10 things we learned against Celtic

10
10 things we learned against Celtic

So now that the dust has settled on yesterday’s (latest) Old Firm defeat, it is time for your good old friends at Ibrox Noise to bring you an assessment of what we reckoned we learned from the 90 minutes in Govan. What follows is what we feel we can take from the loss, both good and bad.

1: Ross McCrorie

We shall start with the easy one. This guy is outstanding. Only 19 years old and in the fire of his first start which just happened to be in the cauldron of the Old Firm, and while we will not exaggerate and say he waltzed it, he certainly showed that those who mocked us for suggesting he should start were misguided and had far too much faith in Alves. The lad was not perfect, but it is certainly one of the best full starting debuts in an Old Firm we can remember – and it was one of our own. If we were manager he would keep his place. And given Alves may be injured for a while, it seems a no brainer.

2: Pedro Caixinha does not get the Old Firm

He watched on earlier this year as his predecessor inspired his plucky side to a draw at Parkhead, yet ever since then, having seen a guide book show him the method, it is almost as if he wants to ‘be his own man’ and do it his way, and damn it if we lose. Pedro Caixinha has not come close to a point against Celtic, never mind a win. He is a dreadful Rangers manager when it comes to Old Firm encounters.

3: Wes Foderingham/Jak Alnwick

We did not touch on this one in our post-match assessment but truth is Wes was diabolical. The paradox here is that inside 30 minutes he prevented a Rogic screamer from hitting the net via a wonder save, but everything he did after that was underwhelming and weak. His distribution, often his strength against weaker teams, was horrendous, and he was found wanting in the box on many occasions. Frankly Jak Alnwick has earned a shot at the number one slot – Foderingham had a good season last time around, but this term is not looking especially assured.

4: The Graham Dorrans condundrum

It has been a simmering issue for a few weeks now, but while the ex-Norwich man works reasonably hard and seems to get about a bit, he does not appear to influence games much at all. He lacks creative input, and simply keeps it plain. He does not look the excellent signing he did pre-season and for the first game or two. This is not us advocating him being dropped, but he is definitely not enjoying a good spell of form, and it is something Norwich fans warned us about. If it continues much longer we would have little hesitation giving Barjonas a shout.

5: James Tavernier is having a good season

Ok his defending still is not the best but the right back has adjusted much better to the SPL this season than he had last. He gets forward with more freedom and seems infinitely more confident. Pedro has definitely got more out of him than his ex-manager did.

6: Lee Hodson is no left back

We rate the guy at right back, and that is where he played in that Murty Old Firm and helped silence Sinclair. At left back he is pretty dismal though and just cannot handle Celtic. He was beaten all ends up by Roberts and showed at that level he is not good enough in that slot.

7: Those ‘purple patches’

From around 15 minutes to 35 Rangers actually looked a bit more in the game. Morelos was denied a stonewall penalty and the side put together a few attacks. So we can actually play now and again against Rodgers’ side. We just cannot do anything with it – one shot on target in the whole 90 was a shocking return, and it did not appear till the second half. When it comes to Celtic, Rangers might be able to build the occasional attack but it is flattering to deceive and nothing comes of it.

8: Pedro Caixinha cannot make his men play for 90 minutes

It really is simple as that. He has been in charge over six months now and only two matches have seen a genuinely dominant and convincing performance; the debut v Hamilton in which we arguably peaked, and the more recent dispatch of lower league Dunfermline in the cup. Against every other side we have faced, Pedro has been unable to get the most of out his men (be it Baldy’s signings or his own) for the majority of any single match. We are not talking 60 good minutes in 90 or even 50; the reality is we are lucky to get 40 decent minutes in 90 in any match now. Regardless of your players and your opposition, that simply is not good enough, or what used to pass for Rangers Class.

9: Josh Windass is frustrating

For 25 minutes, again, Josh was on fire. He was tearing the pitch up and was our best attacking player (no high praise, true). But then, again, he disappeared. There is a player in there but he seems to go off the boil very dramatically. As if he has decided ‘that is enough’ and stops putting in the miles.

10: Pedro could have Scott Brown

He laughed off the crunching tackle from Windass and was ready to square go our bald green and white pretend psycho. If nothing else Pedro is no shrinking violet.

That is about the lot.

What did our readers learn from the match?

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10 COMMENTS

  1. eleventh thing griffiths is a half witted loathesome filthy scumbag who should be punished for his inflammatory actions but wont be

    • totally agree that and look at browns face when he and Pedro clash at half time a good captain would just walk on brown is just a p…k

  2. Wasn't it yourselves that was backing signing dorrans? And didn't we have a make shift back line? Did we not have two first team midfielders missing? We had good spells in the the first half! Yes we should have won a penalty? Personally I didn't think we would have won anyway! sadlywe need more investment and you can't pluck that out of fresh air? Pedro is here with his players for now we can't afford to sack him? Or replace his signings? All we can do is bk our team and hope things work out? Losing to them hurts but if we finish second and win a cup then I will look on that as a success! sadly we need to be realistic

    • mark you are mad stick with wee pedro pena herrera cadias e,t,c get rid before he brings in any more these fantastic players .ive also learned 10 thinga about this team .not one shot on goal at ibrox against a very poor seltic team we could not even run bye wee boony .our best player is 19 years old thank furk alves was out on holiday or it could have been worse finishing second to them no good to me .have we not went through enough finishing 2 ,3,4 new manager a,s,ap or we will be handing them 10 on a plate we pedro not cute enough for the slekit smelly mob .ive been shouting for big tel butch for years .its all down to manager not funds as weve spent more than enough candias and pena dont fancy watching them for next couple years

  3. Just like the last guy,we seem to play well for a game or two and giving us hope were starting to click,then we go back to p**h again,mostly a different team this season but same scenario !!!

  4. Where was the passion yesterday….we played so deep it gave their wingers acres of space….I just feel all PC's signings are not working, I dont even remember seeing Jack, and Pena fuck Im 57 and I look fitter, he looks like our version of Raphael Shite lets bet honest Morelos was JJ's input..I said when we appoint Ped he will last a year and then we will be stuck with his awful signings….McInnes was the man we needed but we fucked that up

  5. this was NEVER going to be an easy game for us…we had sooooo many players who hadnt ever played against Mhanky Mob…more i think about that game,more problems i believe we have. Soooooo, we have to get back to basics of the game and that means players who will fight for this club and do the basics.here ismy list.
    of problems that this squad has…..
    Foderingham, he has terrible time winning cross balls AND when ball is kicked back to him,his clearances can be awful,regularly.
    Hodson,just showed how slow he Really is..shouldnt be in our line-up.
    PENA should NEVER be on the field for 90 minutes starting a game,he is neither fit nor used to playing the speed of Scottish football.
    Feel sorry for the Colombian,MORELOS….he is certainly a player i like a lot but we need a decent forward to be up field with him, only guy we have right now,is the RETIRED Kenny Millar( he is way, too old now to play 90 minutes).
    CANDELIAS…has ability but is NOT lightening fast which is what we need as a winger.
    Definitely need a very physical mid-fielder…i think that would make HUGE difference to the way our team plays, we have the right players in Ryan Jack and Graham Dorrans…
    We now have a decent central defence,like Cardoso and Alves and young Ross Mcrorie.
    As for Pedro he doesnt even understand, how important winning is to our fans,he may claim he does but after watching a lot of matches,we are NOT dictating most of the games…AND that is very much bascis too me.

  6. Can you imagine the outcry there would have been in the usual tim press if a Gers player blew his nose on a celtic corner flag ? Bigotry is portrayed as a one way thing by these scumbags , when infact they themselves are the biggest culprits . In what other country in the world would you have a club openly campaigning to have a fellow club ( that has endured 6 years of punishment and fines and sanctions ) further punished for a tax demeanour ? This is a rancid outfit and there is a watergate out there waiting to be exposed in my opinion , to the part they played in government , SFA and SPL in the bid to bury Rangers . Their friends in the press and tv media have backed them all the way in this . A celtic fan recently said to me to listen carefully to the stuff that brendan rogers says . He always tries to portray himself as the voice of reason , but behind every comment he makes there is always a barbed dig at Rangers . He thinks he's a bit of a psychologist in the same way jock stein thought he was , always having hidden digs at Gers . When Waddell and Wallace arrived at Ibrox he didn't get away with that shit . We badly need someone like that now ,to speak out and defend our club .

  7. Think Wes Fod gets portrayed as a great shot stopper by the fans news flash he ain't if he was playing against Thistle the other night Pedro would be out of a job. Thought Pena was reasonable didn't notice broon until Pena came off, Hodgson not good enough at LB have doubts about him at RB, Feel there isn't a massive gulf between the two sides a bit more belief and confidence we could bridge that gap. I said at the start of the season Pedro has till Xmas he needs to get a run together starting at Hamilton if we don't get this run I feel the NY Derby might well be his last as Gers boss

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