Morning Ross, I believe this is your name !! (Ha ha)
Have taken your advise and not watched the game,
I watched Alan Morrison’s take on the game and he had quite a positive take on it using his analytical metrics etc. he did name drop Brian a few times on your collective review after the game.
But, there’s no accounting for individual mistakes multiplied by others making similar mistakes concurrently !!!
The way each analyst looks at things can differ. I've not heard or read the breakdowns take on it. I'll try get time later on. I have heard others say that leadership wasn't an issue, that's something I'd totally disagree with. We cannot expect Rodgers to be solely responsible to hand hold them on the pitch, the players have to take responsibility and to show they themselves can adapt and also demand things from one another. I didn't see enough players leading by example in terms of performance, and I didn't see enough of them who weren't performing doing enough hard work to try and spark themselves out of what at times felt like a sleep walking state, especially in the first half.
The Rangers players need their hands held, and that was evident throughout the game with the 2,3 or 4 coaches all on the sideline for large chunks of the game constantly pulling them over and taking them through the game chapter by chapter, fair play it worked this time for them. It's a short term fix for a huge problem they have, but it cannot be applied in every game consistently so it's not a long term solution.
My frustration is we had some clear routes that they struggled to cope with, but just didn't engineer those openings enough because the players weren't being brave enough with the ball, maybe they lacked trust in each other at times, which can happen when you see someone having a shocker or when the team are continually making basic errors. The last part you mention was critical. Mistakes happen and they weren't just down to one player, but often 2 or 3 within seconds of each other. In a game that has become very man to man these days 1 mistake is enough to cause problems, 2 or 3 combined is a nightmare if you are playing against anyone semi-decent.
Whilst typing this I have one memory that jumps out at me, something I have always though of as quite funny of a player who many wouldn't view as a natural leader taking the core instructions from the manager (Neil Lennon) and doing something off the cuff vs them that made a huge difference because it set a tone.
5 or 6 years ago we went to Ibrox having lost the last 2 games there. Odsonne Edouard taking kick off vs them and punting the ball rugby style into the Rangers final third, giving them a throw-in about 12 yards from their own goal. People looked and were wondering what he was doing. He was getting us up the pitch to allow us to press them high. When Scott Brown was asked afterwards if that was planned, he said no. If memory serves me right he said the game plan was to press them high because Gerrard and the rest had spoken about high press and dominating the game, and so Eddy made a call to get us pressing high from the off . We won 2-0.
Alan Morrisen summed it up perfectly in the Breakdown. As competent as Nawrocki was his ball progression was non existent (concentrating on not making mistakes).
This lead to Nawrocki passing responsibility to CCV at every opportunity, CCV's main outball was AJ compressing the game into our defensive right handside making it easy for them to spring the press and hem us in.
Schlupp and Jota weren't getting the ball due to Nawrocki's safety first.
It's easy to say our management team should have picked up on this, but hindsight is a great thing.
Nawrocki with only minutes of game time & Schlupp still bedding into the team, completely disrupted our balance of play, no McGregor & Scales also compounded the progression issues making their press all the more effective, always remember they've honed this in Europa League.
What it does show is glaring squad deficiencies given the way Rodgers wants to set up and play, his intransigence in the face of this (we'll play our game) Kind of baffling for a manager of his experience.
Being 16 points clear also plays into the psychological aspect, bad day at the office but far from disastrous and expect Rodgers to not make same mistake again come the 4th time of asking.
Before I get into a reply the one thing I will say is I'll read and listen to anyones view of our games because I love these interactions with people like yourself.
I understand the view that we had a overused pattern of play, but I disagree that it was the main issue, surely if that's your POV then the main issue is the inability to change it. That's why I was amused to hear so many people dismiss Eddies opinion that leadership was 1 of many problems on the day. Especially in the manner it was done by some that for me was disrespectful to Eddie and to me as I am in full agreement with the point that was made.
Lets forget the end result for a minute and go back to the root cause which was the first 3 minutes. We weren't aggressive enough, didn't clear our lines and we had multiple players making mistakes in quick succession. Rangers were more aggressive and sharper, something that can happen when you go from one game to the next so quickly. Many people said they'll be tired, but they'd just qualified for the next round of the Europa and that buzz can carry you for a while, especially if you top it up like they did early in the game. History shows the 1st goal and momentum in this game can be huge, and we didn't start like it was important, they did. I can't recall the exact stat, but it was single figures for wins when losing the first goal.
So, we are 1 down and as you rightly point out we have Nawrocki who has played 25 minutes this season, in beside Schlupp who he's never played a competitive minute with. I think it's fair to expect that he is going to be tentative, and that will only have increased when we went behind because he'll know what everyone has been saying and the last thing he wants to do is make mistakes and players become a bit selfish (as long as I don't fuck up can become a mindset). Schlupp was arguably in the same boat after 5 minutes because he'd made 2 mistakes in one of the biggest games in terms of pressure that he's played in for a long time. Schlupp for me took until around the 60th minute to do anything cleanly, so I wouldn't blame Nawrocki for thinking I'll play safe because a huge part of being in a defence is about trusting in the guy next to you. That combined with the midfield and attacking options that weren't finding ways to make themselves available to Nawrocki or CCV, and that ends up with AJ having more touches than anyone. The options available to him were often poor in the first half, and maybe that left him drained as the game went on, which is why he wasn't at his best.
And that is where for me leadership comes into play. We needed people to really step up in more than just performance, we needed tactical nous and motivation to come to the fore from our players and staff, especially in that first half and this is where the Nawrocki > CCV (captain) > AJ part comes into that. That pattern was clear, and it took an age to improve situation. No one was quick to step up and say we need to change this pattern, even if it's just to get them thinking. It wasn't just the 5 at the back... Our midfield weren't dynamic or brave with their movements until later on. We had a lot of controlled possession, most of it in places Rangers were happy to have us in.
In terms of management seeing it early. Our coaching staff (Laptop Gav) on the sideline should be getting data pretty much live from our analytics staff, but it shouldn't take a data presentation to see that was an issue.
The only time we seen it change was at HT when Rodgers had to make a change and hook Kuhn, who bar one good moment where he actually dropped deep and created an overload that allowed us to play through the press with AJ on the underlap from deep, was basically like a man short for the other 44 minutes.
At that point he got it from them for spells, but as I said in my article the mistakes and sloppy play never really disappeared, and in seeing that they took a punt, quite literally.
Flung on a few fresh players, with a clear instruction to get in amongst it. Lawrence and Igamane both leaving a bit extra on tackles that went unpunished and lifted them and the away end, and then Igamane pouncing on a catalogue of errors to score the winner and again I go back to leadership. It's 2-2, momentum should be with us so keep the crowd engaged and the sprits high on the pitch, but no one in our team really stood up in either of those moments for their team mates, 2 free hits on 2 players who or us were having positive impacts on the game and barely a finger gesture in anger. These games are rarely won by just playing nice.
Now it's easy for me or anyone else to say after the event having viewed it multiple times on a tv recording or via data sources that this is the solution but there is over 70% of the game we don't see on Sky and even when you are at a game live it's impossible to watch every movement and interaction. I could name about 20 things I'd consider doing differently now based on data and footage. Even if I had a 360 spider cam video of the entire game where I could see every movement there would still be massive amounts of subjective moments because I don't know what's going through their heads, or what Rodgers has asked of them. There are no guarantees in football, even the very best data will never give you close to 100% of anything in this game because it's people.
As Ange was so fond of telling us, our players and staff are human and make mistakes that no amount of data can explain.
Morning Ross, I believe this is your name !! (Ha ha)
Have taken your advise and not watched the game,
I watched Alan Morrison’s take on the game and he had quite a positive take on it using his analytical metrics etc. he did name drop Brian a few times on your collective review after the game.
But, there’s no accounting for individual mistakes multiplied by others making similar mistakes concurrently !!!
Keep up the great work
Morning Peter
The way each analyst looks at things can differ. I've not heard or read the breakdowns take on it. I'll try get time later on. I have heard others say that leadership wasn't an issue, that's something I'd totally disagree with. We cannot expect Rodgers to be solely responsible to hand hold them on the pitch, the players have to take responsibility and to show they themselves can adapt and also demand things from one another. I didn't see enough players leading by example in terms of performance, and I didn't see enough of them who weren't performing doing enough hard work to try and spark themselves out of what at times felt like a sleep walking state, especially in the first half.
The Rangers players need their hands held, and that was evident throughout the game with the 2,3 or 4 coaches all on the sideline for large chunks of the game constantly pulling them over and taking them through the game chapter by chapter, fair play it worked this time for them. It's a short term fix for a huge problem they have, but it cannot be applied in every game consistently so it's not a long term solution.
My frustration is we had some clear routes that they struggled to cope with, but just didn't engineer those openings enough because the players weren't being brave enough with the ball, maybe they lacked trust in each other at times, which can happen when you see someone having a shocker or when the team are continually making basic errors. The last part you mention was critical. Mistakes happen and they weren't just down to one player, but often 2 or 3 within seconds of each other. In a game that has become very man to man these days 1 mistake is enough to cause problems, 2 or 3 combined is a nightmare if you are playing against anyone semi-decent.
Whilst typing this I have one memory that jumps out at me, something I have always though of as quite funny of a player who many wouldn't view as a natural leader taking the core instructions from the manager (Neil Lennon) and doing something off the cuff vs them that made a huge difference because it set a tone.
5 or 6 years ago we went to Ibrox having lost the last 2 games there. Odsonne Edouard taking kick off vs them and punting the ball rugby style into the Rangers final third, giving them a throw-in about 12 yards from their own goal. People looked and were wondering what he was doing. He was getting us up the pitch to allow us to press them high. When Scott Brown was asked afterwards if that was planned, he said no. If memory serves me right he said the game plan was to press them high because Gerrard and the rest had spoken about high press and dominating the game, and so Eddy made a call to get us pressing high from the off . We won 2-0.
Alan Morrisen summed it up perfectly in the Breakdown. As competent as Nawrocki was his ball progression was non existent (concentrating on not making mistakes).
This lead to Nawrocki passing responsibility to CCV at every opportunity, CCV's main outball was AJ compressing the game into our defensive right handside making it easy for them to spring the press and hem us in.
Schlupp and Jota weren't getting the ball due to Nawrocki's safety first.
It's easy to say our management team should have picked up on this, but hindsight is a great thing.
Nawrocki with only minutes of game time & Schlupp still bedding into the team, completely disrupted our balance of play, no McGregor & Scales also compounded the progression issues making their press all the more effective, always remember they've honed this in Europa League.
What it does show is glaring squad deficiencies given the way Rodgers wants to set up and play, his intransigence in the face of this (we'll play our game) Kind of baffling for a manager of his experience.
Being 16 points clear also plays into the psychological aspect, bad day at the office but far from disastrous and expect Rodgers to not make same mistake again come the 4th time of asking.
Hail Hail!
Hey Mick,
Before I get into a reply the one thing I will say is I'll read and listen to anyones view of our games because I love these interactions with people like yourself.
I understand the view that we had a overused pattern of play, but I disagree that it was the main issue, surely if that's your POV then the main issue is the inability to change it. That's why I was amused to hear so many people dismiss Eddies opinion that leadership was 1 of many problems on the day. Especially in the manner it was done by some that for me was disrespectful to Eddie and to me as I am in full agreement with the point that was made.
Lets forget the end result for a minute and go back to the root cause which was the first 3 minutes. We weren't aggressive enough, didn't clear our lines and we had multiple players making mistakes in quick succession. Rangers were more aggressive and sharper, something that can happen when you go from one game to the next so quickly. Many people said they'll be tired, but they'd just qualified for the next round of the Europa and that buzz can carry you for a while, especially if you top it up like they did early in the game. History shows the 1st goal and momentum in this game can be huge, and we didn't start like it was important, they did. I can't recall the exact stat, but it was single figures for wins when losing the first goal.
So, we are 1 down and as you rightly point out we have Nawrocki who has played 25 minutes this season, in beside Schlupp who he's never played a competitive minute with. I think it's fair to expect that he is going to be tentative, and that will only have increased when we went behind because he'll know what everyone has been saying and the last thing he wants to do is make mistakes and players become a bit selfish (as long as I don't fuck up can become a mindset). Schlupp was arguably in the same boat after 5 minutes because he'd made 2 mistakes in one of the biggest games in terms of pressure that he's played in for a long time. Schlupp for me took until around the 60th minute to do anything cleanly, so I wouldn't blame Nawrocki for thinking I'll play safe because a huge part of being in a defence is about trusting in the guy next to you. That combined with the midfield and attacking options that weren't finding ways to make themselves available to Nawrocki or CCV, and that ends up with AJ having more touches than anyone. The options available to him were often poor in the first half, and maybe that left him drained as the game went on, which is why he wasn't at his best.
And that is where for me leadership comes into play. We needed people to really step up in more than just performance, we needed tactical nous and motivation to come to the fore from our players and staff, especially in that first half and this is where the Nawrocki > CCV (captain) > AJ part comes into that. That pattern was clear, and it took an age to improve situation. No one was quick to step up and say we need to change this pattern, even if it's just to get them thinking. It wasn't just the 5 at the back... Our midfield weren't dynamic or brave with their movements until later on. We had a lot of controlled possession, most of it in places Rangers were happy to have us in.
In terms of management seeing it early. Our coaching staff (Laptop Gav) on the sideline should be getting data pretty much live from our analytics staff, but it shouldn't take a data presentation to see that was an issue.
The only time we seen it change was at HT when Rodgers had to make a change and hook Kuhn, who bar one good moment where he actually dropped deep and created an overload that allowed us to play through the press with AJ on the underlap from deep, was basically like a man short for the other 44 minutes.
At that point he got it from them for spells, but as I said in my article the mistakes and sloppy play never really disappeared, and in seeing that they took a punt, quite literally.
Flung on a few fresh players, with a clear instruction to get in amongst it. Lawrence and Igamane both leaving a bit extra on tackles that went unpunished and lifted them and the away end, and then Igamane pouncing on a catalogue of errors to score the winner and again I go back to leadership. It's 2-2, momentum should be with us so keep the crowd engaged and the sprits high on the pitch, but no one in our team really stood up in either of those moments for their team mates, 2 free hits on 2 players who or us were having positive impacts on the game and barely a finger gesture in anger. These games are rarely won by just playing nice.
Now it's easy for me or anyone else to say after the event having viewed it multiple times on a tv recording or via data sources that this is the solution but there is over 70% of the game we don't see on Sky and even when you are at a game live it's impossible to watch every movement and interaction. I could name about 20 things I'd consider doing differently now based on data and footage. Even if I had a 360 spider cam video of the entire game where I could see every movement there would still be massive amounts of subjective moments because I don't know what's going through their heads, or what Rodgers has asked of them. There are no guarantees in football, even the very best data will never give you close to 100% of anything in this game because it's people.
As Ange was so fond of telling us, our players and staff are human and make mistakes that no amount of data can explain.