I’m far from a happy clappy fan but yesterday was a lot more like it

Crown_Defender said:
The first few hours after a bad result is pretty mental on here. People are allowed to be disappointed and the players and manager aren't above criticism but, some perspective is required at times.

The Lyon defeat was particularly wild. This is a team that can spend 18m on a player to send out on loan. It was a 50/50 game which we were on the wrong side of. For once I may add.

Hardly the disaster some would have you think it was.
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The other night someone said Lyon are a mid table SPL side...yes really.

I watched some of the PSG-Lyon game last night and they more than held their own.
 
Yeah I’d be more worried if we weren’t creating chances from open play like say against Dundee Utd earlier in the season. But yesterday was just down to poor finishing, that’ll change over the season, the goals will start flowing if we create enough good chances. Because due to law of averages the better chance you create the more likely you are to score. More attacking performances like yesterday will eventually lead to more goals.
 
Over 10 competitive games into the season and we’ve yet to perform for 90 minutes.

We’ve barely performed for 45.

We have regressed at an alarming rate and are extremely fortunate that the tims are worse than we are

I keep reading that it’ll click soon and it’ll all be ok but I read the same from the tims last season up until February

Something isn’t right and I feel it’ll be a long frustrating season ahead
 
dt17 said:
The other night someone said Lyon are a mid table SPL side...yes really.

I watched some of the PSG-Lyon game last night and they more than held their own.
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Lyon weren’t as good as I expected them to be against us.

IMO Leverkusen were a better side than the Lyon we faced. Even Braga in the first half were superb.
 
At HT I said “this is more like us”.

At FT I’m thinking that the drop off in the second half, was alarming. Heads went down when they scored. Management team stood still.
 
Would be really positive if games lasted 45 minutes, but they don’t.

We’ve regressed back to the ‘one good half, one bad half’ thing we used to do under Gerrard in the early days.
 
Pepe Silvia said:
Watched the highlights and I just can’t understand why Simpson didn’t just step out and challange the guy, just seemed to miss time it horribly.

was also a moment just before the goal where the ball was fizzed into Davis who could probably have turned but instead played a hospital pass to McGregor who in turn knocked it right out of play. Was completely avoidable.
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I fear that Steven Davis is going down the older player path of unreal season, then the next showing their age, for me playing him every single game for lets face it 3 games a week isn’t exactly great. Hopefully Im well off the mark but something needs to change in that midfield.

We desperately miss Ryan Jack in there IMO.
 
Barbarossa said:
At HT I said “this is more like us”.

At FT I’m thinking that the drop off in the second half, was alarming. Heads went down when they scored. Management team stood still.
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First thing I said to my daughter at HT was "best game this season":(.
Gerrard clings to this "they'll find a way to win" thing, another way of interpreting that is "I don't know what the problem is, let's just hope for the best"
 
Brian11Laudrup said:
Lyon weren’t as good as I expected them to be against us.

IMO Leverkusen were a better side than the Lyon we faced. Even Braga in the first half were superb.
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That was the best Braga could play and we were poor that evening. Leverkusen were a level above us and I felt that Lyon were comfortable the other night without having to get out of 3rd gear tbh.
 
dt17 said:
That was the best Braga could play and we were poor that evening. Leverkusen were a level above us and I felt that Lyon were comfortable the other night without having to get out of 3rd gear tbh.
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I thought the Lyon 50/50 game and wondergoal comments etc were fair but also belied the truth. Like you say Lyon looked in 2nd or 3rd gear most of the night. It’s a shame we never scored first or equalised as then we would have got a far better barometer on us versus them.
 
The additions from January at the moment do nothing for the team.
The existing players are off form , getting too old or want a move.
Anything less than a cup and the league this season is pretty crap imo.
Anybody that says they will take the league only at this stage has no ambition.
 
Coza said:
Yesterday gives me far less fear than Malmö, Dundee United and even Alashkert did truth be told.

We looked miles sharper for large spells of the game and but for some ludicrous final ball decision making would have racked up a cricket score by half time. The last 30 minutes were very poor yes, no getting away from it, at least we looked capable of playing a higher tempo game again. That was abundantly not present earlier in the season in the aforementioned games.

We are all very guilty on here of propelling missing players to world class messi like talent but that game was custom made for Hagi yesterday. If we can repeat that first 45 minutes one touch play with Hagi on the park the final ball and goal tally improves drastically.

I said about a month ago that we looked like a team who patently weren’t fit following a very fragmented pre season. We would, IMO, have 4-6 more weeks of stuttering form before things began to pick up performance wise and that was before the covid pre old firm problems. Yesterday in spells (first half) looked like some of the cob webs were starting to be blown away. I fully expect us to kick on in the coming weeks now and put some clear daylight between us and the pack.

That all said it was never going to be the near perfection of last season. Rodgers team had a similar dip the year after going undefeated too from memory. Let’s look and see where we are after the first full round of games with hopefully more of the squad available for selection.
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Decent post OP. First half was a lot more like it, and I agree, in periods was probably the best we’ve played this season. 2nd half was very poor though.

I said in another thread I’m hoping, that when we can get a bit of settled side on the pitch we will start to look more like the team from last season
 
Agree with this, the first half showed us what we’re capable of, I think some posters have written this team off when we’re not that poor.

Long term plans need to be put in place to replace some of our older players / players who want away though, I am slightly worried about this area.
 
We were good going forward first half and failed to take our chances but we were also terrible all game defensively which is a real concern. We also never at any point looked like winning the game when they got it back to 1-1 which is not acceptable at home to motherwell

The subs were wrong and the players practically gave up
 
Whats up doc said:
Their goal was pathetic in all honest, the boy is allowed to chest it on the touch line then take it by tav, only to play it into a midfielder who nobody is tracking, he’s able to go past Simpson like he’s not even there to get blocked by Goldson, for then nobody to be near woolery to get the shot off
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And even before that their throw in came from mcgregor just passing it out the park. The whole thing was just a comedy of errors
 
Mr Wilton said:
There was definitely a big improvement. We lauded that 1st half performance. Next step is to sharpen up in front of goal and we’re in our way.
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This is a big part of our problem for me and in many ways was last season too.

We’re not ruthless enough, IMO, and often take a touch too many or over complicate things.

There was plenty of time to win the game after Motherwell’s equaliser, but most of us seemed to sense it would be difficult to do and in part that’s because we never appear able to break out of the system we play and just go hell for leather in search of goals.
 
CaptainHolt said:
In SPFL terms they aren’t really ‘shit’ though. They’ve lost the same amount of games as us this season and that was a very unlucky defeat to Hibs. They’re a more than decent side at this level. We should have beat them but let’s not pretend they are bottom of the league rubbish
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They're not bottom of the table but they are mince. Name me a couple of good players in their team? They usually have a bit of strength about them and boot us off the park but there is nothing of quality
 
The Hooded Claw said:
They're not bottom of the table but they are mince. Name me a couple of good players in their team? They usually have a bit of strength about them and boot us off the park but there is nothing of quality
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They’re always going to play different against us than the rest of the league but having watched their game against Hibs on the first day and then their highlights on sport scene most week there’s a few good players. Van Veen and Woolery are both good and Tony Watt is good in that lone striker role. It’s frustrating they don’t play the same way against us as they do every week but they completely change their system for us and it worked.
 
CaptainHolt said:
They’re always going to play different against us than the rest of the league but having watched their game against Hibs on the first day and then their highlights on sport scene most week there’s a few good players. Van Veen and Woolery are both good and Tony Watt is good in that lone striker role. It’s frustrating they don’t play the same way against us as they do every week but they completely change their system for us and it worked.
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I do see your point but all those players you mentioned are no better than average imo.
 
Said to my mate at half time yesterday that I thought we looked very good, much more like ourselves but just lacking that killer instinct, likes of Sakala just need games and I reckon he will start scoring on a regular basis
 
dt17 said:
The other night someone said Lyon are a mid table SPL side...yes really.

I watched some of the PSG-Lyon game last night and they more than held their own.
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The other night on here someone said Salah isn’t that good and another said Alen Boksic and Mark Hateley were better than Lewandowski.
 
dt17 said:
The other night someone said Lyon are a mid table SPL side...yes really.

I watched some of the PSG-Lyon game last night and they more than held their own.
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That is a crazy opinion of Lyon. Almost as bad as Suarez wouldn’t fit in the Rangers team IMO. Lyon are a top team. I can remember the last time they came to Ibrox when they had Benzema before he went to Madrid. I as well as everyone else on here probably knew he was going to be some player. Mid table spl lol
 
a_weir said:
You’re not playing bad if you’ve had 24 shots at goal… you’re just not clinical enough.
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I don't always agree with SG after games, but I thought he was bang on with yesterday's assessment.

At HT we were 1-0 up and playing some lovely stuff without really looking to have moved up the gears. Dominant and under very little threat bar the one-on-one prior to us scoring. It looked like we had levels to go up in the tank if needed, so it was a comfortable afternoon.

Second half was exceptionally frustrating because again, we had plenty of dominance and played some neat footbal, but in the final third the decision-making and lack of ruthlessness was all that stopped us from running up a comfortable scoreline. I honestly thought that was a poor Motherwell performance overall for the most part as they offered next to nothing in attack and were chasing us all over the pitch without really stopping us creating.

Biggest frustration for me was that we never picked up the pace and looked like we really wanted to get the game done and dusted. We were plodding away at it, lethargic and pedestrian, ticking along at 1-0 and all it takes is that one fck up to drop points - and guess what happens...?

I, like the manager has said many times, want to see us as utterly ruthless. We should be racking up the goals and humiliating shite opposition at Ibrox. Instead, the players look like they're just going through the motions far too often.
 
HandsomeHead said:
This is a big part of our problem for me and in many ways was last season too.

We’re not ruthless enough, IMO, and often take a touch too many or over complicate things.

There was plenty of time to win the game after Motherwell’s equaliser, but most of us seemed to sense it would be difficult to do and in part that’s because we never appear able to break out of the system we play and just go hell for leather in search of goals.
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To say we weren’t ruthless last season is silly, you don’t go through an unbeaten league season while not being ruthless. You can say it about this seasons performances but not last.
 
First half we played fantastic football, full of flair and invention, but with poor finishing, we should have been three up, second half was simply the opposite.
 
An issue for me is that we tend to play narrow and leave the full backs out wide on their own, this would be fine if there were players in the box for them to hit with crosses but there aren't. Roofe is decent in the air and Morelos is capable but neither are likely to get much joy unless it lands on their head. Then you have Kent, Wright, Aribo, Hagi, Davis and Kamara etc who all prefer to hang back around the edge of the box or deeper. I think we would have much more joy if we put more focus into overloading on the wings to try and get someone in at the by line for a cutback. We're much more likely to find a body that way than firing low percentage crosses in. Easier said than done but I remember Man City scored a barrel load this way a few seasons ago and they were up against packed defences most weeks.
 
The Hooded Claw said:
It still angered me that a shit team like that can come to Ibrox and come away with something. Game should have been out of sight in the first half
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This,we shoudve killed it in first half as others have said at ht i was concerned we where only 1 up had a feeling what happened was on the cards still pissed off its 2 points lost on the yahoos couldve been a big day.
 
Blue boy said:
The additions from January at the moment do nothing for the team.
The existing players are off form , getting too old or want a move.
Anything less than a cup and the league this season is pretty crap imo.
Anybody that says they will take the league only at this stage has no ambition.
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Who wants a move?
 
rfc_chris_rfc said:
To say we weren’t ruthless last season is silly, you don’t go through an unbeaten league season while not being ruthless. You can say it about this seasons performances but not last.
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I don’t think we were as ruthless in front of goal as we should have been. We won an awful lot of games by one or two goals when the amount of possession and dominance we had really should have delivered more.

I’m the first to say last season was truly exceptional and something we may never see the likes of again, but I do feel we often over complicated it in the final third when a more direct approach may have delivered a greater glut of goals.
 
Brian11Laudrup said:
Over 10 competitive games into the season and we’ve yet to perform for 90 minutes.

We’ve barely performed for 45.

We have regressed at an alarming rate and are extremely fortunate that the tims are worse than we are

I keep reading that it’ll click soon and it’ll all be ok but I read the same from the tims last season up until February

Something isn’t right and I feel it’ll be a long frustrating season ahead
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So far the way we are playing its hard to see us not dropping points at any away ground in the SPL. Something is dramatically got to change, players finding form, a system change perhaps, and soon.
 
Mr Wilton said:
There was definitely a big improvement. We lauded that 1st half performance. Next step is to sharpen up in front of goal and we’re in our way.
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Fashion seems to want to peel the leather off the ball everytime he shoots. Just blasts it as hard as he can.

With a bit of composure, lifting his head up and placing the ball, he could have about another three or four goals this season.
 
Up till halftime that was the best we played, unfortunately, we never took our chances, the second half was a disgrace we waited for them to score and still hardly troubled them.
 
Coza said:
Yesterday gives me far less fear than Malmö, Dundee United and even Alashkert did truth be told.

We looked miles sharper for large spells of the game and but for some ludicrous final ball decision making would have racked up a cricket score by half time. The last 30 minutes were very poor yes, no getting away from it, at least we looked capable of playing a higher tempo game again. That was abundantly not present earlier in the season in the aforementioned games.

We are all very guilty on here of propelling missing players to world class messi like talent but that game was custom made for Hagi yesterday. If we can repeat that first 45 minutes one touch play with Hagi on the park the final ball and goal tally improves drastically.

I said about a month ago that we looked like a team who patently weren’t fit following a very fragmented pre season. We would, IMO, have 4-6 more weeks of stuttering form before things began to pick up performance wise and that was before the covid pre old firm problems. Yesterday in spells (first half) looked like some of the cob webs were starting to be blown away. I fully expect us to kick on in the coming weeks now and put some clear daylight between us and the pack.

That all said it was never going to be the near perfection of last season. Rodgers team had a similar dip the year after going undefeated too from memory. Let’s look and see where we are after the first full round of games with hopefully more of the squad available for selection.
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Id rather play shit, look less like a good team, and put 3pts on the board, but thats just me.
Good football doesnt win trophies - Eddie Howe, Mark Warburton et al can testify to that.
 
ottawabear said:
Fashion seems to want to peel the leather off the ball everytime he shoots. Just blasts it as hard as he can.

With a bit of composure, lifting his head up and placing the ball, he could have about another three or four goals this season.
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Was trying to think how to describe him from what I've seen so far and all I could come up with was "flappy"...

Looks like he could be really dangerous, but gets a rush of blood to the head as soon as he gets near the goal and just blooters it. Needs to get some compsure about him and he'll be great because he finds himself in decent scoring positions a LOT.
 
Bluenose1979 said:
Was trying to think how to describe him from what I've seen so far and all I could come up with was "flappy"...

Looks like he could be really dangerous, but gets a rush of blood to the head as soon as he gets near the goal and just blooters it. Needs to get some compsure about him and he'll be great because he finds himself in decent scoring positions a LOT.
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I think his pace alone will get him in those positions. That attribute will give him that extra second to make decisions. By adding composure to that it will take him, hopefully, to another level of goalscoring.
 
YOGI_GER said:
It was in the first half but that first half wrote the story for the outcome.

Everyone could see what was coming.

For me it should have been changed on 60 minutes, so frustrating
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That’s the problem for me, far less the team on the park but the lack of decisions by the management team.
You watch the game and think change something but nothing happens then the inevitable goal arrives
 
rinosprayer said:
I don’t think our support understand the quality of Lyon.

Motherwell however…..,they took a fucking squad photo before the game, euro style
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It was a huge game for them and it called for cup final effort,Something we face every domestic game.
 
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