Scottish Premiership Rangers V Motherwell Sat 20 Aug 15:00

[Richie]

Rangers had huge amounts of the ball but did nothing with it.

Never particularly felt threatened. Thought we were fairly comfortable and was quite happy for them to play sideways passes around the middle third.

Foderingham had good saves from McDonald and Johnson.

Same old frustrating story really.

[postiejim]

Another hard luck story.

[Kmcalpin]

you cant invite that much pressure and expect to keep getting away with it. we never learn

That about sums it up.

[underboyleheating]

Another hard luck story.

I’ve witnessed too many of them against the Old Firm.

[Spiderpig]

 

Only scoring 1 goal again has killed us. You don't win SPFL games when you only score one.

 

People always go on about midfield and keepers etc. but always seem to give the strikers a free pass. Need to be much more clinical.

You do win games acoring 1 goal if you defend well and stop the other team scoring. Did not make the game today and have not seen any highlights yet but i bet that we sat too deep and defended in our own half and invited Rangers onto us. Thats not the way to see games out push forward and put them under pressure and defend in their half of the pitch you wont lose any goals with that tactic,especially in the last minute but sadly we never seem to learn and as a result for the 2nd week in a row we have ended up with nothing in the game

[milo]

I really really hope it's not going to be another season of late late costly goals.

[MadeofSteel]

The fitness really showed today. Players were absolutely gone by the end and sitting so deep didn't help matters. Chalmers had his best game for motherwell, he was absolutely solid. Probably helped he didn't have some of the roasters that sit in the east stand giving pelts.

 

Something ain't right with Johnson. At times he didn't look interested and would rather shout at his own players.

[MelvinBragg]

I reckon Chalmers could be the new Martyn Corrigan. I remember Corrigan being part of the "unholy trinity" with Woods and Adams when anything that went wrong was their fault. He hasn't had a run of games at left back to try and bed himself in but I think given time and patience from the East Stand (ha!), he might develop into a solid full back. Not saying that this will definitely happen but he's not the bombscare that some are making him out to be...

[Tweed]

Not seen the last two games but against Celtic and Kilmarnock we gave the ball away quite a lot. In turn that means you end up chasing the ball and that takes more energy. McGhee said in his interview the two problems we had with energy were we didn't have options on the bench and we kept giving the ball away. First one is a matter of opinion but the second one is what we have seen so often. Watching the u20s spray the ball around on Tuesday was a joy - the first team don't seem to have that same consistency with passing. It's all a bit chicken and egg. Get the ball retention better, I think a lot of the other problems would be on their way to being healed.

[Kmcalpin]

You do win games acoring 1 goal if you defend well and stop the other team scoring. Did not make the game today and have not seen any highlights yet but i bet that we sat too deep and defended in our own half and invited Rangers onto us. Thats not the way to see games out

I have no problem with us sitting back and soaking up pressure but we have to have the players to do it and we don't. You have to have two giant centre backs who will win everything in the air and two full backs who play out on the wing. In front of them you need a mobile midfield which protects its defence and sits about 40 yards out from goal to prevent any crosses; shots at goal and runs into the box. You don't hold firm by defending deeply.

[Lobey_Dosser]

I have no problem with us sitting back and soaking up pressure but we have to have the players to do it and we don't. You have to have two giant centre backs who will win everything in the air and two full backs who play out on the wing. In front of them you need a mobile midfield which protects its defence and sits about 40 yards out from goal to prevent any crosses; shots at goal and runs into the box. You don't hold firm by defending deeply.

Agree entirely with this.

 

Recall similar discussions at certain points of the McCall era.

[claretband]

Haven't seen any praise for McManus. Thought he was excellent and his distribution when under pressure was very good, as was most of the team.

[CrosshillWell]

Frustrating that McMannus doesn't perform at the same level against other teams as he does against Rangers.

[Yabba's Turd]

A couple of times we had a break on and Ainsworth stalled on one and Marv tried to beat 3 men, substitutions cost us a point.

[GazzyB]

Yeah I thought Lionel could've been a wee bit more direct at times.

[Andy_P]

That was some way different from what I expected beforehand but ultimately no less painful.

 

Really, really frustrating that we couldn't see it through. We looked like we were fraying at the edges a little for a good bit as the clock wore but with Clay looking done and Marvin looking either injured/knackered/in a huff or a combination of all three but to be honest I still didn't see it coming. From stuck up in the corner it looked like McDonald (I think) tried to be too fancy, too deep, too late in the game. It was a ball crying out to fucked as far up the park as possible but within about 15 seconds of the his clearance being intercepted we were done for.

 

Result apart it was such a heartening display after the disappointments of Parkhead and last weekend. This was the kind of setup and performance I had hopes of seeing going into that League Cup tie that so clearly set us back. I hope in contrast we can now take some belief from this going into our next couple of games.

For an hour we were defensively we were sound and were a threat each time we went forward. Chalmers will undoubtedly never have a better game in claret and amber. We had them at a stage their support were claiming for everything and anything and their players were throwing themselves down. And of course we'd scored and could even have had more when you think of Lionel miscuing and Clay's effort past the post.

 

When they scored you feared they'd bombard us and a second would be inevitable but whilst they'd lots of the ball and loads of corners that feeling of impending doom was never there. For one thing we were continually breaking at them and getting ourselves up the park, albeit we never managed to do anything major with those breaks.

 

It's just such a shame they managed to steal it.

[CrosshillWell]

With Ainsworth on the right he constantly checked back infield on his right foot. It became frustrating to watch, especially at 1-1.

 

Johnson was largely anonymous for me, despite his late strike.

[underboyleheating]

I miss the days when we were a class above and used to batter them.

[Gadgey]

I didn't see the game as I'm in Turkey and by the sounds of it, the only bomb scares I've heard of whilst out here were from our goalie last week.

 

This thread makes interesting reading though. Having played at a decent level (junior) and with a relatively comparable team to Motherwell (much better teams than us with better resources around us), it is often the case that the things that you want to do as a team are not the things you can do against those with better resources.

 

Rangers had most of the ball and though it may not seem like it from the stands, chasing the ball, keeping shape, tracking runners, breaking up play and counter attacking are much more tiring than when playing the possession game. Especially when those you rely on holding it and doing something with it on the valuable occasions when you have the ball don't do something. It saps legs and confidence.

 

Somebody said earlier they were frustrated with the slack passing (they're right to be) of the first team and making the comparison seeing the u20s stroking it about. The inference being that we should have more u20s being used (lack of substitutions). But I just need to check, is this the same u20s who lost 'spiritedly' to airdrie?

 

Whether we care to admit it or not, McGhee knows more about his squad than any of us do and he has spoken on more than one occasion about the lack of depth and it's self evident there's a lack of real game changing talent. Talented game changers cost money!

 

To lose this way two weeks in a row is a ball ache but football is a confidence game and by all accounts, I don't think the team or IMHO McGhee deserve too much criticism after yesterday.

[Kmcalpin]

Just watched the 8 minute highlights and while we seemed to have played better than the in the previous week we still showed similar weaknesses. The two goals we lost resulted from criminal defending with Rangers' players being given acres of space and loads of time in our box. When will we learn that such poor defending costs games.

[middleeastdave]

Having watched the highlights it was very encouraging the performance, unless they edited out a lot of Rangers chances, we did limit there goal scoring chances, but once again they have to perform like that every week if they want to get out of the lower half of the league

[Tweed]

Was speaking to one of 'them' this morning and he said he thought McDonald was a class above anything else on the pitch and his hold up pay, niggling them on the ball was the catalyst to all that was good about us and with Johnson and Ainsworth supplementing we looked like a very good team. However he said we had problems because Clay and Lasley were too deep off the ball inviting them on and too far forward when we had the ball giving them too much room behind and in the second half when Rangers had more ball we eventually ran out of legs. However he reckoned we were well better than Hamilton or Dundee and should be a top half team.

[Kmcalpin]

However he said we had problems because Clay and Lasley were too deep off the ball inviting them on and too far forward when we had the ball giving them too much room behind and in the second half when Rangers had more ball we eventually ran out of legs.

Thats worrying and does little to dispel fears about the squad's fitness.

[Pettywulliegrew-2]

A couple of times we had a break on and Ainsworth stalled on one and Marv tried to beat 3 men, substitutions cost us a point.

Agree.......some very poor choices when we had promising positions in the second half.......as the game wore on we were sitting deeper and deeper with their back four having no pressure on them.....fresh legs were required.... as previously stated players were blowing out there arses......correct tactics but required substitutions x 3

[steelboy]

 

Somebody said earlier they were frustrated with the slack passing (they're right to be) of the first team and making the comparison seeing the u20s stroking it about. The inference being that we should have more u20s being used (lack of substitutions). But I just need to check, is this the same u20s who lost 'spiritedly' to airdrie?

 

 

We could have used one of the teenagers to come on and give us fresh legs in midfield. Instead we put in McDonald who is in poor shape and and had put in a good shift up front.

 

The result of the substitution was that we ended up with Blyth up front doing absolutely nothing and McDonald making the mistake that led to their winner.

 

If we don't have a midfielder in the u20s who can put in a better 15 minute shift than a knackered McDonald it's a bad reflection on everyone involved.