Happy New Year!!!!

Anger will last for a while. My family already knows, nobody talks to me until 24 hours to tell me Happy 2017 lol The team had the maturity to decide what their role was. The aggressiveness (pressure more concentration) of The Rangers caused multitude of divided plays, there we gained in the positional game. After Dembele's goal, this was like a house of cards. Having the ball. Is there any simpler method? We were damaged and we could not return to the game as in the first 30 minutes. The succession of defensive errors and the huge number of holes allowed Sinclair to do whatever he wanted. Piss me off seeing the same movie, again and again. Sorry for being negative, but my disappointment did not start today!

Well...Balance of the year. Brexit, Trump, what a year! A shitty year for Argentina (on a personal and general basis), that idea that we are an incorrigible country has more force than ever. It was emotionally bludgeoned. In strict truth, we are immersed in a gritty realism. “aye, ballax, mate” (usually say an old friend from Belfast), I'm not interested in lock horns. Some things never set in stone. It is often difficult to overcome prejudices, biases, we all have, more accentuated or cunning.

If I had to cut my year, the best thing happened in August. Traveling has helped to be more brainy, deal with my own ghosts and fulfill many promises of the past. Over the years, I learned to invest the energy of my travels, not to make a pre-made pictures (like those people who are for 15 minutes looking for the correct angle of the dish of the day), but to spontaneously go places, to observe. From all this I took groaning with memories. The Trail Founders (Thank you Iain McColl and the organization´s lads) was impressive to discover that after spending hundreds of times through the center of Glasgow, I was finding - without knowing - a portion of the history of the city, which is the history of our club. We're back where we belong (in these seasons in the lower divisions we have consolidated our “will of iron”). Back to Ibrox was by far the best, the game with Hamilton Accies, like a bonker, ecstatic to feel that incomparable manifestation, I tried to keep each of the images, shouts, songs! Gracias Lorna Hyslop (Lauren and Davie) for the season ticket holder!! Meet and talk with Richard Gough of the best of this year. Remembering the 90s was a privilege. James Rachael Brown and David Arneil were respectively my teachers of master classes about Saint Andrews and Falkirk.

It is time to remember those who are no longer in Rangers Family this year we will have many absent friends. David Provan, Ryan Baird, among the most notable. Gary Houston offered to share the game against Motherwell with the people of Nith Valley Loyal RSC on Copland Road. There was Ryan, I always remember, when Tav lost his position and left a wide field for McDonald's goal, he would automatically stand up in indignation. And we all hugged each other as if we knew of a lifetime when Kenny Miller scored in the dying minute discount. The last Bear left us was Kenny. Although I did not know him personally, the mere fact of seeing my Amiga Gee happy was enough.

It was flattering to receive once again the friendship, the unconditional. It will never cease to amaze me the people who looked at me strangely hahaha, even some nippy sweetie, which I could hardly keep up the pace of conversation.

I meet this year: Stuart Sinclair, Luciano Sonvico, Laura De Leon and Daniel, Claire Dougal Bob Fernie and Conchita, Jim Scrimgeour, Pamela Aalbers, Nichola Douglas, Donald W. MacDonald Steve Macleod Rosalynn Stevenson Neil Buchanan, Neil Carrick, Marc Alexander and Family Billy Masson, Michael Sheepmeister, Blair Mcmillan, Agnes Newton and Family, Louby Smith, Elizabeth Mclemon, Mark Williamson, Liz Mckenzie Kelly, Gordon Stewart, James Samain, James Ritchie, Ronnie Mcintosh and Julie Mcintosh (the Bristol bar at evening/night incredible), Kenny McCallion, Sie Leslie, Bod Tod, Kevin Flachs and the Sittards lads, Richard Mason, Derek Atley, Irene Dowie, Paul David Anderson, Amanda McNamara, Ian McMillan, Geordie Monteith, Elvis Brown, Greg Oliphant, Jake Baillie (What a man), Alison Arnott, Wilf Marshall, among many others who spontaneously, with enough respect asked if I was "the Argie" hahaha

Unfortunately, I will not go to Britain in 2017, amid the financial crisis and help fulfill my daughter's dream of traveling to Disney (I learned that there is no waiting to be old to travel) will make me impossible to travel. But every weekend, I'll be there (when RangersTV fixes its website lol), tweeting, polemizing and enjoying our beloved team!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! NO SURRENDER WATP GB

This is complicated

This is complicated

¿Warburton should be sacked? I did not hear a ridiculous thing in years, the porch dogs on social networks are going to my jugular now. I still think that spewed that sentence not undertand whatever anything. But, analysis and criticism of Warbs decisions, and this post is about that, is necessary and healthy! I do not know if there is a gulf, a river or lake between Rangers and Celtic, but in the piggery they were tactically and strategically superior to us. And that does not always depend on the substantial amounts of pounds they dispensed to buy players. It does not solve everyhing with money! (although King had to open up more the wallet) Speaks of the way is study the formation, imagine how it will develop the match and arrange the pieces on the board. Neither solution is to buy an enlightened defender, please stop deluding themselves, this goes beyond! It is lawful to ask: Is there plan B?...I talk to rethink positions, tactics and strategies. Sellick won because we initially made two vital, avoidable mistakes. Those spoken and practiced in the week.

Like an irrefutable theorem, when you have the ball, not only you will take it off the rival, the game flows, there are more chances to score and less risks are taken. Rangers did nothing about it on Saturday, actually did the opposite. We could not have the ball and manage it, only spasmodic appearance from Windass, in dribs and drabs, lucid in the positional attack, forced to seek and get spaces. We lacked rhythm and nerve, we were not going or coming.

The lack of possession is a deficiency since the first games of the season and Celtic was successful in pushing up initially in our area, and particularly in different sector of the pitch, preventing the development of our game, surrounding the potencial receivers (Krancjar, Barton, McKay or the solitary Gardner). Laying to three and four players. That agglomeration of players, even when Foderingham received the ball, left the game for leakers of passes, turns and changes of direction in tight spaces and electrical waists. That is, the morning was to Krancjar, but the Croatian failed to date. Nor is the kind of player to entrust the task to fighting for ball (so he was one of the first to receive a yellow card).

With the fuses annulled, lost gaming volume. In other words, they forced us to not play, that is, to suffer, the shortest way to end up losing. You can choose to wait and give the initiative to the rival, as appeared to be the initial plan of Warburton or the players could do. Of course, play without the ball, you have to have players who know and like a barbarity to have only one or two opportunities for ninety minutes to send to hell. But I think no one of Rangers fans aspire to that kind of profile.

With local side blocking entrances, we chose at times to reel the balls into the atmosphere. No successes and many doubts. We were getting past the first wire fence but it was impossible to sniffing around the goal. There were no access (and we did not do way) Celtic used well corridors, both Sinclair as Forrest could get playing, even Bitton was the provider.

All this is to observe carefully the endless succession of small actions that did not lead anywhere. Player can´t pass the ball or did erratically. The attackers, midielders and defenders, not make more than three passes in a row (and this happens quite often). And that with more scrappy defensive abilities. What happened with attention to the ball stop? (Livingston, Hibernian, the same celtic last season and Dundee away too). To make matters worse, the defenders did not do much to stop an attacker as Dembele, what he does lees is standing still. The hapless Senderos could not resolve the Kiernan´s error.

Nothing has changed in the encryption of our team and that´s what worries me. Rangers is not effective in recovering the ball in the continuity of circulation and no complicated with the ball at his feet (This I can say in first person because I was there: Hamilton, Motherwell, Dundee, Kilmarnock, and even Peterhead, aye, Peterhead exposed the weakness). Conceptually always easy to say, but we need: pressure, recovery and search the undetectable footballer!

It is not a secret that defend is an uncomfortable activity for most. We must end this stupefying passivity, irritating. Celtic attacked and we do not tackle, do not fight for steal the ball, we go back, we were often mere observers as they advanced, we do not pursue, something, at least bother without makings fouls!! The last antecedent, Kris Boyd... had to lock him up, do not let it get the ball or move, or look the goal! In all these years that I say, even at the McCoist time. We need a voracious, coordinated fight for the ball! When we make that cultural shift we will get back to winning important things.

From those days when the player prevailed over the system (among other things because everyone played the same every day), they are designed thousand blackboards, strategies, tactics, drawings, signs, circles, vertices and variable geometries. But nobody, nobody has managed to avoid human error or collateral damage when they occur. I´m talking about Rob Kiernan and his bad decisions, precipitations and egregious errors. Sometimes the sum of wrong decisions produce effects, as our eternal rival find a second goal.

Rossiter out of action. During the first half, Barton seemed to be the player who won the Championship with Burnley, but that lasted a few minutes, errors throught and asphyxiation he received, got caught by not having assists in that troubled waters was the midfield. Warburton wanted to repair it at halftime, leaving Krancjar in the dressing room and including Halliday.

When we signed Rossiter, my first thought was that Warbs wanted to patch up those deficiencies of last season on the defensive zone where we began usually to be attacked, a young expert in the regulation of rhythms, pointing when to leave, when to retreat, and how ordered without the ball. Then came the mediatic bomb signing Barton, experience and some overacting. Particularly, I think have to play one of the two, no both together. Rangers have, in theory, alternatives to accompany that flagship player, standing in front of four defenders. My choice was always Rossiter.

90 minutes of a football game usually a compendium of moods, excluding situation, dog eat dog and a sequence of misfortunes. This was a varied game, impossible to link to one episode but two old defensive errors conditioning the rest. In pure speculation what would have happened if McKay score the 2-2? This season Barrie generate contradictory positions to the writer of these lines, at times thoughts, it seems that he squanders the capital he won last season. His game has become predictable, his favorite play was repeated several times in matches, received lying on the left and from there, exploiting its speed, he sought a driving toward a centered position that would open the horizon of a shot or a combination. In sellick park, his game was captive, would not swap positions, he accelerated and braked, he feinted to go but ended up returning, asked for the ball on the foot, it was not explosive as at other times.

If the game leaves something clear, is the technical staff and the players know what not to do, know how not to play football (honestly, that they already knew a few weeks ago, perhaps a month, the absence of correct markings in the corners, the permissiviness and bad decisions from defenders is not new). And this lessn has an excessive cost. It is not time for revolution, but to evolve.

Ground-breaking!

Is Warburton ability to have a holistic understanding of the market? Poke around and look for low-cost players, without much name, relatively young people (I hope this is not by the factor of resale) with thirst for glory, precious metals for polishing, that they did not have the appropriate trust in their previous clubs? The capacity of Warbs seems be founded on looking where others do not seek, giving entity and value to young people who are on one side other institutions or making a public relations exercise. Let´s be honest, many of us did not know the curriculums of them, except for Wilson and Halliday, made in Ibrox, and little bit of Holt, that goal at Tyncastle and some filigrees in Sheffield United. Could say that Rangers entered a transition that is not limited to return to top level but aims to consolidate a long-term structure. And a second order of prospects that in the future may join the first team. Jordan Thompson (from Manchester United), Tom Lang (from Birmingham) and Jordan Gibson (from Alverchurch) may be the closest examples. Not hard to get excited, but we must have patience.

Warburton brought a different philosophy and style of play. A nonnegotiable style. He took concepts like clean out the ball from behind, the deployment by the sides and the multiplication of passing options to maintain possession. And in his own evolution (which is still incipient at Ibrox), begins to conclude that the game is the midfielders and the side, they were distributed the ball to give pause or shaking the duel. It is important, touch, go out and then come back to offer himself again. A concept lost in recent season by excessive direct game, precipitation, certain moments of irresolution and the little swallowable long ball. The idea would also be, regardless the color of the rival, creating a conglomerate of traps, movements executed with a certain degree of harmony and suffocate the opponent in every corner to take the ball, all at extreme speed. Many times, the proposition is attractive, but the reality is something else.

Over a lifetime, but more strongly in recent years, in the lower divisions, we had to carry a backpack full of stones on our backs. We will never give up responsibility, because that would not know our tradition. But when facing a team that has the ball and wants to play against other that does not play anything, the "experts", many armchair charlatans, which even construct narratives, fictions and the public tend to analyze only that seeks to take the initiative. As if only one had full responsibility. As if only one were to prove productivity and efficiency. He who renounces to the ball is no longer in the observation.

In this sunrise of the season, Rangers is shown as a very tidy team, with glue on the lines, much applied with armor, but also flexible, ready to surprise. Not coincidentally, the first signatures sought tensioning and strengthen the defensive sector: two defenders standard bearer (Wilson and Kiernan), which until now did forget the great contribution of McGregor and a safely goalkeeper as Foderingham.

In each of the games, Rangers propose the rhythm and is the owner of the ball. Rangers applied well with permanent position exchanges between their attacking midfielder, Barrie McKay started on the right but went to the center and then could appear by surprise on the left to complement Temps. Barrie is not the kind of the rigid, likes to move in micro-spaces, but sometimes bogged down with the ball under pressure from rivals. Acquitted of guilt and by purging the bench, Templeton always have that attitude as distracted to suddenly start dazzling interned, feinting and dribbling culminating in cross shots. In the last game, Barrie went to play left and Tom Walsh entered from the right. Although they give depth on the wing (one of the busiest areas these days), Walsh has these outburst that seem to be carrying all before him, but it lacks definition. He defends the ball well and develops interesting work in midfield.

Without the role of other times (where the full weight of the game fell on him) and always hyper-eyed (and criticized) by the crowd, Nicky Law is something like "fracking boy", open spaces forward and drilled in search of some shale! In a clever center from Tavernier, Law headed near to the post.

The news about Reece Wabara doing a trial was the first symptom of the decision to seek a side attack-minded defender as he had done at Doncaster Rovers in recent seasons. Pushed the English from the center of the scene for reasons I do not know, appeared a certain James Tavernier. Without the flashes of cameras, the former Wigan player, 23 years old, can spare several excitation points. It has a great spirit, plenty heart. Can play many roles, even prodigal winger, can make frontal attacks, with successive passes. His runs over the side and rhythm changes all the time broke the resistance of Peterhead. In his repertoire, must add this recurring optimism to shoot from outside the area, regardless the position or location. The generosity on his defensive game is also when the pair of central defenders failed to control a difficult ball, Tavernier came from the side to close the play and dominate the ball.

He waited for the opponent´s error and enjoys a stroll with that leg speed that makes him planted in the area with the knife between his teeth. Goofed clearance of Dzierzawski put the ball in the gate are, Tavernier with whole thrust, crossed a shot that was grazed the bar. The only blemish so far in their curriculum was the fouled in the area that the referee sanctioned by penalty. Other giving fluidity to the game from the left is the new skipper; Wallace remains a martyrdom of disequilibrium for any defense that has to suffer. Against Peterhead, he was encouraged to progress and a combination play with Waghorn and McKay, was found with a goal choice caught by the keeper Smith.

Wallace received the ball in midfield and once gave it, chose to go ahead in the field (other feature is the players are going to empty place, is seeking to play without the ball at his feet, moving to distract and surprise) seeking unmarked. In the race, headstrong and tireless, already with the ball controlled, surprised and scored the second against the Saints. Earlier, a corner kick to the heart of the visitor area, counted with the opportunism and readiness of the skipper to open the scoring.

In the last games we have seen in the medullary, the use of Shiels (except the first half against St. Mirren he saw it from the bench) and Halliday, thinking of other, monitoring the zone, warning by where place ha unbalanced the team and where could get problems. In the Peterhead game, the two midfielder mixed wonderfully, Shiels tried to create spaces though sometimes he lost the ball and Halliday came without fear to the rival field, gave meaning to the passes. By personality, technique and aggressiveness, Halliday is taking over the midfield. At the same time, we get another option to shoot from outside the area. I applaud that both Halliday as Tavernier fight to decide who shoots the free-kick, that means there are alternatives, not like last season.

In the opening game of the league season, Rangers showed some lack of coordination between the midfield and defense, which even resulted in the goal of Howieson. Nobody followed midfielder who slipped and came to our area easily.

Just had the opportunity, Rangers implemented the one against one or to accelerate in the last few meters, because when McKay and Walsh were not enough, Holt, Law, Tavernier or Wallace imposed by anticipation. Holt is the eye-catcher for the future. Against Peterhead, Holt showed he can be not only a replacement but a very helpful tool in managing those games where Rangers is the need to handle that ball against teams that waits crouching in his area. Instead, against St. Mirren, the former Hearts was the new axis of gravitation for which it circulated the attacking play, a trapeze artist against the robotic football. The Saints suffered his talent, back to goal, offered on every play.

Waghorn also arrived to Auchenhowie far from any pomposity and grandeur. It is becoming an infallible striker used to prevail in the most demanding situations. The class of attacker who creates scoring chances from almost anywhere (hibs suffered his power), regardless of position or location, always tests the opponents. It´s like a sneeze in the area, something insolent and unexpected, unpredictable to break waists. At all times, it exposed to defenders and systems that do not seem ready to stop him. With two Peterhead defenders whistling the crown, he stepped on the ball with both feet as he turned the entire trunk to snub the rivals, outstanding.  With the addition of Kenny Miller, Waghorn is ran to the side and was just effective, even when his prominent body is often disorienting. Hard to guess, run and fight, mixing a remarkable ability to protect the ball with a sovereign intelligence to discover spaces.

In the following link, you can enjoy pictures in the magnificent gallery:

  

https://www.flickr.com/photos/buchanan_neil/

 

Thank you very much my friend Neil Buchanan!!!

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).