Holmes_and_Watson

When I said deliver on a key objective, I was meaning to the board. The rest of the post was Brand Martin. He could get sacked in October, but still come out with some pluses. The Rangers fans, on the other hand, aren't daft. They understand what he's like as well as we did. The reactions are going to be broadly the same plus all the additional expectations they have for being Rangers.

Although having that big perspex window in front of him, did make it easier for him to look decent. 🙂 His size and physicality reminded me a lot of Baz, really. He did fine with his stopping, but then I know I look at Baz's reactions a lot more, so I might be harsher on him, than a brief glance of Charles.

One thing I continue to like is how comfortable it feels when the ball is passed back to him. No one's perfect, and that includes those passing it back. But he remains super cool at it, and better than many other 'keepers I see. I'm generally already looking to see where he's going to put it, rather than any concerns about it going wrong.

On sale at only £18 in the club shop (toxins/isotopes extra) https://store.southamptonfc.com/souvenirs/souvenirs/matchday/3046_saints-tempest-umbrella.html

Stirring sentiments, Mr Holgate. But you're still dropped.

Ballet

Should they get through to the CL, he will have more than delivered on a key objective. They were unlikely to finish above Celtic this year, and the aim there is to see an improvement on last season, or the green shoots of a turnaround. Not getting beaten in Old Firm games will get him lots of pluses too. Should Europe go well, even if that's qualifying for CL, before league form does for him, Brand Martin can show off his European acumen to a whole host of new clubs. Which was one of the big draws for him, in joining the club.

Lap

Mentality

10 in, the majority already having first team appearances. 5 out from last year, including end of contracts. It's looking to be a bit of a bloated squad, as they go about the overhaul.

I saw more extended highlights. Sadly, they never seem to include all the build up play, which is so key to Martin's system. But you'd see some outcomes such as a dozen passes for his layers not to get anywhere, as Dundee reset. Like us, Martin will believe that we just don't understand what he's trying to do. In Rangers' case, it's simply that they were already dominating possession and wanted some decent signings to get closer to Celtic. They want to get back to attacking wins. Given their budget, they are well clear for second, but miles off Celtic. The studio said, comparing it with the European game, that Rangers were Jeckyll and Hyde. That's not the case at all. Martin sets his side out to do exactly the same things in his philosophy. Against higher pressing European sides, who expect a win themselves, he gets joy. Like we had coming up against Leeds and Swansea. Some set ups are better suited for Martin to do well against. To do it in Europe so early on, is very much to his credit. Martin himself said post match, that his side struggled to break down the low block teams that wouldn't be moved by his team shifting the ball from side to side. It's the same issue he's always had, and he's yet to come up with readily successful alternatives that fit his philosophy. The fans can see that long road ahead watching opponents not budge and Rangers bounce off them. Considering the chances Dundee had. I thought Martin's side would have had the space to transition more. Rangers did have some chances, and Martin will look to finishing (and Dessers allowing himself to get half a yard offside at the death, to have his winner ruled out). Dundee attacked when their shape allowed, while it's too early for Martin's quick passing through the gaps to have taken effect. Assuming they have the players to actually do it. He's got the likes of Rothwell dropping deep to help the defence, but it stalls further up. Much like it often does for him. The Rangers board, financial rules allowing, can help through recruitment. They've got another 3 to play in the first team yet, I think. Hopefully, they are the players to give him the rounded team Martin needs for this to work. The board should have known exactly what and who they were hiring. They've seen the benefits of it in Europe and will have to be patient in the league. Martin has to look at his system and get answers from it, in more difficult games when breaking teams down.

And this is them basking in the warm glow of a fine European result. Imagine if he didn't have that.🙂

Downfall

Nice to see us chase a game with purpose and intensity, rather than as if having to go a bit riskier was an alien concept. Also good to see a fair, down to earth reaction pointing out lots of areas we all saw needed improvement. Plenty of time left in the window for SR to help him out. Especially if Edozie, Aribo and Dibling are on their way.

Rangers have punted managers in October and November. Having thrown his players under the bus last week, I noticed him throw the club standards under it today. He spoke about the new expectations and culture he's instilling at the club, indicating that his predecessors oversaw a shambles. Then, of course, said he wasn't making excuses.

A quick search will show no shortage of "Rangers worst ever starts since..." with any number of games in there to make a headline, and sell some papers/click bait. In every one of them Rangers fans are furious. A lot of those seasons are in the recent era. Either an indicator of the rise of click bait or just how poor a lot of Rangers sides have been. Very possibly a bit of both. Two games in, is fairly early to be trotting it out. From the brief highlights, Rangers rescued it through a soft penalty, and could have been further behind on another day. As they said immediately after that on https://www.followfollow.com/forum/threads/martin-every-club-ive-been-a-bit-of-pain-and-when-you-get-through-it-its-worth-it.304843/ "He seriously needs to %^*& off. MK Dons, Swansea and Southampton aren’t comparable to Rangers." and "You don’t have that luxury now. You’re at Rangers, not fucking Swansea." Expectations are different there. His style of dominating possession without putting teams to the sword is, as expected, going to cause no shortage of league frustration. As mentioned, the whole league revolves around playing Rangers and Celtic. Points against them are cherished. A weaker Rangers with a very different system that allows teams to reset, against teams happy for a point or getting a break, is going to need resolutions he hasn't found before.

Lots of patient passing, but without much to show for it. Our front 3 should be competing for a single place, such is their similarity. We've no out ball there, no target and Fraser is only dropping deep to allow Suga some overlaps. At the back, we're playing a very high line. But rather than strengthen anything we're doing going forward, we just leave ourselves open on the break. Wrexham have recruited with experience, and all of those are better than SR's player trading buys. We look every bit the half decent, but not sparkling, Championship team SR have recruited for. In addition to their goal, they've hit the bar and had a couple of more than half chances. We look flat, without a clear idea of how we intend to get a goal.

The defence and midfield isn't any surprise. Like everyone else, AA centrally hasn't worked before. Perhaps this will be different or Still will just be the latest to give him a try there, before putting him wider. Fraser vanished from proceedings last season. Hopefully Still has him back to when he joined us. If nothing else, I'm just looking forward to seeing us more proactive in games and having the fitness to do that at a decent pace.

The Beeb calling it controversial, while going on about intent. The BBC verify that they trot out, could spend a couple of mins looking at the current rules.

I'd agree with that. At the same time, SR's model is to pay low individual wages. There are positive and perfectly natural reasons for that. But they shouldn't be surprised when players change their minds when other clubs come in for them or when players run down contracts. Likewise, when they are well down their list and every player on it wants more. That's what their agents are for, after all. As for youngsters, SR actively encourage selling them on, if the fee is matched. Again, there's some good reasons for this. We're not giving them away. Away from the first team, other clubs do offer more for top talented youngsters. But we're part of that food chain too. Again, there are some good reasons not to destabilise the rewards every time they'd like to keep someone.

Absolutely. In fairness to all of his SR predecessors, I don't think any of them got to field a team where they had all of the key pieces. Hopefully, this can change for Still.

Birmingham worked very hard right across the team. No suprise they kept Ipswich down to 0 shots on target until the penalty. Harried them, closed down space and put in a load of cynical tackles, that the ref was happy with from both sides sides. Dykes should never have had his arm up there. Unfortunate the ball hit it, but can't have complaints. Hopefully our data analysts can work at giving Will lots of work rate data, as our lot have a lot more effort to put in that they showed last season.

I learned all the tricks reading Mike's Mini-Men. Later, when I added my robotics degree to my one in bionics, I combined my Mini-Men with General Jumbo. I'm now on retainer to the armed forces, as about the only force they can deploy without overspend or US maintenance. Which, I concede, has had an impact on UK defence companies, slowing all that economic growth I keep reading about (Yes! Back on topic!)

We'd later learn that a good heart was hard to find. But that was just when I got my degree in bionics.

Hopefully, the "dh" in the title doesn't stand for "Duckhunter" 🙂