If yesterday’s Old Firm proved one thing, it’s that while Rangers still very much have the edge in Glasgow, Celtic have improved enough to demonstrate there’s a lot less of a gulf between the two than there was but nowhere near enough to show they mean business.
All the hype going into this one was about how strongly Celtic had started the season, and how amazing their new ‘£30M’ striker Kyogo was. Indeed, they were going to put Rangers’ stuttering defence to the sword and take first blood of the campaign.
And while they certainly did have most of the play for the first 30 minutes, none of it went anywhere as a strong, defiant, and brilliantly-organised Rangers reduced hopeful Celtic to a bluster of nothing.
Their star striker was completely unable to do the damage which had the Scottish press hyping him to kingdom come, and Edouard’s open goal miss in the first half was 20x worse than Alfredo Morelos’ infamous attempt at the same goal a couple of years ago.
Indeed, Rangers’ organisation, workrate, tactics and formation absolutely snuffed the visitors out, and left rookie goalkeeper Robby McCrorie with a humorously quiet afternoon having only a few little moments to close out.
It was very, very impressive, and showed Celtic’s progress to be a hell of a lot less than they’d hoped, and the media had implied. The signs teased from their dismal display in Holland against the first half decent side they’d faced exposed everything Rangers needed to know, and gave Stevie the tools to hurt Stavros’s team with a lot more conviction than anyone had expected.
This wasn’t a complete thrashing, no, but Rangers were dynamic, strong, and had the look of champions. They looked like they had the complete measure of Celtic who were idealess, clueless, and completely insipid going forward.
In fact, anyone watching them for the first time (like, frankly, yours truly) would have wondered what on earth the fuss about Kyogo was. Balogun absolutely annihilated him.
It was a very ‘Walter-esque’ display – cunning, sharp, well-drilled and easily containing of their eastern guests who had no way through. Indeed, it was very reminiscent of poor Tommy Burns and his hapless Celtic who couldn’t beat Rangers for love nor money, no matter how well they played on the day.
It was, for Rangers fans, a joy to watch, and a real thrill to see our side do it on the big stage in front of the big crowd when it mattered.
Has that kick-started the season? We believe it might just have.
Dynamic? I thought wee were brutal for large parts. Even the team selections were giving people the fear lol but as bad as we were imo, 3 or 4 starters out. Kent carrying a knock, barisic is said to be a carrying one aswell. Balogan at rb, he was terrible the last cpl of times he played there, hats off to him a great performance but we still managed to beat them & they didn’t trouble us that much. Celtic have been bad the last lot of years we were just worse, I don’t think they’ve improved at all from last year. Maybe keep possession a bit better. A cpl of 6 nils against bottom the league teams has only given them false hope. I think we made them look better than what they are.
Brutal Curtis really …at no times were we brutal. They did well in early patches but that was it we totally controlled the game , not the possession , but the whole game mate.
I have to be totally honest here and some our my fellow bears will probably not agree!
Here goes the best 4 players on the park yesterday Balogun Helander Goldson and Kamara the young lad McCrorie was well protected by the back 3 Borasic did not look fit to me was he carrying an injury also he nearly caused us from conceding a goal I thought he was poor
Kamara was outstanding gave everything and won every tackle Aribo showed flashes of what he could do but did not hit the heights and show what he really can do, Davis one of the worst games in a Gers Jersey gave the ball away to often when he passed they were over hit or hitting big high balls that no one had the time to ring down and control.
Kent the lads heads been turned by other clubs needs to knuckle down as he is just not the finished article all the hype has gone to his head not half the player he was last year.
Roofe tried but was fighting lost causes didn’t get any service from Barisic down the left and with no Tavernier or Patterson down the right there was service for him Morelos looks over weight and not up to speed fitness wise very poor game goes down easy wasting needless time for us especially with the game evenly poised at nil nil.
At the end of the day we got the 3 points and the bragging rights but Stevie still has a lot of work to do that was very clear from the game I watched yesterday.
I thought Clancy was terrible as the referee as he let go crunching tackles from Mc Gregor 5 – 6 tackles he made at least 2 were bookable offences and should of been sent off all in all we have the 3 points.
One happy bear .
Happy , I’d hate to see you sad Brian. Tactically we had control at all times . Edwards chance the only threat. Clancy as you say a disgrace ….I wonder why ???? Onwards 56
I thought it was a good open game first half but we took control in the second half. Well done to the coaching staff for making the necessary adjustments. They come on strong as you would expect in the final stages but over the full game I thought we played well and deserved the win. Hopefully this will get our season started but we look like we’ve got some players still short of form and fitness.
In my honest opinion is should have been McCrorie that got man of the match and would happily have him as our number 2, the kid has a good future at Ibrox and hope SG doesn’t send him out on loan again
although delighted with the final outcome, I feel we were lucky to come out of that with the win.
They had a minimum of 3 clear scoring opportunities and on another day would have scored a couple. To be fair to them I think the kid Kyogo looks a talent and thought he looked like their only real threat.
That being said, I thought Man to man we were better but with their recent defensive blunders we should have been more clinical. Good pace and movement in the middle of the park never seemed to result in a clear chance. Overall I felt we were poor up top. Hopefully Morelos finds his shooting boots and Kent comes back to the boil.
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