Replanning pre-season – how Rangers can recover

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Replanning pre-season – how Rangers can recover
 Article by: Richard, for Ibrox Noise

With Rangers out of the Europa League and no League Cup till next month, this leaves the ‘Gers with 4 weeks without any planned competitive games.

I suggest we plan 3 or 4 games at Ibrox to allow our players to gel together in matches and at the same time play against glamour opposition so that Rangers could earn decent money from them.

We could play against Benfica thanks to the Dalcio deal and Cardoso’s time there, or another Portuguese side and what about a Mexican team, due to Pedro’s experience of managing in that country. It could give the Rangers fans something different to watch. Two English Premiership teams in pre-season build up would be a major attraction.

If we cannot attract 2 EPL teams at this late stage, how about Nottingham Forrest with Barrie McKay and Warburton & Weir as opposition; getting one over on our ex-boss would be cathartic and it would certainly generate a great deal of interest.

I would also suggest making the games 3 x 30 minutes long, so that each side gets the opportunity to experiment with their full squads. I am sure that would suit all the teams and their various managers.

We could also experiment with the referees stopping their watches every time the ball goes out of the park. This would give us the full 30 minutes of play in each sector.

The reason I suggest 30 minute periods for these matches is it gives Pedro and other managers the opportunity to play some of the players that are a little behind some of the new guys due to signing later, injuries, or players who lost training time at the end of last season.

Examples with Rangers: Kranjcar and Rossiter could start in Rangers’ starting 11 in the first 30 minutes and maybe the 3rd – 30-minute slot. It could also give younger players a 15/20 or 30-minute slot somewhere.

Suggested dates for the friendly games at Ibrox:

Saturday 15 July at 3pm – with 6 days to recover
Saturday 22 July at 3pm – with 5 days to recover
Friday 28 July at 7.45pm – with 5 days to recover
Wednesday 2 August at 7.45pm – with 4 days to recover

Sunday 6 August – Motherwell v Rangers – Fir Park – league match – 1.30pm

Rangers still have several players to slot into the first team. Alves, newly-signed Dorrans and Pena haven’t featured at all plus any other new signings still to come.

I am also suggesting that Pedro must sign another top quality centre half and 2 new full backs, if he has a hope in hell of competing with Celtic and Aberdeen this season.

There is a list of experienced free transfer players available from the EPL and the English Championship sides that could be a huge asset to Rangers for no transfer fee; Ibrox Noise has alerted our readers to a few of them. It’s up to us to snap some up soon.

We could of course, still sign a few loan-deals with top rated youngsters from the top teams in England; we know all the best young players at Manchester City for example, as their ex-head of their Academy, Mark Allen is obviously now our new Director of Football.

Mark also knows all the top young players of other EPL teams, as his young sides played regularly against them, and this current information could give us a head start to experimenting with some of those younger future stars.

With our unexpected exit from Europe, Rangers have to slightly re-plan the next four weeks and alter a strategy or two. Doing so correctly could help exactly the recovery we need.

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29 COMMENTS

  1. Good article.

    Agree with many of your points,i also think we need a more commanding keeper. Wes is a good shot stopper, but i would like to see somebody who commands their area and yells at the defence a bit more.

    The friendlies should also be used to experiment with different formations, see which ones offer us the most versatility. Conte stumbled on the 3-4-3 at Chelsea, i think that a similar formation would allow us to play our best players (maybe 3-5-2, 3-4-3)

    These type of formations are not often seen in Scottish football and may be able to help us unsettle the opposition

    • Hi Iain,

      If you watch last Tuesday's 2nd goal again, look out at Foderingham's position in goal when the free kick is taken.

      He is lining up exactly where the ball ends up in the net. He moves into the middle of the goal expecting someone to get on the end of the ball put in. When everybody misses it, he
      is stuck in the wrong position. If he stayed in his starting position, it goes straight into his arms. He is also too small and hopeless at cross balls.

      Nowadays top teams want 6' 3" or 4" goalkeepers and so do I.

      I also want Rangers to play with the Chelsea system of a flexible 3 -5 – 2 line-up, as it can be extremely attacking or quickly defensive, if needs call for it.

  2. Fact is most clubs had their pre-seasons arranged months ago, so I wouldn't think too many r available at short notice. Cannae see us getting good quality games just like that, probably end up playing non-entities behind closed doors. Another problem resulting from the shambles midweek. Still might not be a bad thing as theres a lot of coaching needs doing!

    • The part about playing Notts Forest! Didn't get any further than that! Until we get rid of the joke rangers men and the joke manager and say no more of the lies, mistruths and believing we have a divine right to be better without actually working to achieve better then it's all Shxxx! Sick of the crap fed by our media and our fans that actually think they are anti us' they are anti anyone that will help sell a paper and advertising!

  3. St Johnston will be needing games sorted as well.A wee double header with them for starters is better than nothing.

  4. Play no one play each other 11 V 11 every day so they get it fixed in there heads what the hell there job is then take the best 11 out of them put them together then lets go for it no stopping us now.

  5. Nonsense. You think top Portuguese teams are just waiting for someone to call and set up a game next week? Or Mexican teams dropping everything and flying 9 hours to test themselves against a team that can't beat Luxembourg's fourth best? Oh yes and buy two FB's and a "top" CB while you're at it.
    And here was me thinking it was Ped who was talking rubbish.

  6. Look it maybe just as well we failed to progress as it will give our newbies a chance to settle in before the main challenge begins in earnest the premier league should be the focus we shouldnth be to hard on Pedro for one reason we still have playears at ibrox not pulling their weight and their attuide stinks it's not the managers fault once the team crosses the touch line he has no control he puts the best eleven player he can it's then up to the skipper to motivate his teammates and achieve what they have working on on the training ground as for training matches we need tougher games why not look at fixing up games with teams we signed players from it Norwich /spurs rather than relying on St Johnstone we play them 4 games a season we could help Linfeild prepare for our oldest rivals we need tougher opposition as preparations for the new season

  7. Who's responsible for organizing pre-season, disgraceful. Maybe we can get a couple of games against Glenafton or Ardrossan Winton Rovers!! DISGRACEFUL!!!

    • Glenafton, the super league champions and Scottish cup holders? Mentioning them in the same sentence as Ardrossan is disgraceful. They'd probably beat us anyway.

    • There are enough strangers at Ibrox without looking for a game against them from elsewhere. Yes lets have three teams with Caixinha, Murty and Alex Rae as managers. Each manager takes their pick of one player at a time until the three managers have their squad. They play each other 30 minutes each way every day with one team rested. My money is on Alex Rae to win the trophy and take over the running of the team for the season.

  8. look guys i remember last seasons start for celtic being a bit similar with celtic losing
    to lincon red albeit they went through on the 2nd leg but celtic fans were calling for his head ..they went on after that game to be unbeaten in the league give pedro his time the first few games should tell us if his team . is going to be strong enough and settled enough to compete
    i recall advocaat having the same sticky start to his first season and went on to win the treble.. so lets get behind the manager because the team needs our support more than ever just now. WATP

  9. I would rather we concentrated on finding a couple of full backs, preferably ones that can go straight into the team and that we concentrate on determining what our team will be and then how we can exit that hose that will not even be squad players. That said, young guys like Rossiter that have the quality but have been out of action need to regain match fitness. Maybe Celtic will want a friendly after Linfield beat them! (Here's hoping)!!

  10. All I can say is "KEEP TAKING THE MEDICATION MATE" cause with the greatest respect thats the kinda idealistic bollocks my missus, who knows or cares not a jot about fitba, would come out with

    More productive to utilise time with multi indoor games and more importantly get these guys fit cause they looked like a team of old pensioners last week, big Jock must be turning in his grave

    We just got humped by a genuine, real deal, pub team and the road back, I strongly suspect, is going to be very long, very rocky and with a couple of slightly unanticipated personnel changes

    so lets keep the ba, on the grass, WE ARE WHERE WE ARE, grin and bear it!

    WATP

  11. My alarm bells rang when we couldn't get results in the pre season kick-arounds versus New Saints et al.We need all the damn practice we can get!

  12. I'd imagine Norwich and Spurs have their pre season organised. I mentioned St Johnston because they find themselves in the same predicament as ourselves.

  13. It's not Rangers fault for not having friendlies arranged. We had to keep the calendar free for our European games (that worked!). So, now we are out, we need to find teams to play. I wouldn't think it would be a problem to find some teams so that our players can gel and keep the fitness up, because by the display in Luxembourg they require both!
    Now, I was as disappointed as everybody here by our european exit. I agree with some, we desperately need full backs, Tav and Wallace just don't cut it for me. I would give the captains band to Alves immediately, or Dorrans.
    My main concern next season is Pedro's game plan, tactics and strategy. It is so static with very little attacking nous. Only time will tell at the start of the season where we are.

  14. Caixinha should have set up pre season games month's ago, instead of assuming that we would progress through the Europa qualifiers. If we were getting through the Europa qualifiers then we could have played the kids, in the friendly matches. Instead we have a shambles! I would like to see Caixinha get more time as we haven't seen Alves, Dorrans or Pena line-up for us yet. I have my doubts about his suitability for the manager's job however.

  15. We need to sign Walker from Hearts as soon as Possible .. He'd be a great buy for us and also Weakens the opposition.

  16. It's Pedro who needs the pre season training. Send him round other clubs and see how they coach! Facetious I know, but I'm still sickened by what happened on Tuesday. Mon the Gers

  17. richard…thanks first of all for keeping us all informed…and thanks for not giving in to the usual assholes that frequent online blogs…now while ibrox noise is prepared to ease up on pedro i am definitely not…the man should be got rid off immediately. ..the main reason is that he brings nothing to ibrox and he cannot motivate a fish supper…we had a good manager in our grasp before warburton… but we let him go and now we are for want of a better word (fu**ed) if we could just get stuart to come back to a place he truthfully loves then that would be a move in the correct direction…by the way richard there are people out here who think the same as you…keep posting and remember WATP

  18. Sorry, forgot about Edinburgh City, another behemoth, best forget Glenafton. This is getting beyond a joke, someone's taking the piss! And I don't like it! When I'm getting effd, I want to have a smile on my face at the end of it!

  19. Ffs give the boys a break !! The boys put in a lot of time and effort to wright these articles and they do out of the love for our club nothing else !! Show a bit of respect or if you think you can do better speak up, stop hiding behind your keyboard giving out shitey digs..

  20. As an avid reader of Ibrox Noise, that is the most ill informed article yet. Not a clue – do you seriously think there are EPL teams or English Championship teams or even Portuguese and Me I can teams sitting waiting for a call from Ped? Not a chance!

  21. Well said that man.These guys bust their ass on this site day in day out through the love of their/our club. You might not agree with some of the articles,fair enuf but remember all they want is the best for us.Don't forget that.Keep up the fine work boys.

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