Rangers rampant – talking points v the Pars

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Rangers rampant – talking points v the Pars
 Article by: Ibrox Noise

There were definitely signs against Motherwell that Pedro Caixinha’s Rangers were on the right track. While the overall performance was not quite magical, there were hints of a combination of good football and the will to win – the match could well have been a loss, but the fact that it was an away win bode well for the direction Rangers were going in.

Indeed, the trio of pre-season friendlies had given us a huge boost too – perhaps a slightly artificial one in light of their being friendlies, but nevertheless two wins and a draw against three very good teams was great for morale and showed Caixinha’s vision might be coming together.

Well, Dunfermline last night was about as emphatic as it gets. This was a sweeping and colossal win, and frankly an easy one, against the quality of side previous Rangers teams had a nasty habit of making look good.

From the first minute it was press attack defend and that did not let up till the final whistle – indeed, my colleague Greg Roots summed it up quite nicely – it felt like old Rangers.

While Dunfermline are not one of Scotland’s marquee teams, Rangers have been making such lesser teams look so much better than they are – well there was none of that.

The team selection was close to what the site brought you. Four changes and not the continuity many fans were demanding. Rossiter, Alnwick and Morelos got their starts, Windass continued, and Tavernier returned to right back. Naturally the loss of Wallace pre-match was an enforced change but Rangers were certainly no weaker for it – his late replacement Lee Hodson put in a much better shift than he had against Motherwell, and he and many other factors were why Rangers struck Dunfermline for six.

From Morelos’ tank-like hold up play (he was a target from the first whistle and got fouled more off the ball than is technically acceptable – his two goals were apt revenge), to Alves’ smooth defensive organisation (looks like he is indeed getting up to speed as we suggested he would), to Tavernier’s rampaging attacks and improved defending, Dunfermline were not in with a sniff and this performance and result will have annoyed a lot in Scottish football who expected the usual bland score in a fixture like this.

But we have to single out the increasingly impressive Fabio Cardoso for praise – it was Alves who arrived with the hype but it is Cardoso who absolutely fits the part of a Rangers defender. Not that Alves does not (ooft, that free kick), but we expected all this and no less from him. Cardoso was a slightly less known quantity and is looking every inch the worthy partner for his fellow countryman.

These two are a quite astonishing upgrade for fans used to Cribari, Kiernan and Cole.

In midfield though Rossiter sadly remains maybe a little off the pace. The wee guy is doing the right things, asking for extra game time with the youths and being a total pro – but a year out has taken its toll and he needs a few more matches to regain full sharpness for this level.

But outside him the wingers had another field day – Candeias and Windass rampaged for most of the match, Windass especially, and Candeias’ free kick managed to be better than his countryman’s.

Miller was guilty of a little slack play now and then, but Alnwick in goal will not have had a quieter match in his career.

It was a fine workout and gave Rangers and our fans yet another boost going into a tough fixture with Hibs at the weekend. 21 shots to 5 gives some idea of the gulf last night and with Lennon’s side also enjoying a winning start, Rangers will need to take the momentum into the weekend’s clash.

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24 COMMENTS

  1. Keep it up but there are better teams we must beat but we can only beat them who is in front of us we did it well so we must keep it going.

  2. What? An Away win? Who are you? What planet are you from? Rangers were fantastic at "Ibrox" last night.

    • Exactly mate, it looks like (I don't want to count my chickens yet, but), it looks like he's Clark Kent (and not Mr. Bean) after all. If he cuts out the Rodgers-esque bullshit talk in interviews, which he seems to be tempering (I'd like a bit more tempering), he comes across as a good person to work for and a leader. Serious, ambitious, and – if he carries on like he is – might well turn out to be the fine manager we desperately needed.

    • To be fair im a pretty smug Bear just now (might, as you say, be premature). I had a feeling things would improve from the get go.

      When they put Walter in charge after Souness people weren't over impressed with someone with such a low profile but it worked in his favour as the expectation goes down.

      Same applies with Caixhina, some Rangers fans i know thought he would be away by now.

      Can you imagine the expectation Do Boer would have had to manage had he been brought in?

      I like Pedro so far, he speaks intelligently and answers tactical questions with the assumption that we aren't all stupid.

    • No regrets and not ashamed to say that it was myself who tagged Ped, as "Mr Bean" a wee while ago on these pages, and that was an almost natural reaction and conclusion I came to based on (apart from looking at the guys boat race) his general whats this guy on?, talking in riddles approach to interviews and not forgetting he was the guy who steered us through, most probably, our 2 most embarrassing and pathetic results/performances in our proud history and he had only been here 5 minutes

      Do I see a promising improvement on the park in recent weeks? UNDOUBTEDLY!, but lets be honest, that wouldn't be hard would it with the priority and main objective of all the opposing teams involved being to ensure no-one got unnecessarily injured in what, at the end of the day were basic bounce games

      As a great man once said, "This is not the end blah blah" but the phoney war (bumping his gums about recent friendlies and how fantastic his signings are) is now over and the real stuff starts and its time to produce real results

      Again, I am far more optimistic at the moment and agree he has made a few good signings as well as a couple of minging ones and pray that they will gel quickly and they will do us proud on the park but would have to caution fellow bears to keep the ba, on the grass as we aint done bugger all yet and in my book this guy has a long long way to go before I would consider him to be on the same planet as Wallace, souness, Walter etc.

      Hope against hope that I am wong and there isny a wee yellow mini wi a padlock on the door parked outside Ibrox, If there is we are well and truly F*****,

      Time Will Tell!!

      WATP

  3. Cardoso is class, absolutely agree. His defending has been beautiful to watch up to this point. Just 23 years of age, but composed, in control, doesn't fret. According to Transfermarkt, we paid around 1.3 million GBP for him. If he carries on as he is, we've landed a star.

  4. Promising Proud Pedro! Well done!
    Doing us all proud. I'm starting do get impressed with the way he is handling a lot of situations.

    I hope we get a couple more real good Scottish boys in And we will be serious threat.

  5. As per usual I was at our game against the pars last night.Thought our whole team were excellent from start to finish,there pressing play was superb and never gave dunfermline anytime on the ball,whatsoever!Our workrate was immense!I thought daniel candeias was man of the match and him and tav are developing a special relationship,down our right hand side!Big bruno and cardoso also look very good together,and cardoso is rapid!This takes me on to the rangers answer to gareth bale lol,josh windass!What a change in him obviously for the better,night and day,in fact!He's direct,pacey,strong,and is working from start to finish!He's a different player from the one we watched last year,altogether!What a transformation in windass('THE NEW GARETH BALE')!LOL!!

    • Rob. That's who he wants to aim at being Bale.
      If he finds the net at the end of these mazy runs we might have found a pure Gem.
      Unlucky to hit woodwork twice so just a wee 10% improvement from him and were in a great place down the left!! WATP

  6. Superb performance all round. Cardoso is a class act…He will go to the premiership for serious cash…Let's enjoy him while he's with us. Morelos, rossiter, candieas, Tav, Bruno, windass…Great performances. And well done Pedro! Same again on Saturday WATP

  7. Great performance what a fantastic nights entertainment let's just take it game at a time though need tae beat these wee celtic mob on Saturday

  8. An absolute struggle away against Motherwell capped off with a dubious penalty is not promising. Christ.

    Remember that Dunfermline are a league below us and utterly mince. Sure, it's nice to actually score more than 2 goals, but please remember that The Pars would be better known as the Double Bogeys these days.

    Good win against a bad team.

  9. One game at a time my fellow bears. Yes, it has been a couple of good results, however, consistency was our enemy last season. Fibs next, it will be a totally different and more difficult game. Hopefully we can raise the bar even further and match the physical side of those hacking, fouling feckers and bury them. Consistency is key this season. Credit for past 2 games though, lets keep it up and keep our feet on the ground!!

  10. On paper comparisons –

    Foderingham v Gordon
    Tavernier v Lustig
    Alves v Simunovic
    Cardoso v Boyata
    Wallace v Tierney
    Jack v Brown
    Candeias v Forrest
    Dorrans v Armstrong
    Krancjar v McGregor
    Windass v Sinclair
    Miller v Griffiths (or Dembele)

    I'd say we're stronger in 6 positions.

    Btw our U20s are playing Club Brugge this weekend I think. Quite excited to see how the boys get on there too.

  11. Another tuppence worth comment, but was just wondering what people think of the atmosphere at Ibrox? I think it's good and very often great, but it can always be cranked up a few notches. Can we be more of a 12th man? I look at Galatasaray's fans and wonder if we can't, as a club, try to create an atmosphere at Ibrox that similarly intimidating for opposition teams. I remember when we played the Turks in the late 90s or around 2000, the atmosphere over there turned the blood cold. With the use of lighting, banners and sound, a lot can be done to create a cauldron atmosphere in our great stadium. If football is a spectacle and the ground is the theatre, why don't the club appoint a 'theatre director' whose job it is to create/organise the craziest atmosphere possible? A key perfomance indicator for the role could be the actual decibel measurements recorded at each game over a season. I often think our atmosphere is too conservative. Would love to see the noise and colours cranked up big-time. Opposing teams should fear walking out onto the park. If Galatasary ever come to Ibrox again, I really can't imagine we'll put the shits up them with a rendition of The Penny Arcade.

    Galatasary's new stadium – youtube.com/watch?v=awV5LRAEiUE

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