Raith Rovers 1-2 Rangers. Going for gold!

In the football crisis (which this is not just about football, but also institutional and even moral. The packaging is so overly sweet that no longer talk about football), the analytical problem is always the same: analysis of attitude, stress overload, debate on the system and status of the players and/or coach. The caretaker begins to ask himself (even Kenny, who faked to give and go but only came to the garden, is there, in the same position. Accepting Newcastle players but at the same time, saying aloud, "they" gave me the guidelines or the "unknown" play) Where did I go wrong? The preparation how to move the players, line-up, changes and any variant I have not seen during the game??? An inevitable torture, except in the victory, and even there. It is a loneliness mood that does not physical, because although he is surrounded by people who bring their own, he wanders through the cloud. However, everyone knows that the most urgent (and only) healing goes for victory, even in this season squandered.

The Rangers problem not is/was only matter of players but also style and especially structure. Honestly, in my time in Scotland I just looked boring and primitive games (some gave embarrassment as like Easter Road), we were a team consumed by the apathy, wear way, with a marked lack of imagination on the pitch and outside as well. My only consolation in recent months were two moments, the Fernando game, show that Rangers Family is more alive than ever and the support of the fans a Hampden, that was the demonstration, the vindication of to be Rangers.

In the past three years, I wrote to exhaustion on our inability to establish the supremacy in midfield to give balance to our game and annul the chances of the rivals. At a time when the midfield is almost an obsession around the world, we´ve been pretty lax, sometimes indifferent. Not only we let the opponent think but also operate, direct the traffic and game options. We do not even make an occupation of spaces in the medium to neutralize the circulation of the ball.

The decline in the field usually as desperate as ineffective remedy. Many times, this led to an anarchy that made each game in a reckless and imprudent exercise. If there is something that distinguishes the contemporary football that was practiced until two decades ago is the decisive influence of systematic training. That still missing. To illustrate this shortcoming, the example of paroxysm was the semifinal of Petrofac Cup against Alloa (I remember particularly because it soured my previous day trip to Scotland). Our midfielders and defenders seemed unable to lift his legs, receded and passively watched the players of wasps.

There were only one try but no lasting pressure in the middle against celtic (that afternoon we were a team with too many prosthesis, seem we could never settle into the ground). We must not make any concessions there (or reduce it to the minimum expression). If they want to win our midfield, it has to be an ordeal for them, should not to authorize nor a campfire near our bow, nor in the vicinity. This is not always about midfield, but the degree of exposure in which our defenders are, if there is a good containment in the attack and in the middle, the defense can express the game in a cleaner way.

The Rangers need an indivisible unit and synchronized with a Cartesian sharing and nonnegotiable of the efforts. The order and balance with which a unit is handled to give air to an army trained for the common cause of collective game. After all, the matches always win on blackboard, but lost in the field.

In the last two games we could see something different in midfield, more concentrated, and organized from a kind of "trivote" composed Hutton, Law and Murdoch, creating a better transition zone. Apparently, only apparently, we have left behind the deep wingers, defined, Aird or Templeton style, no for the names but the position (I still ask myself why Templeton still hibernating in the bench?). We have the sides arriving quite clearly so we have given rise to nourish and strengthen the midfield to look a little more in the rear and look initiate transitions faster. But it is not the "high-pressure triangle" that is customary in other places, as a pack, seeking and destroying. Resistance is an essential quality to play in that system. Still missing some of that, beyond the voluntariness of Hutton (something like a cap midfielder, although with certain irregularities in its stability). In that switching of tasks, Law and Murdoch are vital, either go left or right, displaying continuous efforts and a dynamic that generates surprises.

In that scenario, Vuckic has absolute liberty to deploy, which take advantage to eliminate rivals quite easily through the conducting. With the absence of McLeod (first injured and then to sell off cheap) and without the Slovenian on the horizon, there was a feeling that something slightly lacking in preparation in the game and we need an offensive midfielder.

The ball flew level from behind, even Robinson played with the feet. That was Alice in Wonderland. But once being stirred across the medullary, the ball entered the comatose stage because Raith no offered holes or cracks, good glue (or own ineffectiveness). An asymmetric duo, while Clark sprinting, Boyd invaded the area to step, seeking reconciliation. And Rangers recovered in Vuckic, like a dropper in the first half, more consolidated in the second half, a supply of ball to the sprinter and acrobat Nicky, who could not hit. In the first half, Boydy was unable to exploit the spaces left by the rovers to the back of his defender in several phases. But the striker can be famished by drought but not lose the tricks. After a cross from Wallace, Boydy searched in the attacker center manual, the paragraph how to head a ball, prepared the body, head and the ball stroked the bar to go outside.

The game was for Nicky Law, his involvement in the creation of doctrine for the collective game was indispensable in the first half. Everything went for him inexorably. Settled all his style urging his people, a moment popping up left, and then the right. Had an enormous sense to combine in the middle with the sides, both Wallace and Faure. Knowing himself protected by the indefatigable large can of kerosene is Andy Murdoch and the calculation of Vuckic to know the best place to put the ball. For the Slovenian can be worth a fine touch or a simple long pass to the back of the defenses. He rehearsed several of there to start creating some kind of symbiosis with Boyd.

The football industry is often wary of guys like Murdoch. Young boy smiling, with a playful sense of craft, which suggest the vanity, without imposing physique. Andy is unfolding as good observer, as a seasoned performer although just landed on a team and a cyclothymic position. He is a midfielder with great interpretation of the pass and associated game, even able to mark the opponent. Against hibs and Raith, chose a practical and minimalist demonstration to avoid being exposed. The news seems to finally bury the aspirations of Black, a player with an excess dose brawl. All the time remember that preseason game against Brora Rangers, Ally did play Murdoch and then left him in the greatest of anonymities.

Rangers need surprise to Raith and surprise himself to leave torpor. A cannon shot that thundered in through an icy night begins to put Murdoch in the orbit of a stay in first team (sorry to be too self-referential in this post but I remember when I was at Ibrox in April 2013, Andy score another cracking goal against Linfield in a midweek friendly). Golazo 0-1.

Vuckic start handled with calm and precision who take years to face the pitfall that often proposes the ball, playful. The Newcastle players took off his opponent by suggesting with the waist the opposite of what he did with the body turned toward the goal and shot, on the rebound, Clark header, sent the ball close.

The team continued mechanized on the left side with Wallace being used as a safe way out and attack. Again Wallace, with the landing strip depopulated, receives the ball from Vuckic (crediting their status as implacable destabilizing,) and throws a quick shot. The ball hits on the defender and after a series of rebounds, Boyd chase the ball and redeems himself. The music of fitbaw!! (0-2).

Football, so often unexpected as roulette, yielded a final night with surprised. Nadé, a big boy with the same art as muscle, won every ball in midfield and imposed their strength in the Scottish Cup match at Ibrox, but Friday night was absent. Until he headed a ball in midfield that threw up in the goal. Showing the difficulties that we have to react to this kind of "surprises". (1-2).