That was a bad decision Flanagan is more reliable. Not as good going forward but much better defender.
Yes I have said from day one in this thread Rangers have been very lucky in the matches they have played...the woodwork has been their best player all season.
The full story is that they have carried an enourmous amount of good fortune already. Motherwell should have won by 2 or 3 and were only held to a draw though 2 very fortunate goals. They were also lucky in Maribor who missed a late penalty and in Russia where they were battered by a poor side for large parts of it. Even today they carried their luck big time and another 5-0 would have been a fairer reflection on the game. As I said beforehand, if the games domestically are officiated properly they will really struggle. Their tactics are to hoof it upfield and cheat their way to fouls. They were getting away with the usual stamping and general thuggery for large parts and should have had at least 2 reds today but we did well at the back and kept our discipline and they have little to nothing to offer. Gerrard has taken them back in terms of the way they play and probably on the advice of some who would tell him that the refs are very generous to them in Scotland. If the likes of St. Johnstone or Dundee had played the way they did today they would be getting mocked and rightly so. That is where they are.
Spot on. When you look under the hype they are easy to work out. Hearts will finish above them this season.
Celtic have had their fair share of luck too in the qualifiers of the CLs, so this reeks of hypocrisy a bit.
Really? When? We dominated 2 games in the 3rd qualifying round and lost 3 goals from 5 attempts over 2 legs. I'd say that's pretty unlucky tbh.
Astana, needing 2 penalties, one of which was the last min to beat them? You should've gone out against Hapoel as well, they absolutely battered you in the away leg and should've been 3/4/ even 5-0 on the night, scraped through that tie by skin of your teeth. Nothing wrong with getting a bit of luck, as the old saying goes you make your own luck in football, just find it hypocritical saying Rangers have been lucky. I watched both Aberdeen and Motherwell as well - and I actually deemed Rangers to be UNLUCKLY if anything, especially vs Aberdeen. Red card was very harsh, if they had all 11 men for 90 minutes, they would not have drawn.
You forget to mention we battered Astana and Hapoel in the first game and went through without a fit striker and two midfielders lacing to play in defence.
We did score 5 against Hapoel to be fair so I'm not sure that was lucky. Granted Aberdeen stole a point from them but Motherwell battered them and should have won comfortably. Every stat from that game suggests that and they scored 2 really fortunate goals. I would also say that today they have been very fortunate to come away with only a 1 goal defeat. We hit the woodwork 4 times and their keeper, who should have been sent off, kept the score close. I think today was a real wake up call, especially for those that don't tend to follow Scottish football and only read or listen to the paid for press they get. It is arguable that they are any better than they have been the last couple of seasons but because they have Gerrard, people think they are better than they are.
Stevie’s doing an excellent job in my opinion. Twice now he’s used the referee excuse to deflect from his unfit team’s shortcomings and route one tactics. Hopefully people will continue to believe him.
If you had to endure the relentless Stevie G express train to 55 media coverage up here you would understand. Even people in the English press writing us off for no other reason than the name Steven Gerrard. The arrogance and Hubris coming from the fans has been nothing short of astonishing, they have became as Sir Alex would say the noisy neighbours.
I understand that but I think they are just excited tbh they have got a big name as manager, loads of new players and are in the Europa League group stages... Don’t know why they expected anything yesterday though they are still bedding in as a team and Celtic are lightyears ahead as a project under Rodgers.
I did find it interesting that after the first game of the season Gerrard was saying that the game showed that Rangers were a different class from Aberdeen. I would say that we had far more control of that game yesterday than Rangers had at Pittodrie even although they were comfortable for most of it.
They need to learn to keep quiet. Even today Connor Goldson is in the papers saying they have closed the gap and a closer to Celtic. Thats 12 games they haven't had a result against us and its 31 goals for Celtic and 6 for Rangers in that time. It's time Gerrard and his team done the talking on the park and not to the press.
I'd say it's down to them being thirsty for success, underpinned with deep-rooted delusions of grandeur and a never-ending propensity to be blinded by PR and their media cheerleaders. It's like Groundhog Day up here. They were meant to steam-roller us the second half of last season, before that it was Caixinha and his signings, before that it was Warburton's "magic hat".
