This current Rangers team has peaked. We're now on the slide

Imagine having a shite start and still being top of the league. Gutting eh? Too many glasses are half full on this forum. Room for improvement? Certainly. End of the world? Certainly not.

We are two points behind where we were this time last season. We tanked Hibs 6-1 which boosted our GD.
 
I feel there has been to many disruptions, covid, injuries etc etc

we were lucky last year with everything falling in to place

if things settle, we will be fine
Totally agree.

Everything has hit us at once from the start of the season..

We are top of the table in spite of our stutrering start but the comparisons with last seasons need to stop. Last season was last season, its done we've enjoyed it. We move on.

I thoight we were good in spells today. Roofe should burst the net in 2nd half and its game over. It just wasnt to be. Just need to pick ourselves up again for Wednesday.
 
The winner of this season’s league will be whichever side is less shit than the other.

Not exactly giving the fans value for money.
I think when one of the old firm are poor, the other suffers, as with less of a challenge there isn’t the same need for improvement. Last season was far too easy and as a result we haven’t improved and instead have massively regressed. Our benchmark now has to be trying to become a competent CL group stage team and capable of progressing beyond the last 16 in the Europa.

Finishing top in Scotland doesn’t necessarily mean that much given the complete lack of quality.
 
I have some sympathy, it’s reflective of an absolute disaster of a pre season that’s carried on. We’re miles behind in fitness, I’ve never seen us this unfit.

We can’t keep playing the same tactics over and over again. At one point when breaking forward just outside the 25 yard line our midfield were standing 25 yards on our own. Our tactics are horrifically negative. I’m not talking about the formation.

we’re still incredibly reliant on Tav. We have no other creativity. Tav doesn’t play well we tend to be shite.
 
We are obviously going to drop more points than last year but it's the way we are going about it. We haven't kicked a ball yet this year. First half was the best 45 mins we have played this year and then 2nd half it went to slow predictive side to side pish.

Is it complacency that we thought the game was won at half time?

We should be on it and burying teams.
 
Doesn't make us shite, doesn't make us bad but we are not the same side as last season. We're good but we are going through the motions something awful this season.

Energy, hunger, desire..call it what you want. Whatever you call it, we don't have it anymore. There is absolutely no zip to this team.

Failure(for whatever reason) to freshen up this squad is going to cost us.
I agree with almost all of that.

Your last sentence though?

What d’you think it’ll cost us?
 
The expectations on this group are higher and rightly so. They raised the bar and they’ve now dropped their own high standards. I’m convinced they’ve got it in them to turn it around though.

We’ve got folk in here writing off Lundstram, Sakala and Bacuna before the end of September though. Lundstram especially seems to be a ‘dud’ after a slow start.

We’re top of the pile and haven’t even hit any sort of form yet. We’ll be fine.
 
Personally think Gerrard is too loyal to too many.

Tavernier, Goldson, Barisic, Aribo and Kent haven’t been on top form this season. We need pace, energy and intensity and the team hasn’t shown it.

Bassey and Patterson have. Wright has apart from today. Hagi has.

We also need freshness. Teams know how we’re going to set up. Any changes are subtle, but overall it’s 4-3-3 or 4-3-1-2.

Or maybe it’s just attitude. Either way it’s a slump we need to get out of. What I would say is we can’t just plod on expecting a corner to magically occur - we need to make it happen.
 
The problem is this mentality of going 1-0 up and playing like we're 3-0 up. That goal was a poor one to concede but really it shouldnt have mattered too much because we should have been home and dry by that stage
 
We were missing the substitutes around 55-60 minutes.

Davis was poor, he clearly can't do three games in a week and it's utterly ridiculous at this point that we're telling him to, Simpson has not played a lot of football this season and was starting to get over-run, Wright was clearly starting to slow around the hour mark for a similar reason, Aribo has fatigued a fair amount in recent games due to playing nearly every game.

Nothing changed. we really fatigued, we stopped the incisive runs and went back to the useless deep crosses, we started giving away fouls through tiredness, we stopped winning the 50/50's, we started making loads of mistakes in possession, dropped deeper and looked in trouble.

Nothing changed. We conceded. Still, nothing changed.

Then with 15 minutes to go we made three subs.

Horrid decision making. Horrid management. Absolutely threw the game away due to fatigue amongst the players and mistakes made through tiredness.

I get that we should have scored more than one goal in the first half but substitutions are the major difference between this year and last year.

Last season we'd have made 2 subs before their goal was scored and the chance probably gets snuffed out before it becomes a problem, this year we're holding on to subs until the difference they make on the game is negligable.
 
Doesn't make us shite, doesn't make us bad but we are not the same side as last season. We're good but we are going through the motions something awful this season.

Energy, hunger, desire..call it what you want. Whatever you call it, we don't have it anymore. There is absolutely no zip to this team.

Failure(for whatever reason) to freshen up this squad is going to cost us.
We are short of where we were. The reaction to it though has been ludicrous.
 
Our average winning percentage in league winning seasons in the past 33 years is 70%.

That's pretty much where we are now. Calm down, get a can of juice.
 
Last seasons aim was to bring the flag home which we done.
This season was to get CL qualification with the riches that brings, and turn the screw in the league while Ange tried to settle in.
CL didn't happen, and neither is the league at the minute
 
We were missing the substitutes around 55-60 minutes.

Davis was poor, he clearly can't do three games in a week and it's utterly ridiculous at this point that we're telling him to, Simpson has not played a lot of football this season and was starting to get over-run, Wright was clearly starting to slow around the hour mark for a similar reason, Aribo has fatigued a fair amount in recent games due to playing nearly every game.

Nothing changed. we really fatigued, we stopped the incisive runs and went back to the useless deep crosses, we started giving away fouls through tiredness, we stopped winning the 50/50's, we started making loads of mistakes in possession, dropped deeper and looked in trouble.

Nothing changed. We conceded. Still, nothing changed.

Then with 15 minutes to go we made three subs.

Horrid decision making. Horrid management. Absolutely threw the game away due to fatigue amongst the players and mistakes made through tiredness.

I get that we should have scored more than one goal in the first half but substitutions are the major difference between this year and last year.

Last season we'd have made 2 subs before their goal was scored and the chance probably gets snuffed out before it becomes a problem, this year we're holding on to subs until the difference they make on the game is negligable.
I think the 5 sub rule really suited us last season and is one we used well. Now it is back to 3 it seems the hesitancy has creeped back.
 
My worry is that we’ve seen this happen before in the last few seasons.

Dominate a game, score a goal but fail to kill the tie then give the other team a way back into it.

Frustrating more than anything else.
 
Doesn't make us shite, doesn't make us bad but we are not the same side as last season. We're good but we are going through the motions something awful this season.

Energy, hunger, desire..call it what you want. Whatever you call it, we don't have it anymore. There is absolutely no zip to this team.

Failure(for whatever reason) to freshen up this squad is going to cost us.
I and a number of others( including yourself iirc) have said it was vital to sell a first team asset for decent enough money that we could reinvest in the team to make it stronger overall.

The facts are we failed to do what's necessary to evolve and we've gone stale as a result.
 
My worry is that we’ve seen this happen before in the last few seasons.

Dominate a game, score a goal but fail to kill the tie then give the other team a way back into it.

Frustrating more than anything else.
So much for being 'relentless'.
 
The op does love a bit of a dramatic thread after we drop points. He’s moved on from blaming everything on Goldson’s contract situation to now we are apparently on the slide. Why don’t we see how the next half dozen games go and were we stand in the league, then we can see where the team stands. No need for the dramatics. We were never going to keep that same standard of an unbeaten and over 100 point season. There was always going to be comedown from that, if we come out of the our bad form comfortably ahead in the league I’d say I’m pretty confident we win the league.
 
Doesn't make us shite, doesn't make us bad but we are not the same side as last season. We're good but we are going through the motions something awful this season.

Energy, hunger, desire..call it what you want. Whatever you call it, we don't have it anymore. There is absolutely no zip to this team.

Failure(for whatever reason) to freshen up this squad is going to cost us.

I think that improving on a team that went unbeaten in the league, with a 100% record at home, and finished on 102 points is a lot easier said than done.

People saying "we haven't improved the starting eleven" like it's just as easy as that.
How much would we need to spend to improve on last seasons first eleven?
 
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I and a number of others( including yourself iirc) have said it was vital to sell a first team asset for decent enough money that we could reinvest in the team to make it stronger overall.

The facts are we failed to do what's necessary to evolve and we've gone stale as a result.
Instead of signing a couple of midfielders on a free excluding signing on fees ect we should have signed one that would make a difference
 
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Going by his press he dont think we are that bad , that worries me !

Are we that bad?

We've been a bit unlucky with injuries and the covid situation.

Even for Dundee United away we had Roofe needing to leave the squad with an emergency situation the day before the game.

Missing Roofe and Kamara for Malmo. Kent carrying an injury. Barisic carrying an injury. Helander injured now.

Various players missing for various reasons at various times.
As it stands we are 4 points ahead of them and we have the potential to improve by a lot.
 
Recruitment (or lack of) in the summer must surely play a part in this? I recall Gerrard saying he was excited about the summer business but we only brought in Lundstram, Sakala and Bacuna after those comments.
 
Instead of signing a couple of midfielders on a free excluding signing on fees ect we should have signed one that would make a difference

Easier said than done though.
Veerman was rumored to be the one but is supposedly going to cost 10 million.

Even that wouldn't be a guaranteed thing. Could get injured. Could struggle to settle in Scotland or in the SPL.

On paper Lundstram and Bacuna should be exactly what we need but even then replacing Kamara, Davis, Aribo, Hagi or Jack is going to be difficult.

People talk about this stuff as if it's just that easy.
Go out and buy a guy for 10 to 15 million and that's a guaranteed league title right there? Nah.
 
I don’t know if we peaked but I posted before that teams/ squads have cycles and the way the contracts are expiring we could be in line for a major rebuild in the summer.

Nearly all our sellable assess contracts expire at the end of next season so they either need tied down soon or they need to go in the summer.

The two key questions for me will be…..

Will that rebuild have the Champions League money with a title win giving auto entry?

Will Steven Gerrard oversee it ?

He’s got 2 years left max for me up here and obviously the perfect scenario is we win the league this year, he shapes the squad with CL money, has a crack it the CL and leaves the following summer with 3 in a row at best under his belt.
 
A slow start.
It happens.

We’ll pish this league again.
Four clear of the filth and we’ve yet to start.
As someone else said on another thread we are about 9 weeks into competitive football yet every fucking week we are told Its a slow start, don't worry, we will come good

Thankfully the other lot are still looking like a total shambles but we should have built on last season instead of staggering on with limited squad additions and unresolved contract issues with key players.

I think we will have enough this season but next summer we will be seeing yet another significant period of flux.
 
Recruitment (or lack of) in the summer must surely play a part in this? I recall Gerrard saying he was excited about the summer business but we only brought in Lundstram, Sakala and Bacuna after those comments.

To be fair those all look like very decent signings on paper.

None have really managed to break into the first team but we had a pretty solid first team to begin with, as evidenced by last season.

The only way we were going to do significant recruitment in the summer would have been if we had sold a good few players. Goldson, Barisic, Kamara and Morelos heading out would have maybe seen 5 or 6 players coming in. The quality of those players would be a complete unknown though.
 
If we are being brutally honest we scraped through a lot of close games by a goal last year and after a while saying "thats the sign of champions" doesn't cover up the flaws.

If we are being brutally honest, we were undefeated in the league last year.

We won every game in the league at Ibrox
We lost a minimal amount of goals.

We won the league in February or March.
We won it with a massive margin.

We went 12 games in Europe undefeated.

And much more.

it's a hard act to follow. I'm not complacent, but I think we'll do it.
 
Easier said than done though.
Veerman was rumored to be the one but is supposedly going to cost 10 million.

Even that wouldn't be a guaranteed thing. Could get injured. Could struggle to settle in Scotland or in the SPL.

On paper Lundstram and Bacuna should be exactly what we need but even then replacing Kamara, Davis, Aribo, Hagi or Jack is going to be difficult.

People talk about this stuff as if it's just that easy.
Go out and buy a guy for 10 to 15 million and that's a guaranteed league title right there? Nah.
Im not saying would be guaranteed success but more chance then a guy that had one decent season for Sheffield United worst team to ever play in the epl and bacuna that hasnt kicked a ball in months
 
I kinda agree. We see flashes of what we know we can be but it's just flashes whereas last season we were playing like this for long spells and brushing teams aside. It's frustrating as %^*& but I believe it will click.
 
I wouldn't say we have peaked however last season was absolutely incredible and we were never going to replicate that again. Problem is that was the standard we expect to see from our team and when it doesn't happen it's slightly exaggerated somewhat.

My problem is that the intensity has completely gone from our team, so far this season. There's literally no pace, no quick passing, runs behind the defenders etc and our defending has been absolutely woeful.

We've been fortunate in a way that we're still 4 ahead of them however it really should be 6.
 
As someone else said on another thread we are about 9 weeks into competitive football yet every fucking week we are told Its a slow start, don't worry, we will come good

Thankfully the other lot are still looking like a total shambles but we should have built on last season instead of staggering on with limited squad additions and unresolved contract issues with key players.

I think we will have enough this season but next summer we will be seeing yet another significant period of flux.
I think David Edgar summed it up in his post-match:

94/95 so far.

We've been poor but we've been doing just enough to be top of the league and we're through to the QF in the cup where we're at home.

Meanwhile, They've been comically bad, Aberdeen are a shambles and you know that the two Edinburgh sides will go through a shocking patch of form at some point.

It's not great, it's not free-flowing stuff, it's miles off where we were last season and we clearly have issues all over the team, but we're top. Even better, we could pull away in the next few weeks with a run, given the fixture list.
 
Doesn't make us shite, doesn't make us bad but we are not the same side as last season. We're good but we are going through the motions something awful this season.

Energy, hunger, desire..call it what you want. Whatever you call it, we don't have it anymore. There is absolutely no zip to this team.

Failure(for whatever reason) to freshen up this squad is going to cost us.
I think we added to the squad but it’s not players to challenge those in possession of the starting shirts ! We signed projects again not one signing from summer starts before any of the team from Last season
 
I kinda agree. We see flashes of what we know we can be but it's just flashes whereas last season we were playing like this for long spells and brushing teams aside. It's frustrating as %^*& but I believe it will click.

Just to point out that last season we didn't really kick in to high gear until after the draw at Hibs which was matchday 8.

Seem to remember after that Hibs game there was a lot of talk that we hadn't improved at all on the previous season and were still making the same mistakes as post winter break 2019-20.
 
You win the league. You keep the same side. You go stale.

It happens a lot.

However, there are specifics to our situation:
- Davis and Arfield are clearly on their way out of the game.
- 2 huge players in Goldson and Kamara are messing us about with their contracts.
- Recent squad signings don’t look good enough.

The main point though, and this is something we’ve seen for 3 years; if Morelos isn’t on his A game, we don’t show up.
In what was is Kamara messing us about? He still has 2 years left.
 
I think David Edgar summed it up in his post-match:

94/95 so far.

We've been poor but we've been doing just enough to be top of the league and we're through to the QF in the cup where we're at home.

Meanwhile, They've been comically bad, Aberdeen are a shambles and you know that the two Edinburgh sides will go through a shocking patch of form at some point.

It's not great, it's not free-flowing stuff, it's miles off where we were last season and we clearly have issues all over the team, but we're top. Even better, we could pull away in the next few weeks with a run, given the fixture list.
All valid and fair points, however we can't rely on them continually being shite, and im a bit tired of the "slow start" shit.

It was a calamity of a pre season and the transfer window was disappointing, particularly given the comments of our managing director who was on record on a RTV interview saying we need to keep pushing to get better, and highlighting that a failure to add and keep moving forward would itself represent regression. We failed to do that and we are no better off than we were last season, arguably worse off with the contractual matters remaining unresolved

Agreed though, top of the league, issues all over the place, but still top. Could be worse, but hoped for better after last season and with what is at stake this season. Thankfully ange ball looks like a bag of fuckin shite though so we can rest easy for now at least
 
I feel like there's a very good chance you started a thread last season (I might be wrong) along the lines of "we're on the way up, this team still has levels to go" or something of a similar sentiment.
 
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