Rangers vs St Johnstone, Wednesday 3 February 2021

[Arch Stanton]

Saintees played well the last half an hour. Until the goal went in it was banks of 5-4-1 allowing The Rangers to pretty much do what they wanted but once you brought on Kane, Rooney and Melamed you were much more forward thinking and actually had more shots on target than them.

[gaz5]

Aribo's close control and physical strength are excellent. St Johnstone couldn't get near him in the first half.

He used that close control to create an opportunity for his teammates once in the first half. I also think it's a huge stretch to say St Johnstone couldn't get near him. [emoji846]

Hagi created the same number of opportunities first half as Aribo did.

I'm not saying Aribo doesn't have ability, he's clearly good with the ball sometimes, but at other times, like Celtic, he looks like he's never played football before. He's got plenty of potential, all I'm saying his output is poor whenever I see Rangers. And he doesn't work anywhere near as hard as the other two off the ball, something Kent probably doesn't get the credit he deserves for.

I know you like your stats, what's Hagi, Aribo and Kent's Goals and Assist rate this season in all comps (goals/assists per minute)?

I don't know obviously, but feels like Hagi's might be highest of the three from what I've seen of Rangers.

[Templar Saint]

56 minutes ago, RandomGuy. said:

Yet another goal where you look at Clark and wonder.

Aye wonder why you are on his case again.

Number of players in front of him he was unsighted.

One of said players should have been out and in Hagi's face to block.

[RandomGuy.]

Happy enough with that considering how much the squad was rotated. Felt like we done well restricting Rangers over the piece, they had efforts but most were under pressure/blocked. Only really gave them two uncontested efforts, Kent who blasted wide, then the goal. They'll always get chances so almost just your luck with the long range ones.

Struggled a bit around the time of their goal but otherwise played some nice stuff and tried to work our way up the park, bit of a shame our best chances all landed to Bryson. On another day that performance maybe gets us more.

[glenrothes 1884 saint]

17 minutes ago, DMCs said:

Another ticked off.

No injuries.

17 more to go.

 

You must be delighted with your new club outdoing Airdrie and Gretna

[Fife Saint]

I think the result was typical of what we've seen of Saints all year. Comfortable on the ball and the system giving space but no cutting edge. On balance if you go to Ibrox and only lose 1 nil you're happy but the system has delivered the same results against teams where the onus is on us to win.

It's a decent base to work from I suppose if we're looking longer term and making adjustments to with personnel to make the system more productive.

Happy with that overall.

[bennett]

Romeo and the lhads watching, waiting and hoping for an upset to do them favour.......

 

 

Makes me feel all warm and glowing inside....

 

 

[G51]

3 minutes ago, gaz5 said:

He used that close control to create an opportunity for his teammates once in the first half. I also think it's a huge stretch to say St Johnstone couldn't get near him.

Hagi created the same number of opportunities first half as Aribo did.

I'm not saying Aribo doesn't have ability, he's clearly good with the ball sometimes, but at other times, like Celtic, he looks like he's never played football before. He's got plenty of potential, all I'm saying his output is poor whenever I see Rangers. And he doesn't work anywhere near as hard as the other two off the ball, something Kent probably doesn't get the credit he deserves for.

I know you like your stats, what's Hagi, Aribo and Kent's Goals and Assist rate this season in all comps (goals/assists per minute)?

I don't know obviously, but feels like Hagi's might be highest of the three from what I've seen of Rangers.

I don't think it's a huge stretch - people are absolutely terrified to tackle him in the final third of the pitch. He has the best close control and touch of any player in the league. Incredibly difficult to get the ball off him.

He didn't look great against Celtic because he was asked to do something he isn't that great at - track runners and play in a flat three. He's better playing closer to the goal which fits his attributes much better.

In terms of combined xG and xA P90: Aribo 0.47 (0.25xG  + 0.22xA) Kent 0.54 (0.27xG + 0.27xA) Hagi 0.59 (0.3xG + 0.29xA).

Given that Aribo has played a good chunk of the season further back than the other two, I think that's pretty good. If you give him the roles those guys have, he likely posts better numbers.

[nelsjfc]

Aye, I thought after Rangers putting a bit of pressure on just after half time St Johnstone came back into it. I think Kane made a difference too when he came on and seemed to unsettle Goldson a bit and then we dropped deeper as a result.

Yeah, even before going to two up front Kane got us up the pitch a lot more than we had to that point. Understand why he was rested though.

Defended okay first half but ran out of luck with the goal. May didn't really hold on to the ball well. Assume it was a tactic they'd worked on, but got really frustrated how often May was looking in behind the few times we did win possession. He's not going to run away from many centre halves these days.

Didn't panic after the goal though and moved the ball about well enough the last 15 and suppose on another night might have nicked a point. Brown was okay defensively but wasn't great on the ball and didn't offer much going forward (bar one brilliant cross tbf). Bryson was good first half i thought - and I've not been convinced at all- but was a bit quieter with Craig on.

It would have been much more interesting had the referee put his big boy pants at the Roofe incident though.

[Erih Shtrep]

43 minutes ago, The Golden God said:

 

Offt that's one of the worst this season or any.   Was he sent off?  

Edited February 3, 2021 by Erih Shtrep

[gaz5]

I don't think it's a huge stretch - people are absolutely terrified to tackle him in the final third of the pitch. He has the best close control and touch of any player in the league. Incredibly difficult to get the ball off him.
He didn't look great against Celtic because he was asked to do something he isn't that great at - track runners and play in a flat three. He's better playing closer to the goal which fits his attributes much better.
In terms of combined xG and xA P90: Aribo 0.47 (0.25xG  + 0.22xA) Kent 0.54 (0.27xG + 0.27xA) Hagi 0.59 (0.3xG + 0.29xA).
Given that Aribo has played a good chunk of the season further back than the other two, I think that's pretty good. If you give him the roles those guys have, he likely posts better numbers.

I don't even think he has the best close control and touch of the players in his own team. For me, Kamara takes that award of any player in Scotland. He's a Rolls Royce of a footballer who will eventually play at a far higher level than Aribo I would wager.

Aribo undoubtedly has talent and it's all about opinions, I just don't think he's as good as he's billed, at present.

Not surprised at those figures, that's what I would have expected. I think in terms of base numbers Hagi has more assists than both in less minutes and around the same number of goals.

It's a nice problem for Rangers to have, don't get me wrong, all I'm saying really is that if I'm picking a first 11 for Rangers based on what I've seen of them this season, Hagi would have more chance of being in my 11 than Aribo. But to be fair, if everyone was fit neither of them would be so probably a moot argument. [emoji846]

[DMCs]

The only real notable moment of the game. Imagine actually shooting and scoring from range.

 

[G51]

1 minute ago, gaz5 said:

I don't even think he has the best close control and touch of the players in his own team. For me, Kamara takes that award of any player in Scotland. He's a Rolls Royce of a footballer who will eventually play at a far higher level than Aribo I would wager.

Aribo undoubtedly has talent and it's all about opinions, I just don't think he's as good as he's billed, at present.

Not surprised at those figures, that's what I would have expected. I think in terms of base numbers Hagi has more assists than both in less minutes and around the same number of goals.

It's a nice problem for Rangers to have, don't get me wrong, all I'm saying really is that if I'm picking a first 11 for Rangers based on what I've seen of them this season, Hagi would have more chance of being in my 11 than Aribo. But to be fair, if everyone was fit neither of them would be so probably a moot argument.

Kamara has great control but I've never seen him pluck a hoofed ball out the sky and control it with one touch like Aribo does. The guy does it every other match.

Assists are a tough stat to judge anyone by because they ultimately depend on what someone else does. You can play a great pass only for someone to do a Martin O'Neill and choke at the last. Aribo and Hagi have around the same number of minutes FWIW, mostly because of Aribo's early season injury.

I think the first XI depends on who you're playing really. If you're trying to break a low block, then you're choosing between Arfield and Aribo for a role in that midfield three.

[The_Kincardine]

 

55 minutes ago, gaz5 said:

I honestly don't get the hype with Aribo. Great five a side player I'm sure.

Time to reinstate the Tennents' Sixes.  That trophy has spent far too long in Maryhill.

We'd absolutely skoosh it this season.

[Forever_blueco]

1 hour ago, Merkland Red said:

Was just sent a clip of the Roofe 'tackle'.

That's a disgrace.

Terrible challenge 

nearly as bad as Mains a few weeks back 

[The Marly]

At least Ghostie's pre-match Twitter meltdown gave me a laugh [emoji28]

[Arch Stanton]

Roofe should get pulled up by the Compliance Officer, that's a horrendous challenge and should have been a red.

Before anyone says "it's been dealt with by the Ref", I refer you to Greg Tansey at Tynecastle where he received a yellow but Moaning Dickhead tweeted a video of the tackle to the SPFL and his yellow was upgraded to a red and a 2 match ban.

Edited February 3, 2021 by Arch Stanton

[kingjoey]

I’ve just seen Roofe’s challenge on Davidson on Sportscene. Wow, that is an ankle breaker. Second game in a row that Rangers should have been down to 10 men in the first half. For anyone to try and justify that because of something else that has happened anywhere at anytime is the definition of being brain dead. 

[G51]

5 minutes ago, Arch Stanton said:

Itten should get pulled up by the Compliance Officer, that's a horrendous challenge and should have been a red.

Before anyone says "it's been dealt with by the Ref", I refer you to Greg Tansey at Tynecastle where he received a yellow but Moaning Dickhead tweeted a video of the tackle to the SPFL and his yellow was upgraded to a red and a 2 match ban.

Not sure what poor Cedric has done to warrant that. I'll presume you mean Roofe.

I think Davidson's assessment of it is right - he's trying to control the ball, makes an arse of it and gets Davidson in the calf. It's a red card because it's serious foul play. It isn't malicious but it is dangerous.

But guess what? These things keep happening because we don't employ full-time referees and we don't invest enough money in refereeing. If you pay peanuts, you'll get monkeys.

Refereeing in Scotland will continue to get lots of decisions wrong when a) we're asking our elite refs to do it as a part time job, and b) we have a retrospective disciplinary system that isn't fit for purpose.

You can't just call this stuff out when it's a call you don't like. You have to call it out when you benefit from it too.

Ultimately though, no one really seems that bothered about it, because not a single club has ever tabled a motion within the SFA to recruit full-time referees, and no fans have ever asked their club to table such a motion. Everyone moans about it for forty-eight hours until you're sick to the back teeth of talking about referees, and then everyone moves on. No one is interested in actually fixing this.

 

[Arch Stanton]

2 minutes ago, G51 said:

Not sure what poor Cedric has done to warrant that. I'll presume you mean Roofe

You should have refreshed before quoting 

Your assessment is spot on though, it was mis-timed rather than malicious, nonetheless it should have been red.

I'm not sure about FT Refs though, they have them in the EPL on 6 figure salaries and they still make an arse of it on a far too regular basis.