Ritchie De Laet's comments on Gers

Bonnyloyal

Bonnyloyal

Well-Known Member
De Laet, Antwerp captain: "They're a very strong team. They always have a plan as you can see. Their manager Steven Gerrard knows what he's doing. Hopefully, if they can get a good draw they can do something as this is a really hard place to come, even without fans."
 
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RfcIbrox said:
What makes it hard? It’s a bit of grass. I get it if there’s fans there but I’m puzzled why professionals can play on one bit of grass but not on another ???
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I’ve played on Ibrox before in an 11s game (behind closed doors) and it’s daunting.

You don’t notice it from your seat in the stand but the pitch is huge compared to a couple of other professional pitches I’ve played on in Scotland.

Very daunting stadium to play
 
Delboy Trotter said:
I’ve played on Ibrox before in an 11s game (behind closed doors) and it’s daunting.

You don’t notice it from your seat in the stand but the pitch is huge compared to a couple of other professional pitches I’ve played on in Scotland.

Very daunting stadium to play
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I looked at the dimensions and surprisingly it’s the same as the Nou Camp which always looks massive.
 
RfcIbrox said:
What makes it hard? It’s a bit of grass. I get it if there’s fans there but I’m puzzled why professionals can play on one bit of grass but not on another ???
Click to expand...

Its the presence of the stadium and the way we dominate at home. They will have watched hours of tape of us playing. Imagine being 4-3 down and having to go to a ground where even an outstanding Braga performance wasnt enough. I think trying to get over the mental hump of having to win here would have been hard. With or without fans. Could be talking shite though... haha
 
Delboy Trotter said:
I’ve played on Ibrox before in an 11s game (behind closed doors) and it’s daunting.

You don’t notice it from your seat in the stand but the pitch is huge compared to a couple of other professional pitches I’ve played on in Scotland.

Very daunting stadium to play
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I was nervous as hell walking down the tunnel to an empty stadium on the tour.

Can't imagine going out there as an opposition player.
 
Hurricane Run said:
Its the presence of the stadium and the way we dominate at home. They will have watched hours of tape of us playing. Imagine being 4-3 down and having to go to a ground where even an outstanding Braga performance wasnt enough. I think trying to get over the mental hump of having to win here would have been hard. With or without fans. Could be talking shite though... haha
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Could be the main stand is pretty intimidating if you’re playing on that side of the pitch (which they all have to as they change ends and take it in turns to play on that side)
 
GazzaG said:
I was nervous as hell walking down the tunnel to an empty stadium on the tour.

Can't imagine going out there as an opposition player.
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The tunnel looks very narrow. I’d imagine it being oppressive and then walking out to 50000 with the main stand looming over you
 
RfcIbrox said:
What makes it hard? It’s a bit of grass. I get it if there’s fans there but I’m puzzled why professionals can play on one bit of grass but not on another ???
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It is more the team and the history of the place than the grass itself. In literature it's known as a transferred epithet. Edwin Muir wrote of the wicked wicker gate. The gate is clearly incapable of being wicked. The person who left it open may well have been. Or an unhappy marriage; a marriage (which is an idea or concept) cannot be unhappy. The people in the marriage are unhappy.
 
Jason Candy and Andy Goldstein we’re seriously bugging up Rangers in the first segment of their show.

One Europa League form 8n particular.

Then a tím phoned in and I turned it off.
 
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tambourineman said:
It is more the team and the history of the place than the grass itself. In literature it's known as a transferred epithet. Edwin Muir wrote of the wicked wicker gate. The gate is clearly incapable of being wicked. The person who left it open may well have been. Or an unhappy marriage; a marriage (which is an idea or concept) cannot be unhappy. The people in the marriage are unhappy.
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You must sense it is a totally different place to anything you have experienced (if a foreign team) when you see the brick facade of the main stand walk through the main door and see the marble and wood panelling. You then think ‘there must be a reason for this greatness’. The stadium starts to affect you from that moment. It is a stadium but a transferred epithet is occurring - you just don’t realise it (you don’t know what a transferred epithet is even). The narrow corridors, the small wooden changing room with ancient tiles, then the tunnel, then the massive main stand, then the gigantic pitch, acres of grass. If you are used to playing in bog standard stadiums it could really affect you.
 
RfcIbrox said:
I looked at the dimensions and surprisingly it’s the same as the Nou Camp which always looks massive.
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Never knew that but not surprised

I used to be very critical of players that couldn’t get beyond the first man at a corner, until I went to take a few corners myself and couldn’t believe the distance from the corner flag to the 6 yard box.

As I said, I played in front of maybe 200 people or so. Can only imagine what it would be like in front of 50,000 going mental
 
tambourineman said:
It is more the team and the history of the place than the grass itself. In literature it's known as a transferred epithet. Edwin Muir wrote of the wicked wicker gate. The gate is clearly incapable of being wicked. The person who left it open may well have been. Or an unhappy marriage; a marriage (which is an idea or concept) cannot be unhappy. The people in the marriage are unhappy.
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Are you suggesting that Ritchie De Laet was hard?
 
RfcIbrox said:
Could be the main stand is pretty intimidating if you’re playing on that side of the pitch (which they all have to as they change ends and take it in turns to play on that side)
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When I walked out into the centre circle and looked around, it’s only then when you look up at all of the stands, you realise just how huge a stadium it is. Feels like the stands are closing in on you. Add 50,000 loud voices and it must be brutal being an opposition player
 
RfcIbrox said:
You must sense it is a totally different place to anything you have experienced (if a foreign team) when you see the brick facade of the main stand walk through the main door and see the marble and wood panelling. You then think ‘there must be a reason for this greatness’. The stadium starts to affect you from that moment. It is a stadium but a transferred epithet is occurring - you just don’t realise it (you don’t know what a transferred epithet is even). The narrow corridors, the small wooden changing room with ancient tiles, then the tunnel, then the massive main stand, then the gigantic pitch, acres of grass. If you are used to playing in bog standard stadiums it could really affect you.
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Brilliant reply mate. Much better than my light-hearted, and mundane, effort. But why did you ask the question in the first place when you are capable of such a brilliant explanation?
Anyway my joking reply elicited an eloquent and literary response. So I am basking in reflected glory here :D
 
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Good to hear these comments. He'd be raving about it even more if there had been fans there tonight watching Rangers score five in a European game, the atmosphere would have been incredible.
 
Delboy Trotter said:
When I walked out into the centre circle and looked around, it’s only then when you look up at all of the stands, you realise just how huge a stadium it is. Feels like the stands are closing in on you. Add 50,000 loud voices and it must be brutal being an opposition player
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You’re inclination must be to move away from the stands for fear of being crushed by them and the noise. This doesn’t affect some clubs who do all right at Ibrox but maybe that’s ones with really good players who don’t care about such things and are maybe a bit more focussed. But some less able players could struggle and it only takes two or three to have an altered mind and the advantage is ours. Throw in 50000 fans and it starts to make sense.
 
Nice words but to be fair if it was a full Ibrox on a European night a lot of his teammates would’ve been reduced to shadows of themselves
 
We would have scored 10 tonight with a full Ibrox. :))

I thought Antwerp were a really respectful team, no issues even when they were 5-2 down whereas some teams might have taken chunks out of Kent and Morelos but maybe that was the issue.
 
Bonnyloyal said:
De Laet, Antwerp captain: "They're a very strong team. They always have a plan as you can see. Their manager Steven Gerrard knows what he's doing. Hopefully, if they can get a good draw they can do something as this is a really hard place to come, even without fans."
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you got a link to this mate?
 
RfcIbrox said:
What makes it hard? It’s a bit of grass. I get it if there’s fans there but I’m puzzled why professionals can play on one bit of grass but not on another ???
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If only there was more grass right now. I notice the ball bobbling a few times tonight. Davis almost left it behind on one occasion
 
What a breath of fresh air from the usual poisonous crap and insults we’re used to getting hurled our way from all quarters in this backwater.
 
Bonnyloyal said:
De Laet, Antwerp captain: "They're a very strong team. They always have a plan as you can see. Their manager Steven Gerrard knows what he's doing. Hopefully, if they can get a good draw they can do something as this is a really hard place to come, even without fans."
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I was in Luxembourg to witness the shitshow that shall not be named and to see comments like this fills my heart with pride.
 
tottie beck said:
If only there was more grass right now. I notice the ball bobbling a few times tonight. Davis almost left it behind on one occasion
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Next season the pitch has to be a priority.
We have very good technical footballers and a very technical approach to the game which deserves a good surface.
 
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