Rangers V St.Johnstone - Wednesday 15th December

[Johnny B]

Good news of the night Celtic score in 96 minute

[Cagey]

4 minutes ago, Johnny B said:

Good news of the night Celtic score in 96 minute

BBC had Rangers 6 points ahead of Celtic before game was finished.

Thank you Anthony Ralston.

[Rob]

Some of Rangers play was pretty much unstoppable no matter what team you are. Thought some of our play was okay. The Liam Craig "dive" was a strange one. So commentators suggest he was just looking for the penalty but it looked like there was a bit of a tug or knock before he took that last step that put him off balance and his legs just went so best option was to just go down. Booking seemed harsh when his balance looked off.

[Cagey]

Kane self isolating for 10 days.

[rik2304]

6 minutes ago, Cagey said:

Kane self isolating for 10 days.

Opposition defenders won't know the difference.

[jez1971]

The difference between the teams in the first half was that they all wanted the ball while all our players wanted to do was get rid of it. When you're inviting teams onto you it's asking for trouble as eventually someone will switch off, as happened for the first goal.

Strangely enough, I think better times are ahead for us as I felt we played quite well in the last 25 mins. Some of the usual bookings at Ibrox from a card-happy ref who had the book out before some tackles were even made!

Butterfield seems a decent signing and I think we need to make more use of Solomon-Otabor.  A May-Vertainen partnership could be fruitful, assuming Callum has the balls to go 4-4-2.

[Melbourne Saint]

7 minutes ago, jez1971 said:

The difference between the teams in the first half was that they all wanted the ball while all our players wanted to do was get rid of it. When you're inviting teams onto you it's asking for trouble as eventually someone will switch off, as happened for the first goal.

Strangely enough, I think better times are ahead for us as I felt we played quite well in the last 25 mins. Some of the usual bookings at Ibrox from a card-happy ref who had the book out before some tackles were even made!

Butterfield seems a decent signing and I think we need to make more use of Solomon-Otabor.  A May-Vertainen partnership could be fruitful, assuming Callum has the balls to go 4-4-2.

CD will be loathe to go 4-4-2. On occasion he may do it. But 3-2-3-2 is his formation.

But we need specific players to do that.

[R.B.B:- Adz]

2 hours ago, Shaggy Jenkins said:

Some nice bits of play.....I know folk will say etu's flicks etc led to the goal but for me I would rather he kept trying all these things because they are so close to coming off...with a bit more game time who knows

Callum disagrees.

Hooked Eetu at half time and then hung him out to dry in the post match interview.

[saintee in exile]

I tell you what's even harder to take Calum,seeing your team only scoring 9 goals nearly half way through the season 

[Shaggy Jenkins]

10 minutes ago, R.B.B:- Adz said:

Callum disagrees.

Hooked Eetu at half time and then hung him out to dry in the post match interview.

I don't doubt it...the flick was so close to coming off which could of put us away....it was to Crawford mind you....so yeah there is that

He holds it....we maybe don't lose a goal at that time but we would of, it was one of those play OK but only a matter of type games.

Where as it comes off a bit of positively maybe makes something happen. That's what I see in etu and we seem to want to coach that out of him. 

Time and a place to hold it up yes but for me not when there was a runner going past into an open position 

[Cagey]

16 minutes ago, R.B.B:- Adz said:

Callum disagrees.

Hooked Eetu at half time and then hung him out to dry in the post match interview.

Corner goal Callum.

 

. . Defence without Kerr is poor and McCart is a shadow of last  season.

[Mr Dennis Wise]

Disgraceful man manager. Get him out of our club. 

Come on Broon, act now. 

[The Real Saints]

I think it might be worthwhile for Callum to apportion some of the blame to his defenders who defended incredibly poorly for the corner which actually led directly to the goal. I find his post-match quotes pretty disappointing. Eetu wasn't great this evening, but few were. It feels like he is being scapegoated.

[RandomGuy]

2 hours ago, jez1971 said:

A May-Vertainen partnership could be fruitful, assuming Callum has the balls to go 4-4-2.

Hes an absolute coward of a manager, I think we all know that by now. Totally terrified of trying anything other than his usual set up, with the same old players. 

We've scored **** all goals all season, its mid-December, and he still seems determined to play the exact same way every week and is now publicly embarrassing attackers for trying to do something different.

Can't wait for another 6 months of watching Kane or May huff and puff their way around our defence helping keep the ball out, as they know they'll be dropped if they dare do something positive.

Edited December 16, 2021 by RandomGuy

[Setting Son]

Depressing stuff

[George Grieve]

9 hours ago, Cagey said:

BBC had Rangers 6 points ahead of Celtic before game was finished.

Thank you Anthony Ralston.

Saw that too…really funny.

Was it just me or was the referee desperate to get his card out at Dingwall?

[Sheila]

13 hours ago, Sheila said:

Fear the worst but miracles do happen

We got one of those miracles 10 men Celtic scoring a winner in the 97 minute 

[rik2304]

Poor stuff.

 

Even poorer from Callum.

[Saintdunc]

Is criticising individual players a sign that the dressing room is not a happy place for Callum? Could it be that he has lost it? Big ask to pull this round.

[blueheaven]

Think Callum's comments are an indication of the pressure he's now under. Fine, Eetu made a mistake - but he was hardly the only one. What was Liam Craig thinking dropping to his knees when clear through on goal? Why was Morelos completely unmarked at the back post for his goal? There were multiple errors from the "trusted" players that could have been singled out but weren't.

At least Eetu actually tries to bring us a bit of spark and creativity - but bloody hell he must find it difficult with everyone around him either standing still or miles away from the opposition goal. I've been saying this all season but we are just so bloody slow to get forward. 

No doubt Eetu will now be destined for another lengthy spell on the bench for daring to try to create something and getting it wrong - but if he's dropped while Middleton and Crawford again walk straight into the starting line-up for our next game, I'm going to be seriously questioning this manager's judgement.

On the bright side, Devine showed a lot of drive going forward and Butterfield looked composed on the ball under pressure. VSO again looked the part when he came on, and Brown produced another really strong performance. I want all four of those players in the starting line-up for the Motherwell game.

[blueheaven]

10 hours ago, jez1971 said:

Butterfield seems a decent signing and I think we need to make more use of Solomon-Otabor.  A May-Vertainen partnership could be fruitful, assuming Callum has the balls to go 4-4-2.

I'm not sure I get the clamour for 4-4-2. Our defence is probably the only part of the team that's still doing its job reasonably well this season, despite the numerous enforced changes (amazingly, we still have the fourth best defensive record in the league, despite being rock bottom). Our defenders all know what they're doing in a back 3/back 5 and it wouldn't surprise me to see them completely cave in and take a hammering if we were to unsettle that at this stage.

For me, our problem is not about formations (not at the back, at least). It's about too many players standing still when we have the ball, no one showing any creativity (and the guy who was trying to do that got hauled off at half-time), and no one supporting our wide players so that they can get further up the park. What worries me is these are all coaching issues, and they've all been apparent for some time now, and despite CD coming out each week and saying he has ideas for how to fix these issues, we more or less see the same things in every game.

If the worst case scenario happens and we pick up no points from the next two games, and possibly score no goals, I think a lot of people are quite justifiably going to completely lose all remaining faith in Davidson.

[rik2304]

The defence is working fine. What it won't stand up to is a constant barrage of pressure because the midfield and forwards are doing nothing productive!

[saintee in exile]

44 minutes ago, blueheaven said:

I'm not sure I get the clamour for 4-4-2. Our defence is probably the only part of the team that's still doing its job reasonably well this season, despite the numerous enforced changes (amazingly, we still have the fourth best defensive record in the league, despite being rock bottom). Our defenders all know what they're doing in a back 3/back 5 and it wouldn't surprise me to see them completely cave in and take a hammering if we were to unsettle that at this stage.

For me, our problem is not about formations (not at the back, at least). It's about too many players standing still when we have the ball, no one showing any creativity (and the guy who was trying to do that got hauled off at half-time), and no one supporting our wide players so that they can get further up the park. What worries me is these are all coaching issues, and they've all been apparent for some time now, and despite CD coming out each week and saying he has ideas for how to fix these issues, we more or less see the same things in every game.

If the worst case scenario happens and we pick up no points from the next two games, and possibly score no goals, I think a lot of people are quite justifiably going to completely lose all remaining faith in Davidson.

Agreed.That's why it's refreshing to see Eetu and Devine at least trying  something different even if the end product didn't come off this time.If we just keep playing the same way we are never going to score any goals.

Get Solomon on from the start too while you are lucky enough to still have him.

[SaintJet]

1 hour ago, blueheaven said:

Think Callum's comments are an indication of the pressure he's now under. Fine, Eetu made a mistake - but he was hardly the only one. What was Liam Craig thinking dropping to his knees when clear through on goal? Why was Morelos completely unmarked at the back post for his goal? There were multiple errors from the "trusted" players that could have been singled out but weren't.

At least Eetu actually tries to bring us a bit of spark and creativity - but bloody hell he must find it difficult with everyone around him either standing still or miles away from the opposition goal. I've been saying this all season but we are just so bloody slow to get forward. 

No doubt Eetu will now be destined for another lengthy spell on the bench for daring to try to create something and getting it wrong - but if he's dropped while Middleton and Crawford again walk straight into the starting line-up for our next game, I'm going to be seriously questioning this manager's judgement.

On the bright side, Devine showed a lot of drive going forward and Butterfield looked composed on the ball under pressure. VSO again looked the part when he came on, and Brown produced another really strong performance. I want all four of those players in the starting line-up for the Motherwell game.

I think everyone is reading too much in to Callum's comments; he was disappointed the way we lost the goal - So was I. I don't think Etu is being unduly critisised, he is clearly a wee bit naive perhaps about the Scottish game and he'll be getting another chance soon.

Callum sounds like TW did when we weren't getting any results and at the bottom of the league - it's only natural.

[The Real Saints]

5 minutes ago, SaintJet said:

I think everyone is reading too much in to Callum's comments; he was disappointed the way we lost the goal - So was I. I don't think Etu is being unduly critisised, he is clearly a wee bit naive perhaps about the Scottish game and he'll be getting another chance soon.

Callum sounds like TW did when we weren't getting any results and at the bottom of the league - it's only natural.

But Eetu was less responsible than others for ‘the way we lost the goal’. That incident occurred about a minute before the ball was in the net. To publicly say that he ‘cost us the game’ is unacceptable. I honestly don’t know how anyone can agree with the manager on this unless they are a total lickspittle.