A dose of reality for Rangers?

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A dose of reality for Rangers?


Rangers last night were given a huge dose of reality, following the second disappointing 1-1 draw in a row.

While Steven Gerrard’s men used a colossal get out of jail card against Aberdeen given it was a cup clash with replay security, there was no such insurance last night as Rangers’ recent profligacy in front of goal was punished with a near-certain exit from any lingering title challenge.

We alluded to the change of manager at Parkhead pointing at a possible change and potential comeback for Rangers, but it was dependent regardless on us picking up the crucial points when they truly mattered.

Rangers have recent gone on a heck of a run – up till the Aberdeen match it was 5 clean sheets in a row, and 14 goals in the three matches.

Unfortunately the display at Pittodrie has exposed the shortcomings of this nevertheless in progress Rangers squad, and while that one had a fall back crutch of a replay and the ease of chalking it down to a bad day at the office, last night’s did not have either of these to save us.

While quite a portion of Rangers’ play was pretty decent, with some good linking up in midfield, Kamara being at the centre of much of it, and some penetrative flank play from Candeias and Kent, the killer edge, so frequently an issue this season, came back with a bang as a tonne of gilt-edge chances were squandered.

Somehow Hibs have the measure of Rangers – sure, they’ve not beaten us this season, but for the life of us we just can’t score against them. And that wastefulness up front, while not costing the title, certainly cost us a decent fist at mounting a credible challenge for it.

We’ll cover more match reaction today, and the implications in various forms, but it’s worth remembering this too; we at the site posited a decent second-place finish as being our target – a good distance ahead of Aberdeen, and an acceptable distance behind Celtic. That very much remains on, and would still have to go down as an improvement on recent seasons.

Unfortunately, the flip side is this regime is not one we can trust – not yet. It remains in progress, and the players continue to (mostly) work hard, but we’re nowhere near the stage of expectation.

This is not to say we have none – we will always expect Rangers to win. But that’s the heart talking. The head knows this Rangers are not yet into that upper echelon of what we should reasonably anticipate from our side under normal circumstances.

For the time being, we must expect rotten results like Killie, Aberdeen and Hibs to continue to punctuate the good ones.

As we improve, they should be thinned out more and more. But that may take a heck of a lot longer than one season.

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9 COMMENTS

  1. For all the praise Ryan Kent receives his end product is shocking, he can dance round defenders all day long but if you can't deliver the final ball into the danger area then why bother? & the same applies to Taverneir, Candeias & Halliday….all 4 players where shocking with there crossing! They need to improve big time!but at the same time why are we firing high crosses into the box when our striker is a short arse who isn't prone to scoring with his head??? Arfield is another who, whilst is industrious & plays for the shirt, he dosent contribute enough in the box & wasteful with a lot of his passes, this is certainly an area we must sort out in the summer, we need a much better quality number 10…..now as for the manager, Yet again he is about as reliable as his predecessors when it comes to tactical know how!….on about 65 minutes, you could see Hibs starting to get more physical & Kamara who had a great first half was fading out of the match! Simple solution, Kamara off McCrorie on, stiffen the midfield, McCrorie certainly isn't shy of getting torn in about….but NO Mr Gerrard doses fuck all & let's the team drop there heads & allow Hibs back in! Same shit different game! & let's be honest, we are lucky Hibs didn't win the match! They had 2 good chances the whole game & took 1…..we have double figures chances, heaps of possession, dominate the game & can't put them away! 😠 😠 😠

  2. I think the problem with Ranger's is we focus on Celtic and winning the league, this belief was brought on by the fantastic run in Europe. From where we've come from over the last few years
    to present is encouraging, rookie manager, new team lying second in league, if you are honest before a ball
    was kicked new manager, new team, and was told we will have a great run in Europe, be in second in the league, most would have laughed out loud.

  3. Regards the incident involving Tav and the hooligan Gerrard should have pulled the whole team off the park there and then this is guys going about their job and getting abused and physically attacked while doing so That sort of action would maybe? force the SFA the SPL etc to take the severest action that is required to get it sorted out and under no circumstances could they ever punish Rangers for their action

  4. It’s work in progress. We will be dumping in summer. We had to take loans and a ew elderly people to see us through season. Summer window will see big changes. Two good days could see us win cup and we should finish 2nd in league. That will be seen as a great season. Next season we will be much better. SG has tried to play decent football against the Scottish cluggers. We are back in the black. A new manager would be a disaster. Eddie is right.

  5. I have to agree with Glendo, it’s something I have mentioned on here before about Kent, he looks tricky and fast but does there’s very little end product, have a look at top assists in the league Kent is nowhere to be seen. Also agree that it was obvious from start of the second half that the changes Hibs made changed the pattern of the game but Gerrard was far too slow to counteract it

  6. The issue is the lack of a creative attacking midfielder who can make good chances rather than half chances.

    Has been the problem all season and will continue to be until proper money is spent on that one player who can open teams up and create chances we can't miss.

  7. What is Gary McAllister, doing. You'd really think he would be on the touchline, advising this novice Manager. But that, does NOT, seem to be happening. It feels to me at least, that the advice he's actually getting on the touchline, is wrong. You'd think G McA would advise on substitutions etc, but that, doesn't seem to be happening either. If those two think we'll tolerate another woeful season like this, next year, they are both in for a shock!

  8. McAllister is doing what he has done his whole career, taking a big wage for pretending he is better than he is..Archie Knox he isn't!

  9. This team are too soft round the edges. Fullbacks aren't tough enough in a tackle! Call me old fashioned but it your fullbacks biggest strength isn't tackling and defending then you are in trouble. Rangers should have ENOUGH in the team not to rely on fullbacks running out of position constantly. By all means get up the park and support but when your your fullbacks are essentially trying to be wingers 90% of games then your in trouble the minute you come up against a good manager or a team with some pace..as demontrated how we have lost most goals int he last few years!

    The 4 biggest leaders in this entire Rangers team are Worral(not ours), Rossiter(out on loan)Wallace(scapegoated) and Mcgregor(plays furthest back) From back to front – Tav, Goldson, Barasic, Candieas, Kamara, Arfield, Kent, Lafferty, Davis, Morelos, and I am sure I've forgotten some. not ONE of them are a leader. And that is a problem. I've heard it all before people saying it's not all about having leaders on the park. I'd suggest that is exactly what it is all about, the more the better and it is why we became the worlds most succesful football club!

    We have been unlucky with other guys who were/are/possibly could still be players. Dorrans and Murphy are two really good footballers and leading types and have more than enough to be in a winning team in Scotland! They might not have shown it agreed, but fully fit and playing in this team with the style Gerrard is trying to play then I really believe they would be standouts.

    And it may sound I am contradicting myself, but as I have said many times before guys like Tav, Candieas and the others all have some qualities ands are good enough to be in league winning teams. But they can't be relied on like the are now to take this team forward, they simply don't have the stuff required for that. Hence our near misses and glorious failures! Tav for instance – If we need our fullbacks to be relied on as much as we are expecting Tav(to captain)to be relied on then I would rather Tav be sold and replaced with someone who has that in their game. If however we need someone to come of the bench and play without pressure, hit a decent free kick, whip in some good crosses…then keep Tav because he has it in his game, but as it is now we aren't getting the required results, it isn't fair on the club and it certainly isn't fair on Tav and Im sure Tav would say as much. Get him involved at the business end of the pitch, let him do what he does best and be the hero…Don't ask him to lead a team devoid of leaders like himself, get forward AND defend because he will keep making the erros he is making! Use him and others properly and we will be back on top sooner rather than later. This is why I said we needed an experienced manager to make these decision instead of this limbo we are perpetually in now by not changing the real problems in the team! Gerrard might end up great, but not when he sin't making the changes that really need to take us forward! That's just my opinion Bears..feel free to rip it apart 🙂 :). Starting with Ibrox Noise hehe.

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