The (Sort of) Meaningless Last Derby of the Season

The Good, The Bad & The Ugly - Ross H takes us through the key moments

The start….

I’m getting a bit sick of saying it. Intensity is key and some street smarts. It is one thing letting a team have a bit of the ball but there is an art to controlling a team within that idea, and the last thing you can afford to do when doing so is give away cheap set plays, stand off people or not put in the hard yards for one another. Worst case scenario, skelp one deep into their half and step up the pitch. It was the best part of 5 minutes before we put any ball worth chasing into their half and as we’ve discussed multiple times this isn’t a one-off thing. It’s a common theme in our games and has been for months.

The Balogun Header:

I’ve seen Scales get a lot of heat for this, but if I’m being honest and fair. It’s a good design by them and poor understanding of what they do from us. Balogun makes the run, Scales looks to go with him and Raskin who was a thorn in our side for a lot of the game runs the NFL style block that takes Scales completely out of it. It’s a really poor header from Balogun. Totally free, watches the ball on its way, just has to keep it down. We should be 1-0 down at this point.

The nearly moment for Forrest:

I’ve said this a lot. I want to see Idah being that aggressive front foot, head up at goal striker and the first bit he does so well, nips round the blindside of Souttar and steals the ball. Gets moving and he has 2 options. Forrest to his right, Daizen (might be out of his sight) to his left and he picks Forrest, sadly the pass is to narrow and Balogun gets back in to get a block in.

1st chance for Idah:

Engels was quite high and to the right throughout the game, often a problem for us against the transition and against the narrow diamond they played with. In this instance we have a bit of control and Engels has a few options and plays a nicely weighted pass into Daizen, a quick one touch pass to Idah and again I’m happy to see Idah doing this, one touch and shot off. Blocked but the intent was good.

The offside goal for them:

It’s a cheap free kick given away from Taylor and again it’s a good set piece. The ball from Tavernier clears Greg Taylor and the small but aerially capable Raskin does the right thing, heads it down and Sinisalo is beaten. The issue I have with this is Raskin is a known issue in these areas and I’m not sure why we have one of our smallest players in front of him. I’m also not crediting our defence for the offside, because that was not done by design. It’s another relatively free header created with some simple movement in the centre of our box and the margin of the offside is nothing more than good fortune.

The Butterfly effect: 2nd chance for Idah

The press from them wasn’t as aggressive yesterday as it was in the last derby game and this was a good example of us finding a path through what was a 433 defensive shape. Cameron Carter-Vickers and McGregor exchange passes under minimal pressure and that sets off some very simple but effective movements. Hatate was left of centre and makes a good run off Diomande into the middle to give CCV a clear option. Hatate then shows good awareness and sees that Idah has found a gap to run into. One touch and a perfectly weighted ball ahead of Idah. I think he is trying to do the right thing with the little dinked finish, it just isn’t a good enough contact and Kelly gets out quick enough to get something on it…….

1-0 – Dessers

We attempt a quick corner and nearly create a good chance slap bang in the middle of goal. They nip in ahead and find an out ball to Bajrami. We at this point are in a bit of a structural mess because of the quick corner and for me Taylor or McGregor need to be tight on Bajrami, a tactical foul should be the only way out here. They don’t and our defence in transition to me seems chaotic which can happen, but the lack of pressure on the ball from the point of Bajrami and every other player who touched the ball for them was poor. The ball eventually comes from right to left and Forrest is chasing with Jefte, Ralston seems unsure and doesn’t put any pressure on Diomande. The pass to Cerny, a clever dummy from him and Scales is caught out. In his desperation to get back in his attempt to tackle Dessers results him looking clumsy and Dessers finishes well.

1-1 – Idah

They pushed up into a 424, which for me was odd because the intensity of press wasn’t there and we had 6 vs 4 with Cal and Hatate dropping in act as a 6 duo. The ball from Scales to Taylor wasn’t pressed and Taylor does something that we had joy with on a few occasions. He drops a lovely ball over Taverniers head. Daizen who had run to Japan and back makes a trademark run in behind. His touch, not the cleanest but John Souttar makes a mistake that they have seen in a pervious game. Souttar could clear it out for a corner but tries to be clever and boots the ball off Daizen and leaves it to lady luck. Lady luck shines for us and huge credit to Idah, he reacts fast and again I go back to this as the thing I want to see as much as possible. Get in the between the posts and find the touch and hit chances. It’s a really good touch and a good strike. The deflection to me doesn’t matter, still a really good goal for the big lightweight. Would have been easy for his head to dip after a few moments that didn’t work out, but he kept his head in it and got his reward.

Transition problems

This was a huge irk for me. We had the throw in deep in the Rangers half and losing the ball isn’t an issue, but the route out and the panic stations after were. Diomande gets a block in on Yang and moves out with the ball. A pass to and from Dessers again see’s us have bodies forward but no one really being aggressive with the press. Diomande then makes a pass that takes out 5 of our players and sets off Raskin behind Ralston. It’s cynical, but we are again having to race back and I’d expect Ralston to do what needs to be done and take the yellow card. He doesn’t and it takes a mix of poor execution and desperation from us to clear the lines. Raskin gives it to Igamane, who then seems to get lost in his own head. Scales and Ralston both end up on the seat of their pants, Scales eventually finding his feet and blocking the route to goal. It was a good block, but it was again a series of simple passed under minimal pressure to take them from their own box and into ours within a few seconds.

Raskin Shot

I hate to say it but he is thorn vs us and giving him cheap shots at pressing or cheap opportunities needs to stop. Ralston gets the ball over on the right and seems like he’s taking an age to make a decision. His options aren’t great, but he could have carried the ball forward and at least looked like he might drive the ball, but he’s ponderous and Raksin reads it and steals the ball. Thankfully McGregor gets over quick enough to gets side by side and ensure the shot isn’t hit without any pressure on it and it flies wide.

Raskin Shot. Hagi, never a pen moment.

Again, we are giving up too many cheap opportunities through poor choices. We clear a Tavernier cross to the left and players get attracted to the ball, while others aren’t doing enough to get back in (Reo and Daizen). That leaves 2 vs 4 at the back post, 3 of whom are off the back of Schlupp. The ball loops over and Raskin again is in our box with space, thankfully he slips as he controls the ball and that delays his shot. Huge credit to Sinisalo for getting over quick and making a good save. Then we end up with numerous players throwing themselves towards the ball as Scales clears. Cal does well to get in ahead of Hagi to hold his ground and it’s never a penalty, but it’s a chaotic situation that could have been avoided with better awareness and communication.

What you could have won – Daizen Chance

I think I was celebrating as I watched this live, such is my confidence in Daizen right now. They take a quick throw, Hatate reads a pass from Tavernier and his sliding tackle sets the ball ahead of Daizen. He starts his run in our half, gets a yard on Tavernier who has seen this nightmare many times before. Kenny and Reo are breaking at speed off to the right and Daizen does take a quick look, but he’s full of confidence, albeit looking a little tired and he attempts a ball roll to beat Kelly who has closed the angle. The ball roll, much like Idahs attempted dink earlier just wasn’t clean enough and Kelly makes the save. The whistle goes ad Johnny Kenny and Reo slump to the ground thinking why didn’t he pass…. Well after the multi award winning season I think we can let Daizen have that one.

A wee side note. Multiple awards, all very much deserved. Always knew he had it in him and hopefully his week will get even better with the birth of his 3rd child. Congrats Daizen

Overall

As the title says. It was good, bad and ugly.

I felt we had a little more control for the larger part of the game, in part like previous games it was in areas where they were happy to have us, and thus I didn’t feel we done enough to win the game. There are still some areas that are infuriating. The start to games, some areas where we maybe need to be a little more devious when it comes to killing transitions and how we deal with defensive set plays. I still feel a solution to this is a midfielder who has more of a natural defensive / destructive instinct. We need a player who you can confidently look at in the middle of the pitch and know that in his direct duels he will win more than he will lose in the vast majority of games and we don’t have that.

I’ll never be one to talk about officials much but I found the volume of fouls that Walsh gave against us a bit excessive, many were nothing challenges and the foul against Engels for jumping and winning a header vs Raskin summed that up. That being said we did give away some cheap fouls so maybe I’m focusing a bit much on the numbers. 18 fouls to their 9.

The ugly, well that for the most part was off the pitch in the home end and isn’t something I really care to discuss but sadly it’s a common theme when we play at Ibrox. The real unfortunate part is we have our own numpties as well.

There were some positive moments for us. We found some pathways through them, especially in behind Tavernier, but we didn’t use that route often enough in my opinion. A lot of our focus was down the right, but our main threat was down the left. The vast majority of their focus and threat was on their right side.

CCV, I thought played quite well at the back and had a good header from one of our attacking set plays that forced one of the few saves that Kelly had to make. He did have one wander into their half where I found myself thinking… on ye go, hit one of those shanks but it wasn’t to be.

I’m still happy with Sinisalo holding the number 1 slot. The save from Raskin was vital and I liked that he was being bold when they were threatening the long throw, stepping well off of his line to suggest he was going to look to come and catch it.

Second half we had a bit more control, but not as much as I think has been made out. You can see that above where despite our so-called control they were still giving us issues and for me had the better chances in both halves. Their 3 high value chances and overall xG 1.62 to our 1 high value chance and 0.96 xG shows that.

Our control in many ways falls into us making around 60 more passes in their half and a little more control of the pitch as a whole, but if we are honest, they don’t mind that against us or in games against teams they know are better than them and so there is a part of the control that for me is an optical illusion. Having the ball doesn’t always mean you are controlling the game.

I was delighted for Adam Idah. A really good goal and he didn’t let the earlier moments where the execution could have been a touch better get to him. He stuck at it and he was looking to play to his strengths instead of trying to be this back to goal striker that he isn’t. Bernardo came on and had some positive moments, Kenny looked quick and busy but in terms of quality the game was lacking in my opinion.

In the end I think 1-1 was fair. It was 2 teams who had a few moments each but lacked the killer instinct.