It's hard not to feel some optimism about this trip to mordor given respective form of both teams.... and that's before you consider the horsing they are likely about to take in Naples. 

Heed first should be the attitude and if we can get the first goal I would strongly fancy us for the 3 points. 

 

Line up is a fairly straightforward bar one, Mackenzie would be right to be miffed if he is dropped for Coulson, but that aside same again you would think. 

3-1 dons Miovski, Duk 2 

Kind of get where you're coming from TLG but I have this nagging fear at the back of my mind as usual whenever we are due to play that mob at Ibrox.

As per, they'll have their baying mob roaring them on from kick off, no doubt they'll raise their game against us (the irony of which is totally lost on 99.9% of Huns), we'll no doubt have a weak referee (maybe VAR might just work in our favour, unless those running it are completely incompetent).

All of these factors added to the relative newness of our team, hardly any of whom will have played in the vitriolic atmosphere that 50000 Huns frothing at the mouth are capable pf creating go a long way to dampen any optimism I may have.

Sincerely hope I'm wrong and that we give them a bloody nose in their own backyard, but I just can't see it happening to be honest

I'm not buying this Rangers in crisis thing with Van Bronkhorse being under pressure.  They have dropped 7 points out of 33 in the league this season with 3 of those against Celtic.  The European defeats have been against 3 really good teams that you would expect them to lose against most times. 

This is going to be a big test and I think the fan in the street is sometimes naive as to how big a task it is to win in Glasgow.  To put it in context, The Rangers have not lost in 6 home league games this season, they lost 1 of 19 home games last season, zero of 19 the year before, and 2 of 14 in the covid season. Overall that's 3 losses in their last 58 home league games.

Compare that to our away record and we have won 15 of our last 59.

 

 

 

2 hours ago, wokinginashearerwonderland said:

I'm not buying this Rangers in crisis thing with Van Bronkhorse being under pressure.  They have dropped 7 points out of 33 in the league this season with 3 of those against Celtic.  The European defeats have been against 3 really good teams that you would expect them to lose against most times. 

This is going to be a big test and I think the fan in the street is sometimes naive as to how big a task it is to win in Glasgow.  To put it in context, The Rangers have not lost in 6 home league games this season, they lost 1 of 19 home games last season, zero of 19 the year before, and 2 of 14 in the covid season. Overall that's 3 losses in their last 58 home league games.

Compare that to our away record and we have won 15 of our last 59.

 

 

 

Well so what, right now they are playing shite and whatever else you want to say about Aberdeen at the moment we defo have goals in us. 

Gvb is absolutely under pressure btw, the support hasn't fully turned on him yet but they ain't far off it. 

 

5 hours ago, BigAl said:

Kind of get where you're coming from TLG but I have this nagging fear at the back of my mind as usual whenever we are due to play that mob at Ibrox.

As per, they'll have their baying mob roaring them on from kick off, no doubt they'll raise their game against us (the irony of which is totally lost on 99.9% of Huns), we'll no doubt have a weak referee (maybe VAR might just work in our favour, unless those running it are completely incompetent).

All of these factors added to the relative newness of our team, hardly any of whom will have played in the vitriolic atmosphere that 50000 Huns frothing at the mouth are capable pf creating go a long way to dampen any optimism I may have.

Sincerely hope I'm wrong and that we give them a bloody nose in their own backyard, but I just can't see it happening to be honest

Och I've been there when we've scored early and they shut the fuck up pretty quickly. Given recent form too they will be even quicker to get on their own players backs if it's not going well.  

Also the not having played their before could just as easily work as an advantage.  They don't have the pre built in intimidation of mordor and the San giro natives have. 

They're low on confidence, and Napoli away on Wednesday - they'll either tire themselves out, get another knock to the confidence, or both. We're getting them at a great time.

This is the type of fixture that, if at Pittodrie, they come up with a noisy away support, revel in the freedom of being away from Ibrox and the pressure, and produce a performance. It seems to be a great place for Rangers and Celtic to come when under pressure.

But I actually think being at Ibrox, in front of an unhappy support, it's precisely where we want to play this game. If the game is going well for us the crowd will be on their backs. 

Hopefully we don't wait until we're 1-0 down before we switch on like at Celtic Park, and if we're on it we absolutely we can win this. Cut the gap on then to four points, maybe stretch our lead over those behind us, and lay down a marker for Hampden.

11 hours ago, BigAl said:

Kind of get where you're coming from TLG but I have this nagging fear at the back of my mind as usual whenever we are due to play that mob at Ibrox.

As per, they'll have their baying mob roaring them on from kick off, no doubt they'll raise their game against us (the irony of which is totally lost on 99.9% of Huns), we'll no doubt have a weak referee (maybe VAR might just work in our favour, unless those running it are completely incompetent).

All of these factors added to the relative newness of our team, hardly any of whom will have played in the vitriolic atmosphere that 50000 Huns frothing at the mouth are capable pf creating go a long way to dampen any optimism I may have.

Sincerely hope I'm wrong and that we give them a bloody nose in their own backyard, but I just can't see it happening to be honest

I get what you're saying, and obviously I can't argue either way until we see how Saturday goes.

But, I think they got their wide-eyed stuff out of the way at Celtic Park on the opening day. I get the impression a few of them - Clarkson, Miovski, Duk, Besuijen, Coulson - will be chomping at the bit to have a crack at them. They seem unfazed by the big occasion.

It's a big 90 minutes though for Stewart. It's days like this I wish our captain was still Scott Brown or Graeme Shinnie. I'm still hopeful he'll grow into the role but he looks a bag of nerves sometimes.

10 hours ago, Panda said:

I get what you're saying, and obviously I can't argue either way until we see how Saturday goes.

But, I think they got their wide-eyed stuff out of the way at Celtic Park on the opening day. I get the impression a few of them - Clarkson, Miovski, Duk, Besuijen, Coulson - will be chomping at the bit to have a crack at them. They seem unfazed by the big occasion.

It's a big 90 minutes though for Stewart. It's days like this I wish our captain was still Scott Brown or Graeme Shinnie. I'm still hopeful he'll grow into the role but he looks a bag of nerves sometimes.

Stewart was excellent on Saturday i thought, particularly the last 10 minutes of the second half when we came under sustained pressure from Motherwell.  The back 3 really suits him, he can just focus on defending and leave the passing out from the back to Mcrorie and scales. 

4 hours ago, tlg1903 said:

Stewart was excellent on Saturday i thought, particularly the last 10 minutes of the second half when we came under sustained pressure from Motherwell.  The back 3 really suits him, he can just focus on defending and leave the passing out from the back to Mcrorie and scales. 

He was also extremely fortunate that VAR didn't pick up him fouling Ricki Lamie in the box in the last seconds of the game.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/av/football/63367953

Oh very true, that could have been a pen.  It doesn't change that it was his best performance in red for me though.  Second half in particular I thought he was superb. 

I think we will need to stick to 3 at the back. Stewart looks more comfortable there and McCrorie can then cover for Richardson’s limitations. Means we lose the physical presence of McCrorie in midfield but don’t think we have any option until we get chance to get another right back in January. Tribute Act will likely take a thumping in Naples before playing us and fair chance pressure will be on Van Bronckhorst so be interesting to see how they react to that pressure. Keep it tight and the blue bigots will turn quickly.

oot - fuck paying £34 to watch football in Scotland never mind give it to them.

Flat

local game

Flat

2-2 Lopes and Miovski

1 hour ago, Jute said:

I think we will need to stick to 3 at the back. Stewart looks more comfortable there and McCrorie can then cover for Richardson limitations. Means we lose the physical presence of McCrorie in midfield but don’t think we have and option until we get chance to get another right back in January.

Agree with that, apart from getting another right back in January (not that we shouldn't, just that it wouldn't solve the problem). I think we've got a decent sized squad at the minute, so I'd be looking at a midfielder as the priority. Moving McRorie into midfield doesn't solve Stewart's glaring deficiencies (which moving him into defence have certainly helped with), nor does it address McRorie's glaring deficiencies in midfield - he's simply nowhere near good enough at passing. Bursting runs are nice to watch, but there is almost never an end product and often a giant hole left behind. Richardson is an issue in his own right, but replacing him will only solve that issue. We're only likely to sign a fullback that can push forward, so that would leave Stewart facing exactly the same issue. He's probably never going to be a back four defender in a team that wants to get forward a lot. Midfielder would be top priority for me, especially with Clarkson leaving and Barron too if he's not signing a new deal. With a view to getting a good right sided centre half in the summer, or giving Milne a lot more minutes if he's good enough. 

I think we'll struggle against the Huns at the weekend. We're not good enough at defending to do what Livi did at the weekend and whilst I think we're more than capable of causing them problems, they're still a very good team that will score some of the numerous chances that we've afforded all our other opponents this season. Our pressing and work rate has been excellent recently, but our organisation is still a bit away from where it should be (not a criticism, we're an entirely new team), and I think that'll be our downfall. They're confidence will grow if they get a goal, and I don't see us stopping that goal. I'd take a draw in this fixture and with a bit more work on the training ground we should be ready to horse them in the semi, whilst pipping them to second on the final day at Ibrox with an easy 0-6 win.

23 minutes ago, RicoS321 said:

Agree with that, apart from getting another right back in January (not that we shouldn't, just that it wouldn't solve the problem). I think we've got a decent sized squad at the minute, so I'd be looking at a midfielder as the priority. Moving McRorie into midfield doesn't solve Stewart's glaring deficiencies (which moving him into defence have certainly helped with), nor does it address McRorie's glaring deficiencies in midfield - he's simply nowhere near good enough at passing. Bursting runs are nice to watch, but there is almost never an end product and often a giant hole left behind. Richardson is an issue in his own right, but replacing him will only solve that issue. We're only likely to sign a fullback that can push forward, so that would leave Stewart facing exactly the same issue. He's probably never going to be a back four defender in a team that wants to get forward a lot. Midfielder would be top priority for me, especially with Clarkson leaving and Barron too if he's not signing a new deal. With a view to getting a good right sided centre half in the summer, or giving Milne a lot more minutes if he's good enough. 

I think we'll struggle against the Huns at the weekend. We're not good enough at defending to do what Livi did at the weekend and whilst I think we're more than capable of causing them problems, they're still a very good team that will score some of the numerous chances that we've afforded all our other opponents this season. Our pressing and work rate has been excellent recently, but our organisation is still a bit away from where it should be (not a criticism, we're an entirely new team), and I think that'll be our downfall. They're confidence will grow if they get a goal, and I don't see us stopping that goal. I'd take a draw in this fixture and with a bit more work on the training ground we should be ready to horse them in the semi, whilst pipping them to second on the final day at Ibrox with an easy 0-6 win.

Seems like a logical and flawless estimate. I doth my cap 👍

A mild thrashing tonight would do. Enough to be embarassing but not for GVB to lose his job...yet

   An early goal for us and the heads potentially go,crowd turn etc.

Bunch of line up changes for the Huns tonight. Injuries or resting players for us??

Was only 3-0 and no hun injuries as far as I'm aware? Was hoping for a far bigger pumping for them.

Hopefully the fans are in a shite mood come the weekend and we take advantage of that.

1 hour ago, manc_don said:

Was only 3-0 and no hun injuries as far as I'm aware? Was hoping for a far bigger pumping for them.

Hopefully the fans are in a shite mood come the weekend and we take advantage of that.

Napoli rested a few and were already through but the huns will have put a lot into it regardless. 

 

On 26/10/2022 at 09:18, RicoS321 said:

Agree with that, apart from getting another right back in January (not that we shouldn't, just that it wouldn't solve the problem). I think we've got a decent sized squad at the minute, so I'd be looking at a midfielder as the priority. Moving McRorie into midfield doesn't solve Stewart's glaring deficiencies (which moving him into defence have certainly helped with), nor does it address McRorie's glaring deficiencies in midfield - he's simply nowhere near good enough at passing. Bursting runs are nice to watch, but there is almost never an end product and often a giant hole left behind. Richardson is an issue in his own right, but replacing him will only solve that issue. We're only likely to sign a fullback that can push forward, so that would leave Stewart facing exactly the same issue. He's probably never going to be a back four defender in a team that wants to get forward a lot. Midfielder would be top priority for me, especially with Clarkson leaving and Barron too if he's not signing a new deal. With a view to getting a good right sided centre half in the summer, or giving Milne a lot more minutes if he's good enough. 

I think we'll struggle against the Huns at the weekend. We're not good enough at defending to do what Livi did at the weekend and whilst I think we're more than capable of causing them problems, they're still a very good team that will score some of the numerous chances that we've afforded all our other opponents this season. Our pressing and work rate has been excellent recently, but our organisation is still a bit away from where it should be (not a criticism, we're an entirely new team), and I think that'll be our downfall. They're confidence will grow if they get a goal, and I don't see us stopping that goal. I'd take a draw in this fixture and with a bit more work on the training ground we should be ready to horse them in the semi, whilst pipping them to second on the final day at Ibrox with an easy 0-6 win.

I think part of Stewart’s issue in a 4 is him having to cover right back due to Richardson being shite. A solid right back in his place would let us go back to a 4 at the back, the managers preferred set up, and enable Stewart to concentrate on his own game. 

2 hours ago, Jute said:

I think part of Stewart’s issue in a 4 is him having to cover right back due to Richardson being shite. A solid right back in his place would let us go back to a 4 at the back, the managers preferred set up, and enable Stewart to concentrate on his own game. 

Pretty much every error I've seen Stewart make is from his own doing. The gap between him and Richardson is often huge as Stewart wants to drop into the box to intercept the cross. In fact, I don't think I've seen him offer Richardson any support whatsoever, either positionally or vocally. I'd expect a guy of his experience to be dragging Richardson through a game, constantly talking to him and dictating to him. Richardson is pish in his own right and Stewart his. Obviously Stewart would be better with a better fullback, but it doesn't solve his own obvious flaws. If Goodwin wants to play a back four then he either has to sacrifice an attacking fullback, play two deep lying midfielders to reduce the gap between midfield and defence or get a right sided defender that isn't slower than Liz Truss (remember her?).

Playing five at the back is fine when you are up against two strikers or up against one of the league's shitey teams but I think the risk of doing this against The Rangers is that we will have three centre halves marking one striker and could get massively overrun in the middle of the park. 

If you look at the last couple of league games, even though we have won them, Motherwell got in 12 attempts on goal, Hearts had 13.  We have to be better than that on Saturday or we'll get beaten.

3 hours ago, wokinginashearerwonderland said:

Playing five at the back is fine when you are up against two strikers or up against one of the league's shitey teams but I think the risk of doing this against The Rangers is that we will have three centre halves marking one striker and could get massively overrun in the middle of the park. 

If you look at the last couple of league games, even though we have won them, Motherwell got in 12 attempts on goal, Hearts had 13.  We have to be better than that on Saturday or we'll get beaten.

I think you're right, but you have to factor personnel into that too. Utd had 14 attempts against us and scored 4 when we played 4 at the back. If we're playing a four then we either have to sacrifice attacking fullbacks or play two holding midfielders as Stewart simply can't cope with the gap between midfield and defence. We'd basically have to do what Livi did against the Huns the previous week and sit in. I'd be okay with that, but most Dons fans are suggesting that they're weak at the back (the BBC has some good stats showing this to be true) and that we need to be attacking them. We can't have it both ways and Stewart (like Gallagher last season) is a penalty box defender.

I honestly don't see the point of going defensive for this one.  Quite simply it just doesn't play to our strengths. We have a potent attack and a questionable defence (though one that has started to look a bit more resilient as a 3 in the past few games). Our best chance of a win here is to take a "we are going to score more than you" approach rather than trying to keep it tight and nick one on the break. 

One thing I would note is that I don't  this game won't be won or lost by the defence or the attack. Clarkson and Barrons performance will be the keystone of any positive result we get tomorrow.

 

Expectations are low,though were more than capable of a result.Playing down there might suit us more, as it did with Glass.Looking forward to it I think.

Bought a late ticket so heading to this tomorrow.

With Rangers' injuries, their probable starting XI is nothing to be scared of.

Could be:-

McGregor

Tavernier Sands Davies Barisic

Lundstram Davis

Tillman Arfield Kent

Colak

Maybe Sakala or Arfield, or even Scott Wright, in there. It's not a frightening line-up anyway.

We've beaten better Rangers teams than that. My only worry would be we haven't beaten a better team than that under Goodwin. As much as we like to pat this team on the back, his biggest result to date is an away win over a bang average Motherwell.

I have my doubts over the 3-5-2, but a return to a back four means a return for Richardson. Still no sign of Hayes in any training pictures which is a worry.

How I would line-up:-

Roos

McCrorie Stewart Scales Coulson

Ramadani

Barron Clarkson

Besuijen

Miovski Duk

 

Feel a 1-1 draw on the cards.

 

 

Into these cunts today please!

6 minutes ago, manc_don said:

Into these cunts today please!

HEED FIRST!