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

[BackOfTheNet]

1 minute ago, Bull's-eye said:

 

Players win football matches.

 

Not coaches.

 

Especially coaches that dont work at the club.

 

If people want to blame the coach OR previous coach then thats fair enough, im happy blaming the players when there is zero tactical reason not to.

There is no hope for you. Make sure to kiss your Neilson framed picture above your bed before you go to sleep as usual tonight.

[Holtie]

42 minutes ago, WageThief said:

 

The posters on here know everything about football actually. Fortunately next season we'll have someone in charge who knows something about football (like us posters on here), rather than someone like Naismith who works in a bank during the day and has barely kicked a ball since leaving school (where he was lucky he was born in January and so his puny wee body could compete in the year below).  

 

 

 

I rest my case - dear oh dear!

[Debut 4]

Good first 20, then I felt we gradually lost concentration for an hour and stopped playing sharp, running off the ball dried up and we stopped getting close and making challenges.  

Rangers were always going to dominate but the first 20 was a great example of how an underdog needs to play through there.  When the ball breaks for you, you deal with it well, and we did.   We knocked it about fluently at times, players were sharp and linking well, there was good runs in behind……it just stopped too abruptly for me.

 

But fair play, changes got made and we kept going in that last ten.  Great fighting sprit and belief we could still nick a goal. 

 

[Jambomuzz]

Why did ginnelly get booked for taking a head knock??

[StirlingJambo]

If we want to improve next season we need 2 centre backs in and 2 new centre mids. Centre mids are gash 

[JimmyCant]

4 minutes ago, Debut 4 said:

Good first 20, then I felt we gradually lost concentration for an hour and stopped playing sharp, running off the ball dried up and we stopped getting close and making challenges.  

Rangers were always going to dominate but the first 20 was a great example of how an underdog needs to play through there.  When the ball breaks for you, you deal with it well, and we did.   We knocked it about fluently at times, players were sharp and linking well, there was good runs in behind……it just stopped too abruptly for me.

 

But fair play, changes got made and we kept going in that last ten.  Great fighting sprit and belief we could still nick a goal. 

 

Another example of one of the big shortcomings we have that no one ever mentions. We are simply not fit enough to play a high tempo game for longer than half an hour. Second half we were simply missing until the subs had a wee impact towards the end.

 

Plenty of fight. Some nice progressive attacking football. Plenty things we can improve on but I think we’ve grown some green shoots in the last few weeks. Ultimately not enough and our shortcomings couldn’t be disguised enough to get us 3rd place back but the road forward is a bit clearer and a bit less bumpy.

[Bull's-eye]

13 minutes ago, BackOfTheNet said:

There is no hope for you. Make sure to kiss your Neilson framed picture above your bed before you go to sleep as usual tonight.

 

He's gone luvvy.

[JimmyCant]

1 hour ago, Gundermann said:

Not sure that Naismith bringing on an ancient Michael Smith to play in midfield when we need energy at a goal or two while 2-1 down is the best thing to put on his CV for the manager's job. Trounce Hibs though...

Pretty clear you have no clue why Smith (and Kio) had to come on. Pretty clear the subs made enough of a difference to snatch a point

[Rocky jamboa]

Probably one of our best performances at ibrox for a few years. Stupid mistakes cost us in the end. Pity we couldn't have got the equaliser 5 minutes earlier!

 

If we just had a couple of better players tonight, it could have made all the difference. 

[JimmyCant]

8 minutes ago, Rocky jamboa said:

Probably one of our best performances at ibrox for a few years. Stupid mistakes cost us in the end. Pity we couldn't have got the equaliser 5 minutes earlier!

 

If we just had a couple of better players tonight, it could have made all the difference. 

Conceding seconds before half time was a sickener, and then Toby man FFS let it drop over your head ! (Did he even get a shout from Zander)

[Rocky jamboa]

3 minutes ago, JimmyCant said:

Conceding seconds before half time was a sickener, and then Toby man FFS let it drop over your head ! (Did he even get a shout from Zander)

I know. We had a good chance to go 2 up. Poor pass from shankland and they go up the park and score. 

 

No idea what Toby was doing there. Just leave it or head it away. 

[Tom Hardy’s Dug]

2 hours ago, ri Alban said:

I missed it. Why was Cochrane not playing? 

Suspended

[MrBones]

9 hours ago, bobskeldon said:

Context!!!!! How many times have we went to Glasgow NEEDING to win. That’s now 3 ‘cup finals’ out of 4 we have been very poor for at least 45 mins when we needed points!

 

Hibs Poor for 90

St Mirren Poor for 45

Rangers Poor for 45

 

 

Also for context, Naismith can only play the players he's inherited. Not his team etc

[bobskeldon]

8 hours ago, longmalx said:

Sums up how little some on here understand football.

 

More attacking players does not  necessarily mean you have a better chance of scoring. You need balance and a platform- that’s why Smith was brought on. Could have been Kio but Smith was chosen first probably for experience

I understand football and also understand that bringing on Smith, who has no legs(on a huge park against good players) and unlikely to create openings from a central area when we need to create openings and chances, rather than e.g. Grant who has legs and can see a pass or even Kuol who has bags of energy was criminal! Not for me unless the only options are Robinson, McIness etc

Edited May 25, 2023 by bobskeldon

[AC Mallin_51]

Was a strange feeling walking away from ibrox last night after a last minute equaliser and feeling a tad deflated. We looked very comfortable up until that first goal if we had held on to half time I really think we could’ve won the game 

[Harry Potter]

11 hours ago, best in the land said:

Still took points from us

did they

[bobskeldon]

26 minutes ago, MrBones said:

Also for context, Naismith can only play the players he's inherited. Not his team etc

Ok, give me the rational for the Smith decision. I get we needed ‘legs’ in the middle at that stage, and I get that our situation needed us to create openings and chances but Smith…really! He could have moved Atkinson or Sibbick forward to the middle of the park for legs, he could have brought on Grant to play through the lines but he didn’t. I didn’t see the urgency, step up in tempo, taking chances by throwing more people forward that I expected for the last 15 mins, 10 mins even 5 minutes! That is down to SN and that was disappointing!

[ScandinavianJambo]

30 minutes ago, bobskeldon said:

I understand football and also understand that bringing on Smith, who has no legs(on a huge park against good players) and unlikely to create openings from a central area when we need to create openings and chances, rather than e.g. Grant who has legs and can see a pass or even Kuol who has bags of energy was criminal! Not for me unless the only options are Robinson, McIness etc

Smith was needed in the middle of the park and our defence became tighter when he came on. Throwing everyone forward would not have shored us up, which Smith did. If we would have conceded another goal that would have been that. 

[Turkishcap]

Well done to Shanks on his 28th goal, still chance to hit 30.

[Ex member of the SaS]

Stupid mistakes aside this was so much better than previous games against them. Slack passing nearly cost us more than once and a brain fart by Toby cost us big time. Players make mistakes but better players make them less often. This is why missing out on third is such a huge deal.

Watched the game thinking ( as I suggested we could scrape a draw minimum ) we could well even win this.

Who ever get the gig things have to be this way rather than playing " Bob's " style.

[Ex member of the SaS]

Forgot to add the ref cost us too, The number of fouls he let go gave them the chance to score, at least two fouls in the minutes prior to them scoring.

Had to think Gollum would have disallowed that goal had it been against Celtic.

[Ex member of the SaS]

Oh and another thing! The three minutes extra time after the Morelos love in took more time than the subs.

[Tom Hardy’s Dug]

2 hours ago, ScandinavianJambo said:

Smith was needed in the middle of the park and our defence became tighter when he came on. Throwing everyone forward would not have shored us up, which Smith did. If we would have conceded another goal that would have been that. 

Why wasn’t the younger more mobile Kio brought in then at that time?

 

Smith isn’t a midfielder and made no difference whatsoever 

 

Square pegs, round holes. Remember?

[Tom Hardy’s Dug]

3 minutes ago, Ex member of the SaS said:

Oh and another thing! The three minutes extra time after the Morelos love in took more time than the subs.

Totally agree.

 

2 head knock pauses - 4 subs breaks I think - and one goal celebration.

 

Should have been st least 5 mins

[bobskeldon]

24 minutes ago, Tom Hardy’s Dug said:

Why wasn’t the younger more mobile Kio brought in then at that time?

 

Smith isn’t a midfielder and made no difference whatsoever 

 

Square pegs, round holes. Remember?

👍I am not a fan of Kio BUT, if as suggested ‘shoring up’ was called for, then Kio was the obvious choice at that moment. The fact that Rangers could have scored 4/5 in the last 20 mins means it didn’t work anyway!  I thought we needed someone who didn’t give the ball away which Haring and Devlin had done all night after the first 25 mins! For me Grant would have made better/more incisive passes into the forward areas and created something. Terrible substitution and to hear folk defending it is bonkers!