Eleven key talking points from Rangers’ loss to Hibs

36
Eleven key talking points from Rangers’ loss to Hibs

So as every man, woman and their dog know, we lost to Hibernian today. Much had been made of the gravity of this fixture leading up to it, and to call it an eventful 90 minutes is not quite doing it justice.

Ibrox Noise takes you through the key aspects of Rangers’ second SPL result of the season.

1: Quick start:

Once again we are fast out of the traps. We are scoring early in matches and maintaining a significant level of dominance and good football, but only for around 25 minutes. Unfortunately we are not converting that early superiority into goals – the one exception this season was of course Dunfermline where the match was out of Allan Johnston’s men’s hands pretty quickly, but Hibs and Motherwell are significantly superior to the Pars. For the good part of a half hour, Rangers are very enjoyable to watch and it looks like the Rangers we expect.

2: Poor recovery:

While we still got the three points at Fir Park, it was a hard graft. Unfortunately today we showed a real inability to recover from a set back. And the disappointing aspect is the setback in question was not Ryan Jack’s mysterious sending off, but Murray’s leveller. Hibs, worryingly, were already in the ascendancy thanks to that goal and while Jack’s dismissal clearly influenced the game, it came a good 15 minutes after the equaliser. Rangers have to figure out how to maintain form even when a goal is lost.

3: That Jack dismissal:

Yeah we have no idea what it was for either. If for the tug on McGeouch, then I am at a loss as to why Stokes was only booked for his mild assault on Tavernier. If not, then we really are in the dark – it appears a poor decision, although naturally we will never know if it really changed the game that much.

4: Windass fades:

We cannot be the only ones to be a little concerned at how Josh Windass is disappearing every match after that half hour period. For 30 minutes he tears the opposition a new one, but then somehow just drifts completely out of the match and has little influence thereafter. The boy has obvious talent, but seems to struggle to keep it up.

5: Dorrans’ class:

He is clearly Rangers’ best player – there is no contest. He remains influential, gritty, classy, and leads from the middle – the money shelled out for him was a total bargain and he is a player we can trust. He was everywhere today – defending, attacking, pulling strings, and did all he could to fill in for the loss of his partner. We all dream of a team of Graham Dorrans. We really do.

6: Defensive troubles:

Something still is not right back there. Tavernier’s isolation for the first goal, in concert with Alves in no man’s land while Cardoso completely missed his tackle, defence still is not clicking yet. And add to that a few occasions where the senior Portuguese was well beaten in the air, the backline just is not quite where we hoped it would be. Not yet anywhere. Alves also needs to work on his aimed clearances – most of them go back to the opposition. He also needs to try to avoid the red mist descending – he appears too eager to get involved with altercations. And Hibs’ second goal saw pretty much everyone in no man’s land – Tav was unlucky with the OG, but the organisation left a lot to be desired.

7: Morelos is gonna score:

We were not sure about this kid after his earlier displays, but three goals in two matches suggests Pedro was onto something. He is a strong lad and has upped his workrate too – not completely in sync yet with the Scottish game, he is significantly improving. Reminds yours truly very much of Ally McCoist’s striking style – right place right time. If he ends up a 10th as good as Super, it will have been a fine signing.

8: Herrera adds nothing:

Fans are a little unhappy with the Mexican striker – he appears to be struggling with the expectation around him and is not fitting Pedro’s system yet. His performance in the second half appeared to lack much purpose and I might be viciously in error and apologies to the lad if I am but has he actually had a worthwhile shot yet in a Rangers shirt?

9: Hodson impressed again:

He has taken to the LB slot impeccably – I cannot think of a foot wrong the Northern Irish international has put since replacing Wallace, and will have felt a little aggrieved at being sacrificed for the formation switch at half time.

10: Candeias cannot cross:

The guy’s crossing is poor at this point – while he did assist nicely for Morelos’ opener, he needs to work on his open play equivalent. Too many of his attempts are wildly off target. But his all round play is hard working and he does not hide – so our criticism of him is reluctant. We like players who try.

11: John Beaton is a terrible ref:

Yeah he really was out of his depth in this one. I am surprised such a well-known maligned referee was given such a big fixture, and he got more wrong than right. But he was refereeing both sides, we hope…

This was a fixture we were a tad cautious about, and while many will point to the Jack red as a turning point, and it did make a difference, it did not tell the whole story of the match. Rangers remain a bit off where we need to be, and it only eases up a tad next week with the visit of a slightly out of sorts Hearts.

It is a work in progress.

No posts to display

36 COMMENTS

  1. We where playing OK right up to the point of the sending off? Still think Pedro should have subbed Miller for rossiter and went four four one? But considering we played around sixty minutes with ten men they only managed two goals and an own goal by us? The ref won that game for hibs.

  2. Lennon got the usual suspects, Stokes and McG, to intimidate and niggle and wind-up the opposition – as the world and his brother knew beforehand they would. However, Dorrans and Jack fell for it. These two, plus Miller and, by now Tav and Fod, should have had the discipline not to rise to it and to help the Portuguese/Columbian/Mexicans etc (who must have been looking about them and thinking, oh dear god what am i in the middle of).
    Where were 'the five Captains' when we needed them? It was not the tactics that were wrong, it was the players mentality.

    • Couldn't agree more with this summary. This was Lennon's plan. Any Rangers foul resulted in 3 or 4 Hibs players surrounding ours to wind them up. We walked right into it. Lennon never in the dugout up to the sending off and never out it afterwards. Mission accomplished……and we walked right into the trap. Totally gutted! 5 skippers? Looked more like we were out of our depth for an aggressive game.

  3. Agree with everything you said accept for Hodson, I thought he should have dealt with the 2nd goal a lot earlier and they wouldn't have created the chance.i also don't think he attacks as well as wallace. Wallace has a nack of getting to the byline, Hodson just isn't as effective. I understand he is out of position and he trys really hard but he lacks quality even at rb imo.

  4. It's troubling wen a team comes up from championship n beats u on home soil n plays u off the park, ano we wer a man down but we are fukin Glasgow rangers we re suppose to fight to the end not throw the towel in cos we go a man down.
    we still look like 2 proper wingers n a right bck short although as I've said for the past 1.5years tav must b pushed up or sell simple windass shows flashes but that is not enuf at GERS we want players that myt have two off days out of 10 not to play 30-45 mins of games,
    Again reality hits home that after a impressive few showings we re still miles off wer we use to be, and now it really concerns me home or away against the sheep, manky mob n hearts will we pick up that much points n thats a concern this is wen players get found out they're not up to playing for GERS.really hope I'm wrong!!

  5. Ref John Beaton
    Originally from Jerviston Motherwell
    Went to Dalziel High School
    One Time Rangers Enthusiast but the former Reporter had never actually been to see them.

    Now lives in CARFIN. Never had a single good game involving Rangers

    C U N T

  6. His son is a total liability over the last two gamed he has been responsible for the goal we lost against Motherwell and the second we lost today. As for Fire and he had a very anonymous game. Worryingly the Hibs goalkeeper had so little to do it was embarrassing .

  7. Agree with all but 2 of your points – Hodson is fucking woeful & should be replaced ASAP plus Candeias put a few good balls in, noone was there at the end. He was one of the better players in the first half and most of us in the Sandy Jardine were scratching our heads when he got subbed. The rest of your points are spot on though.

  8. I am very disappointed that there is not a LOUD outcry over the non-sending off of their wee ira fan who ripped Tav's top and put him into a head-lock right in front of the ref…. how was THAT NOT a red card ?

    I am regularly on RR and have stated on the show that for as long as we have a couple of dud FB's, we will not be winning anything and I stand by that.
    Hodson is small and weak and Never good enough for us and Wallace and Tav just fail at defending, so they can run up the pitch to help our attacke ? Is this not what our midfielders and forwards are for ?
    We are GONNA need a couple of Proper FB's who can defend in a Proper manner because today both Alves and Cardoso were made to look Very ordinary due to having no proper cover in the FB positions all too often.
    Our two goals were crackers.

    • Though what u say is true, FBs in modern football are an attacking threat. All good teams have attacking fullbacks the problem as u stated is they can't defend. I think we miss wallace when he doesn't play but he seems to be injured at lot recently and a better back up is needed.

    • Alan I just don't get it either. Since the first day of the loaf we have tried and failed with ballet dancing fullbacks. and yet we persist with a losing strategy.
      Without changes at fullback this team will never compete, nuff said.

    • Exact self same thoughts Alex McC mate, we NEED proper FB's/WB's cos' Wallace is crap as is Tav in the positions.
      Tbh, both of em need sold on….. over to you, Mr Loaf.

      IF we don't get-in two proper FB's/WB's, then we will win NOTHING this season.
      I love Pedro (in a manly way, no in any other kinda way) as manager and I DO recon that He Will get us the 55th Title…. I just hope that he can SEE THE FAILINGS form Hodson , Wallace and Tav at FB/WB as they are all three of em, weak.

  9. Stokes and Murray had far too much space for the whole 90 minutes. The game ran away from us as these two had no-one in their faces. Tavernier was always going to be targeted after his previous two games against Hibs and now it's three losses in a row. Fullbacks should be defenders first and it is our greatest weakness. On today's performance Simon Murray won it for Hibs and our players continually stood off him and we lost the game.
    Herrera? WTF.

  10. I agree with most points as many others do and all Rangers fans must try to gel as a united support even if we have minor differences of opinion.
    I like many have my opinions on the performance today and without commenting on each of the 11 points, I will reiterate a comment from a fellow fan in the subway queue today; 'the game was lost today minutes into the game when the referee lost the plot early on when he didn't dismiss Stokes for his arm round Taverniers neck and his attempted head butt'. This happened right in front of me in the Sandy Jardine stand.
    My second point is in relation to number 3, Ryan Jack headbutted an opponent, not sure who it was but he motioned his head and made slight contact, that is why he was sent off. Although Beaton had an awful game, that decision was probably right.
    Back to Beaton; his record refereeing our matches have been atrocious, he allowed Stokes to stay on as I said, booked Candias for his first foul, constantly let various Hibs defenders to manhandle Morelos without giving fouls and allowed M cGeough to commit around 8 fouls before issuing a yellow card, plus other dreadful decisions throughout the game.
    My final point; once down to 10 men was always going to be difficult to get back into the game, especially losing the 2nd goal so soon after Jacks dismissal,but our manager was too slow in various choices and tactical decisions; not pushing up when Hibs pushed forward to sit on the halfway line in the 1st half a few others to go on with, but I won't, but his decision to play Pena, when his fitness is a concern when we needed some clout, energy and guile in midfield was yet another poor decision.
    We are now already behind in the league, losing at home, we cannot slip up again until we have completed the first cycle of games or as I have said here before, if we are looking out of the top 3 league positions by the winter break, Pedro must be replaced.

    • I disagree over you wanting Pedro replaced, man talk about NOT giving a Manager time to Build a proper strong Squad ?
      Right now he's only on his FIRST go at replacing dud players who couldn't perform in front of our VERY DEMANDING fans/supporters.

      Pedro could easily have brought-on say wee Rossiter to try shore-up a bit but had we taken OFF a striker (Morelos or Miller) THAT would have played right into Hivz's hand for sure.

      If we only had ONE striker then both Hivz FB's would have been allowed to bomb-on and cause our already crap defence even MORE problems.
      Nah, for me Pedro makes good sense with what he decides to do in a tactical manner….. some fans don't understand the Game at times tbh.
      Mind you, I WOULD HAVE taken off Miller and put on Rossiter myself but I'd still have had two strikers up top to keep their FB's from bombing forward.

      For me, both Morelos and Herrera are good forwards but they sadly LACK service to score a whole LOT MORE Goals.
      WE NEED to buy this lad WALKER, cos he IS GOOD.
      + 2 PROPER fb'S/wb'S THAT know how to defend, first and foremost.

      Not a Team in This WORLD will ever win a Title by playing two CB's with NO FB's/WB's that can play in a proper manner….. defend first.

  11. Beaton's performance was the worst performance by a referee thatI've ever seen, and merits investigation. Stokes, McGregor, and McGeoch should all have walked at various stages of the game. That said while the Jack sending off had a massive effect on the outcome – I agree that it isn't the whole story. After the usual whirlwind start and getting our noses in front -,we fail to capitalise, lose the ball in midfield and Murray is allowed to run unchallenged half the park and rifle home. This isn't Messi we're talking about – but a big raw boy who was plying his football with Dundee Utd last season. When we did.go down to ten men no team should completely collapse as we did. Which brings me to Pedro.
    His first big test of the season and once again Caixhina has failed. After the sending off he was slow to react and change things around. Our bewilderment and hesitancy directly led to their second goal. When he did react it was baffling! A goal down, a man down and he takes off Candieas – who has at least got a bit of pace and can give you an out all over the top, and give their back four something to think about when pushing forward – and bring on Herrera who is painfully slow, hopeless in the air, and hasn't a clue where the goal is. Exactly what is Herrera for? Later he brings on Pena who he has already told us earlier in the week isn't up to speed yet. Just what you need when you're down to tren men. Our second half performance was truly woeful!
    Caixhina aide – who I still maintain will be gone by Xmas – there are some other issues we need to recognise and address or we are in for another long season and a fight for top four.
    Foderingham – crosses aside which was debated last weekend – he is simply too inconsistent to be the top class keeper we need. He was slow to react to keep the rebound of Tav out, and again slow to get across for Hibs third which came from a long way out. Let Warburton have him and bring back McGregor.
    Alves is struggling just a wee bit to get to grips with the rough and tumble and pace of the Scottish game. It is no accident that he looked more composed against better quality opposition such as Marseille. It will take him a while to adjust.
    Herrera we already talked about – but we badly need to strengthen in the final third. Morales is raw and still learning but now looks like he will get goals, and Miller is still our main threat over a season. We need reinforcements. We have nobody who can come off the bench and hurt the opponent and provide a goal threat.
    At £2.2 million or £3.5 million depending on which report you read Pena is fast looking like a luxury and a mistake. He may well eventually prove to be the player Caixhina thinks he is – but by then we'll be out of league contention and Pedro will be gone. For that sort of outlay we needed someone who could hit the ground running and make a difference from day one.
    We need to strengthen the squad. Get Walker and McLean in – perhaps even Naismith. Our track record in securing home grown targets in the transfer market is poor.
    The pressure is now already on Caixhina and there can be no more slip ups before the first Old Firm game.

  12. Foderingham, Tavernier & Wallace and if he doesn't sign a tall (6'3" minimum) experienced centre half it will cost Pedro his job.

    Teams in the SPFL league know that Tavernier is a good player, but a crap defender and the Rangers are crap at cross balls. This is where Alves and Cardoso will be found out – at crosses, which is their collective weakness.

  13. right its Sunday morning and the result still bothers me sorely as it probably does everyone else. So I watched the whole game again. We realize that everybody hates us, no problem we have to do our reactions to this on the park. But when a referee is blatantly inconsistent in his punishment decisions then it is not a fair playing field, not by football fair play standards we keep hearing about. The Jack incident, it does look like handbags involving Jack BUT there was the coming together of heads by two players Jack and Stokes BUT it was Stokes who motioned forward so he was responsible and it was he who clearly complained to ref that he had been head butted, Officials need to review this footage caused it cost Rangers the game. What also cost us was the stupid set up of our team after going down to 10. I have said earlier that we needed to dig in and protect our goal and defense areas, 3 5 1 or 4 4 1. but we went in the opposite direction and invited defeat. I have also said in previous posts that it may come to pass that our Manager might not be able to handle the DISrespect that will come his way from mostly all the top clubs in Scotland and this will have the consequence of how our team perform in heated games. So far against the manky mob last season he failed miserably and now yesterday in the white hot atmosphere he failed again. I like the way we are attacking just have a problem with our defenders and as I said how we react to play set ups when things go against us.Unless Pedro manages to sort this out then our results are going to be negative. So we could be looking for another manager by Halloween!

  14. Am going to forget about the Eleven key talking points,and just focus on how we where not good enough you can hit posts and bars and go down to ten but if we do not hit the back of the net then we are beat simple as that.we will win games and get beat in games home and away and some times we will think we going be ok but it is not good enough for RANGERS and the players need to hear this loud and clear.

  15. Cannot agree re Hodson. Lennon pointed to the ball being directed right which suggests people in the game spot a weakness. Probabaly too late now but full back weakness at RB is going to plague us.

  16. You know,, this game reminded me of the first game under Greame Souness when he was sent off against Fibs at Sheaster Road in August 1986. We had Chris Woods and Terry Butcher new into our team. Englands finest. We went on to win the league cup and the league itself.
    Yesterday, in my opinion was very much an off day and always going to be difficult with 10 men.
    Our players need to learn to be smarter and wiser when getting wound up, its going to happen all season, that is just the Scottish game!
    But, I'll tell you, we were looking not too bad up until the sending off, so hopefully history repeats itself and our players will take us to the top once again. Its early days folks!

  17. Calm head folks and let's stop the Pedro out talk. It's clear to see that we have a far better team than last season, we're attacking at high tempo and scored early for the 3rd game in a row. Had we kept 11 on the pitch we'd have won yesterday. The talking point needs to be how bad Beaton was – shouldn't be allowed to take charge of another spl game after that shambles of a display yesterday

  18. Should have bought Callum Patterson.

    Still time to buy Tony Gallagher from Falkirk and Tim Krul from Newcastle. Then look at things in January.

    Walker and McLean probably would have only made the bench last weekend and unlikely to have affected the result which was poor refereeing and poor defending.

  19. Admire all the Ped is great views and yes it appears a lot lot better than last year, except the board appear to have backed with money, yet we were second best for quite a bit yesterday, our defence was run ragged at times, as for the ref, agree there was one or two odd decisions, that happens in most games, that is the way it is, as for Jack's sending off, the ref saw what he saw, Jack motioned his head to the Hibs player right in front of him, unfortunately he did it, ref saw it and he had to go, tough but that is the rules. Back to the game, I cannot help but see a manager who was lost for ideas yesterday, someone said about Souness first loss and then going on to win the league, you have got to be in never never land if you think Ped has that ability, Xmas and gone *J

  20. Rangers are better than last year DESPITE Pedro Caixhina. We are better simply because we have spent some money and signed a better standard of player – Alves, Dorrans, Jack. Caixhina's lack of tactical nous and awareness will cost us games all season and embarrass us on the pitch – while his incoherent ramblings about respect embarrasses us of it. You don't get respect just because someone is idiotic enough to give you a top job – you have to earn it – and Pedro has nothing in his locker from the past, or from his short time with Rangers to command any respect. Caixhina will be gone by Xmas!

  21. Apart from the obvious stuff about that piece of garbage Stokes and all the shite he and his fellow scum were injecting into the game in direction from their leader who must be penalized 100 % !!! We played some no bad stuff, defending has to improve , but as our 2nd goal proved if you just do the basics they too were open at the back .. Dorrans is quality and feels the whole thing hopefully he and Miller will pass that around . Kenny M needs to understand he must decide where he can be most effective even though his enthusiasm is bursting !! he can upset the rhythm. Our goalie also does not instil confidence at the back , sorry but he doesn't good shot stopper he is but not commanding enough for me . I like Morellos a lot he has real potential to be a little special I think once he gets fully fit and conversant with Scottish Football, his fellow striker Herrera ( using the term loosely striker that is !!) is not good enough he has no sense of position or threat to any defence . We must be patient WATP Walker would be a good addition …but we do need more cover at Centre Back and Another Full Back .. Lets look forward folks please

  22. Looking forward, BillB, you just listed several problems that will not now be sorted until Ped is gone, he does not have a clue, if you think he has, well his main excuse will be to hide behind a terrible ref or the antics of Lennon, instead let me call it out for him, "sorry but I really do not know what I am doing, I keep asking my full backs to do jobs they are capable of, except they then forget to defend, I have signed quality in central defence, except they are struggling, either because they are not fit enough or simply cant play together, I am asking someone who we should rely on (Miller) to play in areas where really he does not have the ability and finally when things do not go to plan (it happens in football matches) I simply do not have a clue, neither by the way does my assistant" J

Comments are closed.