Just Win Baby!


 The NFL fans among you will probably recognise the phrase "Just win baby!" as a famous quote from former Oakland/LA/Oakland again/Las Vegas Raiders owner Al Davis.

Well after last week's loss to Lyon, deserved, and then a completely lackluster flag day ceremony that was matched on the field in a 1-1 draw at home with Motherwell, that was the phrase running through my head this week. We've not had the best of starts to the season, disappointment against Malmö, defeat to Dundee unite and then a draw with Motherwell has me in the mode of I just want to see wins pile up now.

Our rivals have lost 3 league games in the opening 6 and after blowing the opportunity to go 6 points clear on Sunday we had to be looking at the table and wondering why we're only 4 points clear of them. It's time to start a good run of wins and kick the team on. This is a team we know can perform, last year they looked untouchable, and it would be strange if they've regressed this much. However we can talk about needing a performance for only so long, but this week I just wanted wins.

Livingston

A midweek League Cup Quarterfinal was a good opportunity for some of the players to get a bit of form going as well as resting some of the older guards such as McGregor and Davis. Livingston however were coming in on a high after winning their latest league game against that lot across the city.

We started with a front three which I think excited a number of the fanbase in Scott Wright, Kemar Roofe, and Alfredo Morelos. This was a strong front three who had pace, power, and versatility. In the first half, however, they struggled to do anything. Apart from Roofe blocking an Alfie shot near the end of the half I struggled to remember him being involved. A very poor first half finished 0-0.

At Halftime though we were able to welcome back Ianis Hagi on for Scott Wright. Now I won't hide this fact, I am a huge Hagi fanboy. I think he has all the talent in the world and I truly believe one day we'll be talking about when he played for us after he has signed for one of the so-called top clubs in Europe.

It was a near-instant impact as he took a good pass from Lundstram and laid it on for Kemar Roofe to fire home 2mins into the half. From there the team settled into the game a bit more and following a mistake from the Livi keeper Alfie was able to double the lead.

A 2-0 win and a place in the Semi-Final. The toughest team in that draw was by far Hibs, and as is typical that is exactly who we got, but if you want to win these things you are going to need to beat the best teams, so I for one welcome the draw. Plus we owe them a beating at Hampden.

Dundee

On paper, this fixture should have been an easy one. Bottom of the league, on the receiving end of a thumping against a lesser team than us and newly promoted. Games aren't played on paper though. 

The game also had the added interest of a player who has made a career of trying to wind up our fans, has done lots of things that would get slaughtered in any other country, has been convicted of racial abuse, and even as late as this week has been charged after kicking a lit flare into a crowd of people. I'll refrain from naming him though, as I don't want to be accused of starting a "pile on" as seems to be the attitude of the Scottish media whenever someone dares to criticise this horrible human being.

What I will say though is that it was nice to see him available for today's game, so I could enjoy watching him go off after 39 minutes. That's right thirty-nine minutes.

 The game itself was very poor, Rangers did not get going at all. Aribo scored a lovely goal after a beautiful touch from Alfie, but outside of that and one really well-hit shot from Lundstram that the keeper saved Rangers did very little to deserve the win.

Dundee will come away feeling unlucky after having a number of chances but were unable to beat McLaughlin, who had a great game, and there was a real heart in mouth moment when he conceded a penalty in the 2nd half after a Goldson howler. Fortunately for Rangers McLaughlin made up for this by saving Jason Cummings penalty.

Outside of John Lundstram, who by the way is growing into the jersey in my opinion, not many more of the outfield players covered themselves in glory in this game. But they just won baby, and that is all I'm interested in at this moment. However, after a couple of wins, I think it's time to start expecting a run of good performances as well as wins.

I will say I am pleased to see Lundstram playing better, he's still got a way to go to win over the fan base but I think he's starting to get used to the way the team plays and what's expected of him and I hope to see this continue because a 2019/20 John Lundstram can be a very good player for Rangers.

Anyway, that game is over and it's on to Prague. A game that promises to have its own controversies given our history with the other Prague team and the reaction of Czech fans. Our European campaign to date hasn't been very good this season, very unusual for a Steven Gerrard Rangers, but we've plenty of time to put that right. What we do need though is a performance. Performances like today may be enough domestically but they will not suffice in Europe.

If any bears are going over I wish you a safe journey, enjoy yourselves and stay in groups.

Let's go get a win and kick on our European campaign now.

The Rambling Ger

Twitter - @GerRambling

IG - TheRamblingGer

Comments

  1. Agreed, whilst performances have not been good enough it is a case of just finding a way to win.

    ReplyDelete

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