, and not taking them added to the frustration.

But way too many people forget that the game isnt 45 minutes. It's 90 minutes. And most games tend to open up second half, a combination of the defensive team becoming more confident but also starting to show signs of fatigue.

We will win a lot of our games in the second half, we as supporters better prepare mentally for that.

We might need to invest in Defibrillators for the match threads though, as many on there might not make it to half-time.
 
We really need to get forward quicker. By the time we play the ball across the back 5 or 6 times before looking to get forward the opposition has time to get back into position and frustrate us.
 
I used to argue with EoL a lot over Smith. He would deliberately sit in at home against shite pretty much every week and gently pull opposition teams forward. Barry would sit in the centre circle, in our half, and play square balls until he started to be pressed and as soon as teams pushed forwards we would move it up the park. He hated it because it looked like defensive formations at home against dross but it worked for us but I thought it was just a tactic to open the game out a little.

I know we try to play a high intensity game for the full 90 but we may be better served sitting in a little in the opening stages and giving the opposition a little freedom higher up the park instead of going at them from the start?
 
Had mixed emotions after the game yesterday.
Was disappointed that we still seem to struggle against stuffy defensive sides but was happy we showed the strength to redeem ourselves unlike last season.
Before their penalty we had chances we simply need to convert.
These teams play the same way against the tims but they take their early chances which causes their opposition to change tactics.

Would like to see more attempts outside the box like Arfield's effort off the bar. I know it's easier said than done but teams know we won't attempt from outside which causes them to fill the box instead of trying to stop a shot at goal disorganising them.
 
You read the pre match predictions and there’s plenty of “I’ll take a scrappy 1-0 win.”

A 3-1 victory against 3rd/4th? In the league and the place is in meltdown, with match thread particularly swamped with fucking clueless buffoons who quite clearly aren’t in the “any win will do camp.”
 
People forget. Even with Gazza and Laudrup it was tough breaking down a packed defence. Go back 30 years and Souness was moaning about Tommy McLeans Motherwell sitting in. It's a home game. It happens.
 
Shengus Malengus said:
You read the pre match predictions and there’s plenty of “I’ll take a scrappy 1-0 win.”

A 3-1 victory against 3rd/4th? In the league and the place is in meltdown, with match thread particularly swamped with fucking clueless buffoons who quite clearly aren’t in the “any win will do camp.”
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I avoid the match threads like the plague. If we're not a goal up after fifteen minutes everyone's pish and Gerrard has to go.

There will be lots of games like yesterday and that was against one of the better organised outfits.

Eventually we had too much quality and too many options for them and won comfortably without ever looking anywhere near our best.

Last season we would have dropped a couple of points in that game.

These are the improvements.
 
I have to be honest, when they went 1-0 up I thought we wouldn't win.

But in the end, we won comfortably. We won with something to spare. I feel it's one of those games that's getting a bit over-analysed. The team was posed a question yesterday and was able to answer it, so I don't see much to get upset about. If we're talking performance levels....was it worse than Celtic, Kilmarnock or St Mirren? No it wasn't.
 
Alex Boyce said:
I remember when Tommy McLean was their manager and done this every game against us at home' we usually beat them with a late goal remember super ally done it in the last minute ' murder to watch
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Stats probably won't back it up, but if you asked me the Rangers v Motherwell score from 199x.
I'd say we won 2-1 and expect to be right.
 
Over a full season there are always plenty games like this. Walter used to specialise in grinding out win after win in them without us being great to watch and scoring loads of goals.

We need to do the same now, and to be fair there have been 3 such games in the league already and we have 9 points from them.
 
rangerstilidie54321 said:
You're right, and it's absolutely torture to watch.... But we have to be able to break down shitey teams like Livingston. We should be far better than them. Absolutely no excuses.

Was saying to my mate during the game, I don't remember teams coming to Ibrox and playing like that when we were younger (90s).... Every team used to come and at least have a go. Doesn't happen anymore. Maybe I'm wrong there?
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Motherwell, Hibs, throughout the 80s, Dundee Utd throughout the 90s, it's always happened
 
We played some good stuff after they scored.

It's just one of those things - if we'd played well first 40 minutes and went 3-0 up, then had a second half like the first, there'd be very few complaints.

I'm not playing down the fact it wasn't great, but it wasn't poor either. We'll rarely get many games that feel great when teams play as Livingston did.
 
tazzabear said:
McLean’s Motherwell and his brother’s lot were the most defensive sides in the league for a while.
Nobody though came with the blanket defence that teams play these days.
Yes, we’ve got to break them down.
Generally, we will but, it’s turgid to watch.
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The biggest improvement in football since the 90s has been defensive tactics and shape.

Fans don't seem to have adjusted to that fully. The old mantras of "movement will kill them", "score first and they have to come out" or "they'll tire chasing the ball" aren't as applicable now.
 
strider said:
The biggest improvement in football since the 90s has been defensive tactics and shape.

Fans don't seem to have adjusted to that fully. The old mantras of "movement will kill them", "score first and they have to come out" or "they'll tire chasing the ball" aren't as applicable now.
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Definitely an oxymoron!
 
How can people just ignore the fact that Livi almost scored more and had chances and at the same time claim we should have scored more because we had chances?
 
Northampton_Loyalist said:
Other than a couple of brief flashes in the latter stages, Livi spent 90 minutes in their own half, and most of that in their first third. Home this season will see every game bar the odd one play out exactly the same.

It is going to be a long and frustrating time, teams will show nothing in the way of attacking intent and we will be forced into watching some absolute shite.

We can only hope we get better at cutting teams open surgically as the season goes on.
Click to expand...
We still lack the player who can spot and then play that killer pass on a regular basis.
 
Ubik said:
unless we get an early goal ojo is pointless in games like this.

Our right hand side has went from being our strongest to arguably our weakest.
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Ojo was instrumental in setting up our third goal and letting us breathe instead of panicking at 2-1 for 20 minutes before conceding a late goal.

Folk are too harsh on him. His goals and assists stats are blowing Candieas away already.
 
I reckon that all the qualities becoming apparant late last season & during pre-season or early in Europe -
Things like the quick switches from defence to attack - with clever precise inter-play between Kamara, Arfield, Davis, more lateley Aribo & Ojo & Jones - who could feed Alfie & Defoe
Well that all seems to be a thing of the past -

It's just that I - (probably being a but niaive as usual) - thought that during pre-season - there were signs that 10 man defences would be something we'd be better at dealing with this season

Maybe we are a bit better - but I thought we'd be capable of more

Then again the loss of form by Arfield in particular, the dropping of Kamara along with Aribo's dip in form - leaving Davis with more on his plate - might also be contributing to my disappointment -?
 
Our default position is to play it safe, we can be pretty predicable and we let teams get organised time after time.

We need to play like we are a goal down from the first whistle, play at a high tempo, take risks, keep the play moving, make the opposition uncomfortable and pressured.

We need more direct running with the ball and far more movement in the forward areas to give the player in possession options.

We should be looking to take quick free kicks, throw ins, corners. Waiting for Katic and Goldson every time let's the opposition get organised. The odd quick corner will unsettle teams.

And we definitely need to improve our long range shooting, teams will continue with the ultra low block if they know we cannot exploit the space just outside the 18 yard box.
 
It has been this way for 30 years. It’s not going to change unless there is a fundamental change in the league setup and associated rewards.
 
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