Steven Gerrard makes four shock decisions

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Steven Gerrard makes four shock decisions


When Rangers fans saw Jordan Rossiter in the XI for the trip to Hamilton, to say reaction was stunned is an understatement. Not only was he coming in from the cold, but it was a 3G pitch which are notorious especially for fragile glass like the Scouser. He’s managed to maintain fitness since then and we think it might actually be the longest run in the squad he’s had now.

However, not to outdo himself, Steven Gerrard then stunned fans yet again domestically (Spartak had been midweek and mercifully featured none of this) by selecting out-of-favour Umar Sadiq for the trip to Hampden – it had mixed results, but the simple selection of the joke figure left supporters scratching their heads and inspiring many a meme.

He wasn’t done there. When Rangers faced Kilmarnock for the next terrestrial match, fans were staggered by the sight of Wes Foderingham in the home goal. Many assumed because McGregor got the semi-final call Foderingham was being given his turn. Who knows.

And then, yesterday, episode four in the ‘stunning selection shocker’ series continued as Eros Grezda inexplicably started in Paisley. And proceeded to have a pretty poor match to say the least.

We’re not quite sure what exactly is going on to see all these bizarre starts, but while we were all for seeing changes (credit to Gerrard for dropping the currently-poor Coulibaly) we can’t quite fathom why previously out of the cold players are being selected to start.

No hint of blooding them into the match environment by bringing them on as a sub for a few matches, and getting that fitness up. No, straight in, and in most cases they have not thrived on it.

Yesterday Gerrard realised his error and hooked Grezda off for the match winner Candeias, but we’re at a loss as to why he, Wes, Rossiter etc are coming straight in from the cold and in most cases struggling.

We are absolutely in favour of dropping out of form players, as SG clearly did with the Malian, but we’re not so sure on the random selection of players who clearly aren’t match fit.

Any ideas?

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19 COMMENTS

  1. Any Ideas, Ibroxnoise yes let our manager get on with his job.Sometimes they are good reasons for picking certain players, but what gets me annoyed is once again a few bad results we seem to be asking questions of our manager, lets see how season goes and lets not forget he came in with a group of player already here which were not going to take the club forward, yes he has brought players in who may or not be good enough to take us where we all want to be, much of this could be down to budget but that is where we are.The positives if the stories are true there is a number of young players coming through and learning their trade which would be great for the club. So lets give our manager a break Rangers are not light switch but at least there is light at the end of the tunnel.

  2. 1.wes- Gerrard said In his post match interview that he needs to look after mcgregors freshness. Absolutely nfn wrong with Playing Wes the other night. He made a last minute save which I know ibrox noise would never comment on as yous don't rate Wes.
    2- Grezda. You are saying he was a shock choice? He came on as a sub in a European game to change A game. GMac praised Grezda in his press conference on the Friday aswell. With Russia on Thursday it was totally understandable with putting Grezda in.
    3-rossiter – how many different articles are you going to keep writing about on this non problem. The whole team was flat in the Hamilton game just like the last 3 or 4 games but you seem to think Rossitters inclusion was the main reason.
    4-sadiq. I can't argue too much on this one he struggled in the game and didnt offer much. He was let down by his team mates aswell which didn't help the situation. He should have been subbed after 60 odd mins.

    • Graham Cathcart. E X A C T L Y

      Steve somebody says Gerarrd gas bought 8 out of 10 duds.
      Hmmmm. Yes well.bet Steve bites his toe nails at dinner time

  3. Is your agenda to get Gerrard the sack. Near on every article you publish is anti Rangers. The bears don't need these negative articles, we get enough negative press as it is.

    • BB, this is a bit unfair. We’re calling what we see. If you see nothing but positivity you’ve better sight than we have.

  4. hes made more than 4 shock decisions ,think the biggest mistake hes made is sticking by loan players ,me personally thought he was going to blow all away in scotland ,the most important thing manager does is buy players ,fergie ,smith ,e,t,c buy one or two bad out 10 ,gerrard 8 duds out 10.

    • brian clark first loan players kent no bad rest not very good if we go by assists goals ,players gerrard signed mgregor , goldson ,look good the rest ,cant get in the team ,for halliday ,jack .morellos , tav, candias ,were not in a position to buy 2 million pound players and not play them ,katic ,grezna , barasic ,we have been down this road before

  5. Running a soccer team is not easy. Pick same players every week and the rest get demoralised. So when you get an injury you may have to give a game to someone who is pissed off with you. Also guys recovering from injury have to be given opportunity. Let’s be honest Hamilton and St Mirren should be ideal teams to play less than full strength teams. Also guys who we might be wishing to sell in January to get off payroll have to be kept in shop window( Foderingham and Tavanier could still collect good money). So it’s not just about picking our best team. Especially with heavy schedule. If we make it through to Europe and are in 2nd place at end of Dec. we will be in a very good place. I actually hope Celtic get through too. Distracts them from league also. And they are not as good as their recent results suggest. Gerard is doing a great job. This time next year is real judgement time. Get off his back. Take a few more sniffs of pot and enjoy the ride.

  6. Every player should be able to come and do the job they get payed enough so no excuses from any player as gerrard says if you don't have the mentality then you won't last the Jersey is too heavy and you will be weeded out only people that want it

  7. IN, your negativity regarding Gerrard and Rangers at a time when we are still in transition, bedding in a new manager, with new ideas and philosophies is a huge disappointment to me as an avid reader of your site. It appears to me that the narrative is mostly areound what is wrong and not what is going well.
    I appreciate you shouldn’t be painting a rosy picture if one doesn’t exist but similarly you certainly shouldn’t be finding fault and being unbalanced when it’s not needed.
    The national press do that very well. I would expect a Rangers site to do it too.

    • Hi Wilkins, our current negativity is more disappointing to us, we assure you. You don’t expect us to paint a rosy picture if it’s not, but sadly that’s the problem. It’s not. 13 wins of 25 is hard to gloss over.

  8. Sure you can negatively view it as 13 wins out of 25.
    How about viewing it positively as 11 games undefeated in Europe, 16 out of 18 points at home (especially after our shocking home record last season), and only 2 losses from 6 away league matches.
    Yes, sometimes it's not been great but that's a fairly decent record and not all that far from a rosy picture given the big changes that have been made at the club this season.
    The semi final was a big disappointment and we got caught in the headlights at Parkhead but I consider our only really bad result was the loss at Livingston.

  9. Agree with everyone re the negativity. It's frankly uncalled for. Re putting in Fod against Greegzy the other night, our manager has clearly said that Greezy has been carrying a slight back injury for weeks, so took the opportunity to rest him. That's good for me IN: but clearly not you. Re Grezda, Candesis (and Kent for that matter) had a mare against the Shaggers, and had started virtually every game:frankly, in many cases, not meriting selection. So opting for the Albanian was no surprise to me. Rossitor, in at Hamilton, are you blind – he was one of the very few successes that day. So, get a grip IB.

  10. You publish what you want! You publish what you want! Ibrox noise you publish what you want!

    First bit if grief I have ever given yous and yous dont publish it.

    Just get behind stevie GER and the team . We are building something here and building takes time. Rome wasn't built in a day ffs.

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