Eagle-eyed Rangers fans may have spotted THIS in the Rangers XI yesterday…

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Eagle-eyed Rangers fans may have spotted THIS in the Rangers XI yesterday…


There was a great deal to digest over last night’s ultimately successful but undeniably disappointing second leg in Macedonia.

There were a huge number of aspects to pore through, but one stands out to yours truly, despite how subtle it was.

Steven Gerrard has signed eight new players (nine including Murphy)  this summer – yet only four new signings actually started yesterday.

The team essentially still remains the same dross that struggled all last season, with the entire midfield and front line the same underperforming rabble that underpins the problems Rangers have.

Despite a glut of new additions, it was the (underperforming) old guard Gerrard sent out – and is there an iota of coincidence that the best four players were Nikola Katic, Jon Flanagan, Connor Goldson and the outstanding Allan McGregor, with the next best being second half substitute Ovie Ejaria, another new signing.

In short, the same rubbish which fans are united in agreement that are rubbish are still the same stuff we see taking the field in our shirt.

We complained last season of a lack of quality in the final third (despite the goals haul), and yet here we are with the same players expecting a dramatic upgrade.

Hopefully in good time we will see the Coulibalys and the Sadiqs (albeit sadly of the summer additions, those are the only two we suspect will enhance what is already there) but for now the same mediocrity which struggled last season to clinch third is once again plying their trade.

We hoped Steven Gerrard, Mr Discipline himself, with his promises of never selecting anyone who didn’t demonstrate hunger for the fight, would have a radical effect on the existing fare at the club – if the first two competitive matches are anything to go by, he hasn’t.

Of course, my colleague Richard makes a salient point – these UEL ties come comically early in a season, and Gerrard has only been with the lads for one month; similarly though Hibs ran rampant in their leg against some Faroese mob while Celtic strolled against God knows who and TNS last night mauled their lot 4-0.

In our case, however, Gerrard is a rookie manager trying to build a new squad. It’s a lot to ask. And we don’t want to get suckered into the trap of giving the man and players excuses for not delivering.

But for now he’s had to use most of the existing squad (Arfield injury, two new signings unavailable). We’re just not sure it’s what we want to see and it only justifies why we needed to shelve the majority of last season’s squad.

Alas, we’ve simply not been able to.

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19 COMMENTS

  1. Using TNS is not a great example – they lost 5-0 last week and went out 5-4…just saying

  2. Very early yet . The new players have been clearly better. I would suspect that in 18months time . Very few of the players he inherited will be there. You can't realistically change a full squad in one transfer window. I would though expect to see another 4 new players in at least before the end of the transfer window. Still will take time for them to gel

    • Aye good shout pal, some of the complaints lately have been comical on here. A new manager that saw us through a tie we wouldve been out of last season, 2 players ineligible, a third injured, 2 clean sheets and another tie in wait. Gerrard needs a chance and all this negativity surrounding him is pish at the minute…."TNS won 4-0" Aye, but are out after getting horsed last week. So hyped to see Stevie G at the reins and clowns are judging him after effectively 3 pre-season games. Once he has team in and playing how he wants THEN judge him. If he wins these EPL ties 2-0 every time he will do alright.

    • Agree with above need to give Stevie G and players time. Also not able to compare with Hibs and that mob, they have added players they had last season on loan to tge teams, we have brought in 8 new players our team has been changed the others have not changed or if they have its 1 maybe 2 players at most.

  3. Hang on a minute. Stop all this negativity. The back 5 played well – including Tavernier. Murphy played well although missed chances. McCrorie played well as did Jack. That's 8. Plus Middleton and Ejaria both did well wen they came on. So we're left with Candeias who I thought was poor but if we get him back on the wing where he should be he'll be fine. Windass was poor but you can see flashes of brilliance in him at times. He could come good. So that just leaves Morelos who needs booted onto the bench to see if he can get his head right. We have Arfield, Sadiq and Coulibaly to come in. Plus any other signings. And there's the likes of Rudden and Docherty as well. Give it time – it's only July!

    • Totally agree .
      Positive attitude is far better than all the negativity, give them and Stevie G time to get it together .

  4. Some of the comments from our so called fans are a fukin joke,those other teams you mentioned have all got settled sides and managers,our guy has only been in the door 2 minutes and he has to bring in a bunch of players who don't know each other,and to try and get a system to play,please try and get a grip.

  5. Morelos was awful , hopeless in the air , unable to control the ball on the deck , needs punted . Tav not a defender ( how often do we need to state that fact ) , move to right midfield , play Flanagan and John at full back . Connor Golston would make a good captain , has the fight and inspirational qualities needed . So basically still needing a good striker , cover at centre back and an aggressive midfielder .

  6. For crying out TWO GAMES

    Celtic
    Hibs
    PMT

    All been together under same manager and playing decent football.

    What happened to reality with fans?

    This page is like Unreality Football BitchFest TV For targeting everything RANGERS Connection and your Esteemed colleague Richard doesn't sound as much a Dick as some

  7. Lassana coulibaly is our aggressive midfielder jimbo, trust me.This enforcer of a midfielder,breaks play superbly well.He can challenge and start moves off,from in front of the back four.He's exactly what we need and us gers supporters,are going to enjoy him.

  8. Please no comparisons, at this stage with Celtic and Hibs:both played with 11 players who were with them for ALL of last season i. e. very settled teams. All this negative talk, which we know…. categorises large factions of our support (disappointingly incl. Ibrox Noise) is so disappointing, if predictable. No mention in your article that Tavenier and Jack (in only his second game in 7 months) were both excellent last night. But again typical: just lump all of Pedro's signing together and slag off. Quite frankly, pathetic!

  9. The biggest thing isn’t what anyone is talking about. Last season our defence was like a sive.. yet we are still to lose a single goal. Start at the back and work forward. There will still be loads of transfer. We have two strikers … this won’t be the case at the beginning of the season that’s for sure. The job was done at ibrox. Time for the team to keep jelling and ready for the next one

  10. How can you say the final third was poor last season when we were the top goal scoring team in the league and it was the utterly dire defence that stopped us finishing higher in the league Morelos finished second highest scorer in the league behind veteran international kris Boyd and windlass finished a goal behind Alfredo so that’s two out of the top three goal scorers still at our club where in hell do you think we would have finished in the league without the twenty seven goals scored by those two players. Last night was the third game in what is still pre-season it’s about time our fans got off the backs of some of our player so they may not be hateleys or mccoists or even Gazza or laudrups but no player we can afford to bring in will be.

  11. who decides on who's staying and who to bring in ? are these stevie g's or mark allens, is there conflict of interest. was it a boardroom desicion to keep morelos. only asking as preferred the days when walter or souey said to the board get him and invarabily it was done. for example! who decides if gerrard offered windass to cardiff amid interest for say callum paterson (RB) sorrry guys, but i'm not keen on D.O.F. n prncipal.

  12. Absolute Shite from these same imposters again. Windass throwing his arms in the air after 10mins, terrible attitude from him. Yes he was out wide left and Murphy in the middle (🤨) but he must find a way to influence games. That’s his problem. Jack got pass marks, possibly McCrorie and The Rat McGregor…the rest we’re very poor.

    I spoke to guys at the game who were getting planes, trains, buses and taxis from Greece, Bulgaria and bloody Kosovo .. mental. These players don’t understand that or appreciate it.

    Anywho…..final boarding call in Luton….

    Cunts…

  13. Candeias…. tried hard but is absolute shite. Very little quality. Not good enough or anywhere near it.

  14. No need to panic but there is a need to sign at least one more attacking player of real quality.

    I said all last season that our biggest problem is we lack any attacking players that are a level above opponents, that is still the case.

    Defence certainly looks stronger.

  15. Stevie G. needs a visit to Specsavers urgently…. Morelos and Windass are obviously our weakest links. Every attack comes to an end when either of these two are involved. Will never forgive them for their abysmal lack of effort in the 4-0 and 5-0 defeats v Celtic…… GET RID ASAP…

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