Official Rangers v Celtic Thread

[mityboosh]

the last time they played wee shity nach no goals? was he up himself? or was mculloch with him? cant remember,,all i do is the knob mutton running by us giving the get it right up yoose,,i hope a leg break for him is over the horizion,,sorry bout that rant but i fekin HATE the guy ,,i dont think they will play 1 up front,novo plays of mculloch so either mick or gc will mark him and it up to the defence to stifile them and push up as much as poss to flood the middle,,,HAIL HAIL

[Keltoi]

big problem recently IMO has nothing to do with WGS. I blame the players. They all looked very sluggish and their touch was out almost to a man. That has nothing to do with coaching or formations. I think its a delayed effect of all those CL games and qualifiers as well as international games. Some of our players may have played nearly 50 already for club and country already. Pre-Xmas our bench was too crap to rotate while Rangers did. I hope they all fake injury this week and skip international duty. Not like the int games are important ones.

[kevinMc]

1. we were actually the better team for the first half hour and naka played well.

2. Losing the first goal changed the game

So what your saying is - when the huns scored our players heads went down instead of it spurring them on to fight harder and get back into the game ?

Naka was facing his own goal trying to shield the ball when Ferguson effortlessly took it from him to setup the attack that led to their second goal..

This game won't be pretty.. We need to batter them , no passengers in the team , every single player has to make an effort to stop players running past him...
That's why Donati and Naka simply aren't upto the job..

[jpr21]

definitely gunna win this 1 lads btw so sure of it

[Keltoi]

Originally Posted by kevinMc

So what your saying is - when the huns scored our players heads went down instead of it spurring them on to fight harder and get back into the game ?

Naka was facing his own goal trying to shield the ball when Ferguson effortlessly took it from him to setup the attack that led to their second goal..

This game won't be pretty.. We need to batter them , no passengers in the team , every single player has to make an effort to stop players running past him...
That's why Donati and Naka simply aren't upto the job..

we wont beat them at their own game. We might just beat them by having more talented players though and we can only do that if we play them. Naka, Aidan and maybe Samaras have the sort of skills that sets us apart from them. As I have said, we can have all of them in a 4-5-1. Rangers have no talented ball players.

[kevinMc]

we wont beat them at their own game. We might just beat them by having more talented players though and we can only do that if we play them. Naka, Aidan and maybe Samaras have the sort of skills that sets us apart from them. As I have said, we can have all of them in a 4-5-1. Rangers have no talented ball players.

Your idea of playing a 4-5-1 is trying to beat them at their own game is it not ?

Also , The idea that this game will be won with guile and craft , over effort and determination is wrong.. Your falling into the same trap as 3 or 4 managers did - pre Martin O Neil era..

We had a 10 to 15 year period where we had talented teams on the pitch , and we outplayed them in virtually every single game but still lost the majority of them..

To be fair to the huns , Steve Davis has probably been their best player since he arrived and along with ferguson is their most talented ball player..
We will need two in the centre to nullify Davis and Ferguson for a start..

My idea of that would be Hartley and Brown..
Robson should do for us what Mculloch does for them.. Link midfield and attack and generally get stuck in.. Mcgeady is the only flair player that I'd accomodate and thats because he can track back..

Im undecided if 4-4-2 or 4-5-1 is best option.. If I went 4-5-1 then I'd have to consider Naka but I'd also consider Sno..

Sno would sit behind the midfield because Hartley offers much more going forward. The only problem with this is that Sno will tend to chase back into our penalty area and the twice I've seen him in there he conceded the penalty in the last game at ibrox , and against Aberdeen in the first cup game he mistimed a header which came of his arm and should have been another penalty against us..

Maybe 4-4-1-1 with Skippy in behind Samaras or JVOH is the best option...

Just heard on Sky sports news Rangers 3 players in the Scotland squad have withdrawn with injury..

[slippy]

It's now four huns, McGregor has pulled out as well.

The problem with Sat is I just can't see us out fighting the huns. There doesn't appear to be sufficient dig in the team. I'd be playing Hartley or Robson instead of Donati for sure.

We lack urgency just now, I have no idea why, you can feel the pressure in the stands but it doesn't seem to be galvanising the team. Maybe an early goal on Sat will.

[kevinMc]

Originally Posted by slippy

The problem with Sat is I just can't see us out fighting the huns. There doesn't appear to be sufficient dig in the team. I'd be playing Hartley or Robson instead of Donati for sure.

We lack urgency just now, I have no idea why, you can feel the pressure in the stands but it doesn't seem to be galvanising the team. Maybe an early goal on Sat will.

Im with you on this..

From recent performances there's just no positives to take into this game.. As fans we make our team selections by leaving out what we see as the weak links , rather than adding players because they have impressed.. It shouldn't be that way but we have to believe that on the day the team will somehow click and fight for each other and pay back something to the supporters..

It's almost similar to the game (tactically anyway) at the Nou Camp (but this time without the opposition having any quality)

We have to look to get something..

Its whether you think we look to get something to hold onto , or we play our way into the game and look for a smash n grab job..

We always hear the first goal is vital in games.. This one especially because if we don't get it we're going to be asking guys (who's shown very little bottle all season) to dig deep and come up with the goods..

[Reno.]

This is going to be a physical game tbh with lots of bullying people off the ball and whatnot. Naka won't get much of a chance and neither will McGeady as they're both fairly small. They should make up for it though by pace and leave Plodfoot and co eating dust either way.

Samaras should start as well and knock that twat Cuellar on his arse. Git has gotten away with far too much this season.

[smac1888]

an early goal would set us up nicely,have a felling w'll win this one,really have to get stuck in and fight for every ball,mon the hoops,hail hail

[col_p67]

Sorry to ask this if it has already been addressed, but is Brown out of the game or not? On Setanta, when he was booked, the commentator seemed to believe his ban didn't start until after the OF, but in the Daily Ranger, they portray him as being out. So which is it?

[Ricardinho]

He's not suspended, he's all but certain to miss one of the Parkhead games if not both though

[shieldsybhoy]

I think we will either draw or lose this one. We need our big players to play up on Saturday or else we will get fooked. We also can't play the players that get scared shitless in the big games e.g Donati, Caldwell. Boruc needs to be on form as well. Also if we score first we need to be really defensive as Rangers will be all over us like a rash. This would be my starting line up:
Boruc
Hinkel
McManus
O'Dea
Naylor
McGeady
Brown
Hartly
Nakamura( I know he gets scared shitless but we need him for his set pieces.
Vennegoor of Hessilnk
Samaras/Skipee

[ChampionsElect]

He will miss Motherwell (h) then Huns (h) then another game yet to be decided and i think that they will keep the remaining OF to near the end of the season , not the last game but maybe second or 3rd last. So i think he will only miss one OF

[col_p67]

Spot on guys. Thanks for clearing that up.