***Rangers v Heart of Midlothian*** Match Thread

[alicante jambo]

8 minutes ago, We_are_the_Hearts said:

How close is Beni mate? Think he will be after WC?

Beni wont be back for another 3 to 4 months. Was meant to be january but his recovery not coming along as expected. Hopefully we get 10 games out him before the end of the season. 

[We_are_the_Hearts]

2 minutes ago, alicante jambo said:

Beni wont be back for another 3 to 4 months. Was meant to be january but his recovery not coming along as expected. Hopefully we get 10 games out him before the end of the season. 

This defo mate as SN is normally quite accurate?

[alicante jambo]

Just now, We_are_the_Hearts said:

This defo mate as SN is normally quite accurate?

It was mentioned at the q&a bud a few weeks ago. Came straight from the club. Hopefully get him back earlier though he is on a different planet to some of our players.

[Bazzas right boot]

16 minutes ago, Boris5115 said:

Geez oh you really are the king of spin on this forum. I'm off to work so you enjoy another 8 hour shift on here but mind and stop for lunch. 

 

 

Nah, just saying shots on goal do not tell " the story".

As I said,  blocked shots, hitting the frame etc don't count. 

 

You might disagree.

 

[Bazzas right boot]

29 minutes ago, Harry Potter said:

Aye a big part not one hit the back of the net, 

 

Ofc, we got beat 1-0.

 

 

[Wee Mikey]

9 minutes ago, alicante jambo said:

It was mentioned at the q&a bud a few weeks ago. Came straight from the club. Hopefully get him back earlier though he is on a different planet to some of our players.

 

I well remember Beni's comment upon signing that he vowed to do his best for us and (I paraphrase) make us £££s on his eventual departure.

 

That lad must be - in a good way - very frustrated regarding his unfortunate injury.

 

I simply hope that when he does return, that he picks up from where he left off.

 

He was, without doubt in my mind, the stand-out midfielder in our league.

 

To utilise an often used trope; he'll be like a new signing ... and a really, really good 'un.

[Wee Mikey]

14 minutes ago, Bazzas right boot said:

Nah, just saying shots on goal do not tell " the story".

As I said,  blocked shots, hitting the frame etc don't count. 

 

You might disagree.

 

I think that I know what you are getting at.

 

I've seen us hit 22 shots and win by 1 goal.

 

I've seen the opposite, whereby we've had but one shot on target and won.

 

Sometimes, we've won having been absolutely slaughtered and, had it been a boxing match, it would be described as a 'sucker punch'.

 

The opposite has also happened whereby we've been thrashing the opposition 0-0 and been done over by that team's one and only proper chance.

 

Match stats never tell the full story.

[PapaShango]

I could see why we changed last night and in the main it worked well. However start of the second half we had no out ball and couldn't retain possession, a problem we have had in big games all season. We still played some nice football last night, especially in the build up to the Halliday chance. As much as Rangers were low in confidence and were there to be beaten last night, they are still a decent side especially at Ibrox. Had we had a fully fit starting 11 it may have been different. I thought Rowles and Sibbick were very good especially Rowles, shows what we have been missing since he has been out. I have no doubt we would have had more points on the board if he had been fit. Sibbick seemed to get slack near the end and his distribution wasn't the best but he defended very well for most of the game. 

 

Our one big chance was the Halliday one, the touch from the keeper just diverted it through his legs as I think without it he's scoring a tap in. I get folk saying we had no shots on target but we caused a few problems and had a few chances. The chance that fell to Devlin was the wrong person, had it been Halliday or Snodgrass, decent chance the keeper is being worked there. As for Henderson, the laddie isn't good enough. The chance at the end was a decent one for a striker but think he maybe cleared it into the top tier. 

 

Saturday is massive, a win there and we will soon see us pull away in 3rd IMO. 

[John Findlay]

Most surprising thing last night was that Beaton booked three of their players to our one.

[Ex member of the SaS]

I have said many time before I can take a defeat as long as we show passion and application. We did that in spades and held them to 1 goal, something we have not managed in a while. Thought we could have been a little more adventurous when they tired and got frustrated and we nearly did a couple of times with Gino breaking, and again when McKay was professionally fouled at the half way line after a throw out from Craig.

Over all a good performance we need to replicate with the lower teams and a huge well done to Kyle.

[Ex member of the SaS]

Just a small addition to previous post: I thought Snodgrass gave the ball away by passing to a player closely covered but over all he did well too.

Some small mistakes that I hope they can work through but over all pass marks for all.

[ri Alban]

Cochrane played well up until Wright came on. I thought he struggled after that.

[Drumjambo]

11 hours ago, gar jambo said:

And what's mckay 

 

He's  totally frustrating at the moment did he actually pass to a maroon jersey when he came on ?? Does not look interested and several very easy passes not made - Think he needs left out for a while 

 

As for VAR the hand ball would have been given in the game the night before  - Can't understand why that was ignored - eh well i can really.

 

Can we moan about it for two weeks like the victims?? Is it mentioned anywhere like ours was endlessly ??

 

[Chillidigits]

2 hours ago, Bazzas right boot said:

 

Unsure, but my point stands,  shots on target only tell part of the story, not the story.

 

I think maybe 3 or 4 blocked shots and Halidays miss hit in front of the goal.

 

 

Pity about Hallidays miss. Andy will rightly point out that the ball was too low for him to get his head on it.

[Rudy T]

I think tactically we were sound last night, only we sat 5 yards deeper than we probably needed to and unfortunately just didn’t have the players to get a result. If we go there and play as we did with Boyce, Beni, Halkett, Kingsley and Humphrys I think we beat them. It’s just that maybe 20% more quality that we lacked.

[Spellczech]

10 hours ago, Jambo92 said:

Robbie's game plan worked for 60 minutes, actually thought we played well, just no composure in the final 3rd which has been a common theme in almost all of out away games this season.  Nick a goal and we would be saying he's a tactical genius.

Biggest negative for me was how easy we made the last 10 mins for them, looked more concerned about not conceding a 2nd rather than scoring ourself.

If you don't get a get a single shot on target then how do you nick a goal? Unlikely to get a penalty at Ibrox unless VAR gives it and hoping for an OG is a stretch...

[LochcarronJambo]

12 hours ago, Jambos dad said:

Bit of a crass comment mate 

Sorry but its frightening how bad he is & its clear he has no belief either….every single touch was a shocker when he came on & is par for the course for him

[GinRummy]

 

[Doc Rob]

I wasn’t able to watch the game last night, but after the last time we played that mob (when I was there) the fact that we are now all frustrated by a narrow 1-0 defeat at Ibrox says something in itself.

 

Every time we play one of the Uglies, the same comments recur - we’re too defensive, afraid to take the game to them, show them too much respect. All of these are valid criticisms, but RN seems to have a complete mental block with these games. He’s not the only one of course - in 97-98, under JJ, we finished 17 points ahead of 4th place, but we didn’t win a single league game against either of the OF and picked up a total of 3 points from those 8 matches. If we had won just one of the 2 games we lost to Celtic (each by one goal) and won the game we drew 2-2 with Rangers, we’d have won the league.

 

[Bazzas right boot]

5 hours ago, Sherbet said:

Last season and their team has changed

 

 

Tbf, they beat PSV this season. 

[Bazzas right boot]

3 hours ago, Wee Mikey said:

 

I think that I know what you are getting at.

 

I've seen us hit 22 shots and win by 1 goal.

 

I've seen the opposite, whereby we've had but one shot on target and won.

 

Sometimes, we've won having been absolutely slaughtered and, had it been a boxing match, it would be described as a 'sucker punch'.

 

The opposite has also happened whereby we've been thrashing the opposition 0-0 and been done over by that team's one and only proper chance.

 

Match stats never tell the full story.

 

Yip,and scoring a goal but getting beat 5 or 6-1  and having a shot on target is hardly progress or to be cheered.

 

If we'd been beat 2-1 with a shot on target would the reaction be any different from the score last night?

 

Having a shot on  target is hardly the biggest measure of a performance on it's own.

 

 

[TheBigO]

My biggest complaint when playing Rangers has been giving them the midfield and I don't think we did that yesterday.  It's sometimes frankly about execution - we defended well and we had a few chances to break well which we didn't take.  Robbie can't MAKE the players play the pass just right, frankly.

 

Nothing wrong with tactics last night imo.  In fact, we're a foot away a couple of times from Gino being in and we're all saying we played perfectly.  Thems the breaks.  They never ever carved us open (look back to the 4-0 at Tynie for reference) and we tried (but often failed) to build momentum.  It looked like we camped in to defend when in actual fact, Rangers simply had more of the ball as we didn't use it.  Gino was to stretch them, Shankland link it up and Natty and Halliday had license to get forward.  I mean, what more do we want really?  We just didn't make it stick up top enough.

 

What I will say would have helped in that respect would have been if the ref had given us even 10% of the fouls committed against us.  I mean, even slide tackles, taking the man, missing the ball, he wasn't giving us a single thing in their half.

 

This is the stuff I always said VAR can't fix.  When you play the OF, it isn't actually the offside or even the penalty calls that really kill you, it's them getting fouls you don't get and their defenders being allowed to cancel any attack through fouling.  You are NEVER allowed to build momentum in a game and so last night proved again.  It was a big factor in a tight game.

[Doc Rob]

5 minutes ago, TheBigO said:

My biggest complaint when playing Rangers has been giving them the midfield and I don't think we did that yesterday.  It's sometimes frankly about execution - we defended well and we had a few chances to break well which we didn't take.  Robbie can't MAKE the players play the pass just right, frankly.

 

Nothing wrong with tactics last night imo.  In fact, we're a foot away a couple of times from Gino being in and we're all saying we played perfectly.  Thems the breaks.  They never ever carved us open (look back to the 4-0 at Tynie for reference) and we tried (but often failed) to build momentum.  It looked like we camped in to defend when in actual fact, Rangers simply had more of the ball as we didn't use it.  Gino was to stretch them, Shankland link it up and Natty and Halliday had license to get forward.  I mean, what more do we want really?  We just didn't make it stick up top enough.

 

What I will say would have helped in that respect would have been if the ref had given us even 10% of the fouls committed against us.  I mean, even slide tackles, taking the man, missing the ball, he wasn't giving us a single thing in their half.

 

This is the stuff I always said VAR can't fix.  When you play the OF, it isn't actually the offside or even the penalty calls that really kill you, it's them getting fouls you don't get and their defenders being allowed to cancel any attack through fouling.  You are NEVER allowed to build momentum in a game and so last night proved again.  It was a big factor in a tight game.

Good post. As you say, it’s the small biases that kill you, and are hardest to prove and eradicate.

[Bazzas right boot]

16 minutes ago, TheBigO said:

My biggest complaint when playing Rangers has been giving them the midfield and I don't think we did that yesterday.  It's sometimes frankly about execution - we defended well and we had a few chances to break well which we didn't take.  Robbie can't MAKE the players play the pass just right, frankly.

 

Nothing wrong with tactics last night imo.  In fact, we're a foot away a couple of times from Gino being in and we're all saying we played perfectly.  Thems the breaks.  They never ever carved us open (look back to the 4-0 at Tynie for reference) and we tried (but often failed) to build momentum.  It looked like we camped in to defend when in actual fact, Rangers simply had more of the ball as we didn't use it.  Gino was to stretch them, Shankland link it up and Natty and Halliday had license to get forward.  I mean, what more do we want really?  We just didn't make it stick up top enough.

 

What I will say would have helped in that respect would have been if the ref had given us even 10% of the fouls committed against us.  I mean, even slide tackles, taking the man, missing the ball, he wasn't giving us a single thing in their half.

 

This is the stuff I always said VAR can't fix.  When you play the OF, it isn't actually the offside or even the penalty calls that really kill you, it's them getting fouls you don't get and their defenders being allowed to cancel any attack through fouling.  You are NEVER allowed to build momentum in a game and so last night proved again.  It was a big factor in a tight game.

 

 

Agreed.

 

 

[Bindy Badgy]

1 hour ago, GinRummy said:

 

 

Assuming that hits his hand and not his face, it's a decent penalty shout.

 

He doesn't have time to move his hand out of the way but, his hand is in an unnatural position.

[JJ93]

15 hours ago, Tenor said:

 

To be fair, their commentators are no more biased than the pr*cks on Sportsound

Yes and the fact that I actually thought it was a normal commentator says quite a lot, doesn't it! 

[GinRummy]

7 minutes ago, Bindy Badgy said:

 

Assuming that hits his hand and not his face, it's a decent penalty shout.

 

He doesn't have time to move his hand out of the way but, his hand is in an unnatural position.

Noticed last night Cochrane trying to tell the ref it hit his hand. Looks like his hand on the second angle. 

[leginten]

Some of the close control we showed last night when trying to work the ball out of defence was excellent. We did lose the ball sometimes, and the good work didn’t actually lead to anything, but it should when we’re playing poorer teams than Rangers.

 

For me there was a sharpness to some of the first touches and close passes that looks like the direct result of coming up against very decent European opposition repeatedly in recent weeks and being given no time at all to dwell on the ball.

[No Idle Talk]

5 hours ago, Bazzas right boot said:

 

 

Tbh, I don't think it’s positivity,  more pragmatism. 

 

I don't think they were there to be beat, I couldn't tell you that time Rangers lost to two non of teams on the bounce and how often it happens. 

Add that to our general injury issues and record v Rangers and in Glasgow I personally never seen them as there to be beaten.

 

Disappointing- yes defeat always is but I never thought we'd win this game.

 

 

 

Before a ball was kicked I didn't think we would win it either. But while the match was unfolding, and I could see how out of sync Rangers were, my view changed. They were struggling. 

[Wee Mikey]

53 minutes ago, GinRummy said:

Noticed last night Cochrane trying to tell the ref it hit his hand. Looks like his hand on the second angle. 

 

More to the point ... the header is goal-bound. The defender, even if it was at close quarters, makes a decent 'save'.

 

The 'keeper might well have spilled it, or whatever.

 

Again, we move on.

 

Dinnae wanna go 'Full Ange', but it's these calls that kill us (and others).

[Australis]

A fully fit squad an organised formation and team selection, plus mastering the basics after the world cup break should see us beat most of the other runners.

 

 

 

[Morgan]

16 hours ago, Jeff said:

We are 1 bad result against Livingston away from JIH returning

I think you’ll find he’s on ‘sabbatical’.

 

I obviously don’t know for how long, but reckon it began on 18th October.

[upgotheheads]

1 hour ago, No Idle Talk said:

 

Before a ball was kicked I didn't think we would win it either. But while the match was unfolding, and I could see how out of sync Rangers were, my view changed. They were struggling. 

 

Neither did I and we were right to think that.

Possession

Home54%

Away46%

Shots

Home17

Away7

Shots on Target

Home6

Away0

Corners

Home7

Away5

Fouls

Home9

Away7

 

Player of the match

Kye Rowles

 

Rangers might be struggling but their squad is vastly more expensive than ours, and it shows. We did well to compete for possession and territory.

 

[Watt-Zeefuik]

2 hours ago, TheBigO said:

My biggest complaint when playing Rangers has been giving them the midfield and I don't think we did that yesterday.  It's sometimes frankly about execution - we defended well and we had a few chances to break well which we didn't take.  Robbie can't MAKE the players play the pass just right, frankly.

 

Nothing wrong with tactics last night imo.  In fact, we're a foot away a couple of times from Gino being in and we're all saying we played perfectly.  Thems the breaks.  They never ever carved us open (look back to the 4-0 at Tynie for reference) and we tried (but often failed) to build momentum.  It looked like we camped in to defend when in actual fact, Rangers simply had more of the ball as we didn't use it.  Gino was to stretch them, Shankland link it up and Natty and Halliday had license to get forward.  I mean, what more do we want really?  We just didn't make it stick up top enough.

 

What I will say would have helped in that respect would have been if the ref had given us even 10% of the fouls committed against us.  I mean, even slide tackles, taking the man, missing the ball, he wasn't giving us a single thing in their half.

 

This is the stuff I always said VAR can't fix.  When you play the OF, it isn't actually the offside or even the penalty calls that really kill you, it's them getting fouls you don't get and their defenders being allowed to cancel any attack through fouling.  You are NEVER allowed to build momentum in a game and so last night proved again.  It was a big factor in a tight game.

 

Best post on the thread.

 

I haven't gotten to watch the whole thing yet, but we played the same tactics as others have used to get results off the OF this year. Play stout and well-organized, pass through them, and try to catch their defenders on the wrong foot. Frustrate them and get the crowd on their backs.

 

We had several chances to go up 1-0 before they got their goal and couldn't quite take it. Folk saying "we never worked McGregor" are ignoring how much he did to disrupt our attack, breacking up both Halliday and Gino's chances with a touch.

 

What broke us was a moment of quality from Kent, who's been getting pelters in the media and was clearly ready to have a moment. We couldn't quite match that in a close fought game. Most encouraging to me, though, is that in our bad European defeats and in big losses to the OF earlier this season (as well as other games), we've just been giving up silly goals. With Sibbick improving and Rowles back, none of that happened last night, nor were we giving up bad free headers, and Rangers were clearly probing for them. Wonderful to see.

[Naisys Tackle]

8 hours ago, Sherbet said:

Last season and their team has changed

They beat PSV this season as well as the Belgians who topped the Europa League Group. 

[Rogue Daddy]

3 hours ago, TheBigO said:

My biggest complaint when playing Rangers has been giving them the midfield and I don't think we did that yesterday.  It's sometimes frankly about execution - we defended well and we had a few chances to break well which we didn't take.  Robbie can't MAKE the players play the pass just right, frankly.

 

Nothing wrong with tactics last night imo.  In fact, we're a foot away a couple of times from Gino being in and we're all saying we played perfectly.  Thems the breaks.  They never ever carved us open (look back to the 4-0 at Tynie for reference) and we tried (but often failed) to build momentum.  It looked like we camped in to defend when in actual fact, Rangers simply had more of the ball as we didn't use it.  Gino was to stretch them, Shankland link it up and Natty and Halliday had license to get forward.  I mean, what more do we want really?  We just didn't make it stick up top enough.

 

What I will say would have helped in that respect would have been if the ref had given us even 10% of the fouls committed against us.  I mean, even slide tackles, taking the man, missing the ball, he wasn't giving us a single thing in their half.

 

This is the stuff I always said VAR can't fix.  When you play the OF, it isn't actually the offside or even the penalty calls that really kill you, it's them getting fouls you don't get and their defenders being allowed to cancel any attack through fouling.  You are NEVER allowed to build momentum in a game and so last night proved again.  It was a big factor in a tight game.

 

Good post BigO.. and bang on about the fouls. Gino was clattered about half a dozen times with no foul given... so really, Beaton's saying he dived, but never gave a yellow 🙄 Same old, same old.

[J.T.F.Robertson]

 

It would be a big plus if McKay would quit with his Doctor Brady impersonation. (one for the auld geezers) It's akin to playing a man short.

 

[Seaside jambo]

55 minutes ago, J.T.F.Robertson said:

 

It would be a big plus if McKay would quit with his Doctor Brady impersonation. (one for the auld geezers) It's akin to playing a man short.

 

Invisible man Peter Brady

now that’s going back! 

[Riccarton3]

1 hour ago, Seaside jambo said:

Invisible man Peter Brady

now that’s going back! 

Didn't see that coming

[mitch41]

22 hours ago, Jambo92 said:

Robbie's game plan worked for 60 minutes, actually thought we played well, just no composure in the final 3rd which has been a common theme in almost all of out away games this season.  Nick a goal and we would be saying he's a tactical genius.

Biggest negative for me was how easy we made the last 10 mins for them, looked more concerned about not conceding a 2nd rather than scoring ourself.

And yet Van what’s his name changed tactics, made subs that changed the way Rangers were playing. Neilson was to busy talking to McCulloch and talking to the 4th 

official to notice. Neilson has one tactic and I starts at kick-off and ends at the final whistle.

[Cairneyhill Jambo]

Just saw a pic of the Hearts penalty claim for handball. It was a stonewall penalty.

[Australis]

Ref and VAR never had a decent view, or it only hit one of his arms.

 

[Under the floodlight]

15 minutes ago, Cairneyhill Jambo said:

Just saw a pic of the Hearts penalty claim for handball. It was a stonewall penalty.

Quite clear that the refs view was obstructed by his bias.

[Unknown user]

11 hours ago, mitch41 said:

And yet Van what’s his name changed tactics, made subs that changed the way Rangers were playing. Neilson was to busy talking to McCulloch and talking to the 4th 

official to notice. Neilson has one tactic and I starts at kick-off and ends at the final whistle.

 

[JimmyCant]

4 minutes ago, Under the floodlight said:

Quite clear that the refs view was obstructed by his bias.

I’ve never really been convinced by the corruption argument, but you have to seriously question Beaton for point blank refusing to look at that on VAR, even after Cochrane asked him to he just laughed it away

[John Findlay]

11 hours ago, mitch41 said:

And yet Van what’s his name changed tactics, made subs that changed the way Rangers were playing. Neilson was to busy talking to McCulloch and talking to the 4th 

official to notice. Neilson has one tactic and I starts at kick-off and ends at the final whistle.

Then why don't we lose every game Mitch?

 

Oh yeah your talking utter shite again.

[Under the floodlight]

8 minutes ago, JimmyCant said:

I’ve never really been convinced by the corruption argument, but you have to seriously question Beaton for point blank refusing to look at that on VAR, even after Cochrane asked him to he just laughed it away

I was convinced that VAR would have looked at this, shoukd of known better. VAR is a useful tool unfortunately it seems to be operated by tools.

[J.T.F.Robertson]

On 10/11/2022 at 10:03, Seaside jambo said:

Invisible man Peter Brady

now that’s going back! 

 

Unfortunately, aye.

 

[Seaside jambo]

4 minutes ago, J.T.F.Robertson said:

 

Unfortunately, aye.

 

We’re just mature like a good wine 🍷 no auld like a bad joke 👍

[J.T.F.Robertson]

3 minutes ago, Seaside jambo said:

We’re just mature like a good wine 🍷 no auld like a bad joke 👍

 

A bit like it only being a number? 😕