Six things Rangers learned in Germany

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Six things Rangers learned in Germany

With no continental competition on offer for Rangers over the past few years for obvious reasons, fans have had little in the way of glamour ties to judge their side’s progress under Mark Warburton. There were friendlies in Derby and plenty in the USA, but nothing truly relevant in context of European opposition against which to measure ourselves.

This all changed when a clash was arranged with German cracks RB Leipzig, a new side breaking every ‘rule’ in the book by rising to the top of the Bundesliga within seven years of their inception, hence giving Rangers really as hard a test as Warbs’ squad could have had.

So, what did we learn by the end of this match with our high flying energy-drink fuelled opponents at the Red Bull Arena?

The first obvious aspect to note is how far off this level Rangers truly are. If the trumpings by Celtic did not give it away, this sure did, and while Warbs’ XI made something of a reasonable attempt at playing football for the first 25 minutes, once Leipzig decided to join in, Rangers simply disappeared from the pitch. In short, they were considerably out of their depth, but then, what else did we actually expect? Rangers, currently a country mile behind Celtic in a truly pitiful league went up against currently the best side in Germany, give or take. I am not sure what good could ever have come from this fixture, glamorous though it was.

Secondly, the travelling support was absolutely brilliant. Despite full time greeting the Bluenose faithful with a miserable result and display, the support continued their backing of their team with song aplenty, a theme which continued throughout the full 90 and preceded the match in the build up too. One clear success this season at Ibrox has been the support, particularly on our travels, and the 8,000 fans who made their way to Leipzig are a credit to the Club.

Third, Josh Windass is deeply struggling to gain the level needed to play for Rangers. He looked to have the whole package early on this season and yours truly even saw Warburton building the team around him on that form, but it has faded dreadfully, possibly in concert with injury and loss of confidence. Either way, he is a passenger right now and offers absolutely nothing.

Fourth, Barrie McKay is clear and away Rangers’ best player. One thing Warburton has nailed this season was McKay’s loss of form earlier in the campaign – since his return, the odd quieter performance here and there aside, he has been electric, and has finally got to grips with the increase in standard of the SPL. He was Rangers’ stand out performer in Germany, looking at every inch the level of our opponents. It has been some time since Ibrox produced a home grown talent of this quality – McKay is to be kept at all costs.

Fifth, Jon Toral has potential and for the first quarter of the 90 was neat, assured, skilled and even had a defensive edge. He faded dramatically and was switched at half time, but with time and fitness he could turn out to be a very astute signing, who seems one of the more intelligent footballers we have seen at Ibrox of late. But this was only a friendly so it would not be overly valid to fully judge him based on such a curious fixture to debut in.

And lastly, Rangers’ decision-making remains poor. It stood out especially today; the opening seconds saw Windass clean through while Miller elected to ignore him, surprisingly, and this kind of poor selection is a recurring theme. We often see the pass to the right player being ignored in favour of meaningless ball retention, or the wrong player, and it is something Rangers were well and truly punished for on this occasion.

There were other aspects, such as Rangers’ utter toothlessness up front (one, maybe two shots in the whole 90) and the fact that for a short period early on, if not matching RB, they played with a touch of composure, especially assisted by Toral, but ultimately a weak team went to a strong team’s patch and got well beaten.

Did this really teach us anything we did not already know? Probably not.

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22 COMMENTS

  1. The players gave their all but apart from McKay, Wes and back up goalie Gilks none is good enough for Rangers,passing and finishing was woeful and wont fix overnight.

  2. Total agree windass looked class his first couple of games now he looks very average I wud take the bull by the horns n loan him out to mayb a Falkirk to tuffin him up n give him regular football cos at the moment like a man down.
    Once again the frailties in the centre half wer highlighted once again against a quality side carved open again n again through the middle how he keep ignoring this fact is beyond me they wer n are better than any team we play against but same opinion on the defence comes to the floor.
    Final ball only way to describe it abismal time n time again yur crying out for the right weighted accurate ball to b slipped through into the striker path never gets ther. Poor.
    McKay was the stand out player but his free kicks,corners n final ball wer poor.
    Another thing the sheer lack of real penetration down the right wing is none existent crying out for a prob winger ther, MOH not the answer his position is CF that wen he caught our eye cos he was scoring goals n playing well. He can't play out wide.

    This is not a reflection on today's friendly because I never for a min expected anyfin n it was a friendly after all but it just highlighted more than ever wer we MUST!! Strengthen an how it keep getting ignored is mind boggling.

  3. I think you could have a proven goalscorer in this team…and he would struggle…we don't offer enough in the opposing penalty box…not sure weather this is tactics/formation or both…

  4. Apart from McKay &Miller everyone else was brought in by MW and they are not good enough to play for Rangers when have you ever seen a Rangers team are are so toothless up front with a none existent midfield

  5. Apart from McKay & Miller everyone was aMW signing and most are not good enough to play for Rangers ,nothing seems to change we are always hearing we will learn from this but never do ,when have we ever had such a toothless midfield & none existent forward line

  6. Hard to watch…could have a proven goalscorer in this team and they would struggle to notch…unsure if this is down to tactics/formation or both…Windass passing is good…just lacks confidence and pace imo…watched old firm game back…and he set up goal with pass and also his pass sent Waghorn clear…was also involved in other good passing..and I was at game and shouting for him to get taken off…I think he will come good..as you said he was better at start of season…think his good work goes a little unsure noticed as I just pointed out…where do we go from here tho!!!

  7. thats three games warburton has played three at the back we dont have the quality of defenders that is required also we require a holding midfield player who can win the ball and a centre forward who gives us the option of a long ball teams are pushing up on our defence forcing them to go long last comment play the four four two formation

  8. Rangers need a massive injection of cash and this will never happen so Mr King and Mr Warburton will carry on and the support will be served up the usual rubbish and be asked to stump up for season tickets that are way over priced for what is a team of chancers

  9. Need new CBs only CH showed anything today imo AH, sorry to say not good enough, decision making poor plenty of times went with wrong pass today. This keeps up this will be our only European game of this YEAR and that makes e sad……

  10. All, ffs when are we going to say enough is enough?? Warburton and Weir are strangling the life out our team. They learn absolutely nothing in defeat. We played Leipzig today in a friendly. Did our management team take advantage of this friendly to right the wrongs of recent errors? No, they didn't. They plsy Kiernan, Hill and Wilson across the fuckin back again with Tav floating god knows where. IT'S BEYOND A JOKE NOW. Kirrnan pulled out to the right, Wilson pulled out to the left. In the very 1st minute of this friendly, the ball goes back to Foderingham and immediately due to a slight bit of pressure, gets played out to Kiernan, who flaps like a clowns sleeve and boots the ball straight to a Leipzig player, Tav absolutely nowhere!! GROUNDHOG DAY OR WHAT?? Every team in Scotland knows how we play and how to pressure us…we then make all the mistakes ourselves reulting in a loss of poor goals. We are absolutely toothless upfront, with a 38year old headless chicken leading the attack who cannot control or pass the ball. What does Warburton and Weir do in the transfer window? They get more loanee mudfielders in!!! It's an absolute joke! We have not progressed since McCoist… FACT
    Warburton and Weir, GET TAE FUCK NOW

    • we learn and we move on warburtons favourite cry ,we've done nothing under warbs don't think he will see the end of season tremendous backing from our fans once again feel like greeting

  11. even if we had millions to spend i wouldnt give warburton a carrot to spend,waken up guys this guy is a clown,i wish the magic hat would magic to fuck out of ibrox

  12. What we going to learn starting Miller and Hill in a friendly against a team like that, Warburton clearly has no idea or plan on how to take us forward!! Hodson, MoH, Waghorn and hydeman on bench these guys need game time, were is Senderos. What a mess we are in I fear the worst if we get in to Europe way him as manager clueless…

  13. This getting ridiculous every game is the exact same thing so predictable it's beyond a joke.granted we were playing a decent team but it's the same against Hamilton Motherwell ect think about it 18 months we've had the same problems in defence and he doesn't think there's a problem there like the other guy said Kenny Miller up front and to be honest has done a better job than most of the other players but isn't going to score enough goals for us and our midfield is no better than last season but that was in the first division for fuck sake. Not one player signed this season hasn't improved us at all Celtic are 19 clear I don't even want to think what it'll be come the end of the season I really don't there signing young players for a couple of million and were out with the begging bowl asking to borrow players. The only player we have worth anything is we McKay if a bid came in for him this month a million quid I honestly wouldn't be surprised if we took it that is honestly how bad things are for us the now. Just want Warburton gone I no a new manager will have the same problems money wise but might be able to do better with what we do have

  14. The fans need to get a grip and start thinking in the real world. Do they expect decent results against quality teams? No better than Aberdeen or Hearts where the challenge will be 2md place. Europe league qualifiers will be the maximum euro football next season if rangers are lucky as the standard to reach the group stages is well beyond them

  15. The tables have well and truly turned taking about the begging bowl being out 😂😂 that got nailed right enough. Celtic are rejecting bids of £20m right now while sevco struggle for loan signings till the end of season. They aren't years behind Celtic I'd say more like a decade behind unless some looney has £50m spare change to through at the club. Walter Smith talking about risking going into debt again to compete with Celtic truly is a sign of both desperation and utter madness

  16. Look parts of our game was good parts where no good,the problem we have we got to many old players that are just here for the money, take miller out of the team and none of the rest of the forwards would have a clue.
    we have a team with only two players that would get a game for another team McKay and miller what happens when both can not play,look we got beat 4.0 that says it all for me scrap the lot of them and start again.

  17. Outclassed, outskilled, outpaced and out of our league! However, after watching this brand of Rangers football all season, did we expect anything less against the Germans? We all agree, they current team is not going to cut it in challenging shelic. So, what do we do and where do we go from here?

    Now, from the top of the Rangers Board, team management and 90% of Rangers fans, second place is the expected goal from the start of the season with the dream of a small challenge against shelic. We are on course for that goal of second place whilst playing in the worst footballing country in the world, fact!.

    I thought the friendly was invaluable in terms to find out where we are and what needs to be done to improve. We all agree, the current rangers players are not the class required to challenge shelic and europe. The board and team management KNOW this already. They are building foundations and the current team is the first layer to get us to second and a sniff of europe, and thats all it will be judging on their display, a sniff.

    It will take years before we can even think about a challenge, so dont blame the current set of players. The will get us second place and that would be a succesful season for us. We thereafter build again for the next season.

    Yes, I am just as disappointed as us all on here with the recent displays and results, but for the love of god, look at the bigger picture and accept it will take time to make Rangers great again. Support the team to second place and have a little faith in the board who are also Rangers diehards!! but putting their money where their mouths are! Be patient my fellow bears!

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