Rangers vs Hearts May 24

[Jacksgranda]

10 hours ago, AJF said:

Match itself was a bit meh. Obviously a poor start, maybe a hint of offside in the build up to the throw that led to the goal but from there it was amateur defending.

We seemed to play as I thought we might, with little intensity for the next 30 minutes or so but once we started to get Cantwell involved he started having a bit of fun and dictating play.

A handful of chances to wrap the game up but our subs disrupted any momentum we had and allowed Hearts on to us. Odd celebrations though as I’m assuming they’d have been well aware of the Aberdeen score.

It was really nice to give the departing players a good send off though. I’m going to miss that mad b*****d Alfie and Arfield and McGregor deservedly got an outstanding reception. They all did to be fair.

[AJF]

Not to piss on the Naismith parade, but there was quite a large chunk of that game where I thought hearts looks quite calamitous.

The first half our or so definitely, but from then til around 75 minutes the Hearts midfield was fairly non-existent with Cantwell having as much time on the ball as he pleased.

You could maybe forgive the defence given the fact that Hearts needed to go for it, but the game really should’ve been wrapped up with the chances we spurned, all mainly down to Hearts getting caught out with overloads (probably as I said a byproduct of having to go for it).

Edited May 25, 2023 by AJF

[KnightswoodBear]

That game was a microcosm of why we haven't won anything this season.  Unable to keep weans out a close early on and unable to see out a game from a winning position.

Fin.

[KnightswoodBear]

1 hour ago, AJF said:

Having seen it back again, that Sakala goal is the most Sakala goal ever to be scored. Absolutely bogging.

[lennyzer0]

6 hours ago, The Golden God said:

Walker is an embarrassment. The first one that goes forward there is 2 defenders clearly playing him on. The second one there’s 1 clearly playing him on and it goes fucking backwards. Yet he still goes on for 2 full minutes about lines and it being tight, is there nobody that could have had a word in his ear? 

The fact he gets paid however many hundreds of grand a year and yet doesn't know the most basic rules of football (far less be able to accurately describe what's actually happening right in front of him) is genuinely bizarre. I never thought I'd say this of any commentator, but he's worse than Craig Burley.

[VincentGuerin]

16 minutes ago, AJF said:

Not to piss on the Naismith parade, but there was quite a large chunk of that game where I thought hearts looks quite calamitous.

The first half our or so definitely, but from then til around 75 minutes the Hearts midfield was fairly non-existent with Cantwell having as much time on the ball as he pleased.

You could maybe forgive the defence given the fact that Hearts needed to go for it, but the game really should’ve been wrapped up with the chances we spurned, all mainly down to Hearts getting caught out with overloads (probably as I said a byproduct of having to go for it).

I think that was a combination of circumstances. Hearts had to push on, and in the first 30 that was very good and I thought Rangers were struggling to get into it at all. In the build-up to half-time Hearts seemed to take the approach of giving up ground to just try and get in ahead at half time.

I thought this was ill-advised, as Rangers were causing us no problems and Hearts should have stayed on the front foot. I felt we had another goal in us.

I'm not 100% sold on Naismith by any stretch. But considering what he was working with last night in a must-win game at Ibrox, I thought he got things broadly right and he has done since the Hibs game. Every performance since then has been good, and all of the results acceptable as stand-alones.

He ended up with Michael Smith in midfield and had to protect a centre-half pairing featuring neither of our first picks, while also missing both of our left-backs and two of our first-pick midfielders. I thought in those circumstances he did much better than expected last night. I thought we'd get pumped.

[lennyzer0]

14 minutes ago, AJF said:

Not to piss on the Naismith parade, but there was quite a large chunk of that game where I thought hearts looks quite calamitous.

The first half our or so definitely, but from then til around 75 minutes the Hearts midfield was fairly non-existent with Cantwell having as much time on the ball as he pleased.

You could maybe forgive the defence given the fact that Hearts needed to go for it, but the game really should’ve been wrapped up with the chances we spurned, all mainly down to Hearts getting caught out with overloads (probably as I said a byproduct of having to go for it).

TBH, I didn't think you spurned all that many real chances (some long bangers and a driven cross that looked a bit like a shot but wasn't), and your goals came from (a) a slip and (b) an individual error under no pressure at all.  Cantwell definitely was given too much space either side of half time, but really, he didn;t do that much with it (well taken goal aside, obviously).

[VincentGuerin]

7 minutes ago, lennyzer0 said:

TBH, I didn't think you spurned all that many real chances (some long bangers and a driven cross that looked a bit like a shot but wasn't), and your goals came from (a) a slip and (b) an individual error under no pressure at all.  Cantwell definitely was given too much space either side of half time, but really, he didn;t do that much with it (well taken goal aside, obviously).

The goals we lost last night summed up how a lot of the season has gone. Should probably have been 2-0 up but a slip later we're 1-1. Then Toby regressing to the indecisive mess we saw in the semi-final at Hampden last year to give away a goal from nowhere.

We need Halkett back. Simple.

I like Rowles and think he'll do well in a settled defence, which he's never played in for us, but I think another centre-half is a must this summer. We can't be left this exposed again.

[AJF]

8 minutes ago, lennyzer0 said:

TBH, I didn't think you spurned all that many real chances (some long bangers and a driven cross that looked a bit like a shot but wasn't), and your goals came from (a) a slip and (b) an individual error under no pressure at all.  Cantwell definitely was given too much space either side of half time, but really, he didn;t do that much with it (well taken goal aside, obviously).

I thought there was 2 clear opportunities to play Morelos through 1v1 as we’d doubled up on the left CB, and then there was the scramble where Morelos had a shot from a narrow angle, it spilled to Arfield who had a point blank effort blocked and then Cantwell slid it past the post when it really should’ve scored.

Not many but I think enough to have wrapped up the game.

[lennyzer0]

22 minutes ago, AJF said:

I thought there was 2 clear opportunities to play Morelos through 1v1 as we’d doubled up on the left CB, and then there was the scramble where Morelos had a shot from a narrow angle, it spilled to Arfield who had a point blank effort blocked and then Cantwell slid it past the post when it really should’ve scored.

Not many but I think enough to have wrapped up the game.

I'd actually forgotten that scramble - yeah, you should have scored there. But the two opportunities to play Morelos through weren't really clear cut (and we had Ginnelly actually through one on one inside fifteen minutes, and almost doing the same twice more).

Not saying we should have won, but we were as likely to do so on the balance of decent chances as lose.

Edited May 25, 2023 by lennyzer0

[VincentGuerin]

4 minutes ago, lennyzer0 said:

I'd actually forgotten that scramble - yeah, you should have scored there. But the two opportunities to play Morelos through weren't really clear cut (and we had Ginnelly actually through one on one inside fifteen minutes, and almost doing the same twice more).

Not saying we should have won, but we were as likely to do so on the balance of decent changes as lose.

I thought Ginnelly should have scored there, and had he done so, we'd have cantered it last night. Was obviously a nagging worry that we never made more of what was an impressively aggressive start.

Obviously, a huge caveat that Rangers had nothing to play for, but that approach was a vast improvement from what we get year in year out at Ibrox. More of that, please.

[AJF]

Also having not heard what Walker said, but if it’s about the ball going backwards, you can actually be offside. Obviously in this case it wasn’t though.

[paranoid android]

Good to be actually getting a point and scoring a couple in Glesgae for a change - poor defending for both rangers goals, though - Hill slips, to be fair, but Sibbick has to learn not to f**k about like that - just defend the situation properly, ffs.

 

[VincentGuerin]

6 minutes ago, paranoid android said:

Good to be actually getting a point and scoring a couple in Glesgae for a change - poor defending for both rangers goals, though - Hill slips, to be fair, but Sibbick has to learn not to f**k about like that - just defend the situation properly, ffs.

 

I like Toby, but in situations like that you can see he's not a natural centre-half with a sense for danger. Like the Hibs semi last year, just get that out the park.

[Insert Amusing Pseudonym]

8 minutes ago, AJF said:

Also having not heard what Walker said, but if it’s about the ball going backwards, you can actually be offside. Obviously in this case it wasn’t though.

Not if you're 5ft behind the ball you can't

[paranoid android]

7 minutes ago, VincentGuerin said:

I like Toby, but in situations like that you can see he's not a natural centre-half with a sense for danger. Like the Hibs semi last year, just get that out the park.

That would be the lesson for me too - empty it into row Z then re-group. 

Good player, and still quite young - hopefully he can learn and improve. 

[AJF]

9 minutes ago, Insert Amusing Pseudonym said:

Not if you're 5ft behind the ball you can't

Which is why I said in this case it wasn’t. But it’s a popular misconception you can’t be offside if the ball is played backwards