***UEFA Champions League/Europa League 2010/11 Matchday 1***

[Chong Warrior]

That bad, huh?

I'm disappointed to have missed it, but I haven't missed footie for over 5 years.

You missed a superb Spurs performance, especially the first half. They got lucky simple as that, we deserved to win.

Jenas was class

Kaboul, Bale and VdV were also superb. BAE had his usual excellent 85 mins and 5 poor mins... got punished but deserved more. Lennon just doesn't look fit.

 

[Stag]

If I'm brutally honest I'm sick of Spurs fans with short memories... some really do deserve the title of "Spuds"

Palacios was a beast in his first season, the guy had his brother murdered over what basically boils down to football money. Give him a break eh? Show a bit of loyalty and support... maybe he will repay it in the future? I remember the Palacios who beasted us at Wigan - then we bought him... then he beasted Arsenal in a Spurs shirt He will come good trust me.

Crouch who scored both goals tonight? Crouch who's goal got us into the CL in the first place? Crouch who always seems to score goals at the highest level?

Indeed, I despair how fickle some people are. Even 5 seasons ago our players are a class above what they were, 10 seasons ago our team was a joke, we had a few stars and then utter dross like Ramon Vega, Justin Edinburgh, Andy Sinton.

 

[Stag]

You missed a superb Spurs performance, especially the first half. They got lucky simple as that, we deserved to win.

First half we were superb, but 2nd half it was all them for 35-40 minutes.

Jenas was class

I think the kick up the backside that he isn't first choice has brought back the hunger he has been lacking.

Kaboul, Bale and VdV were also superb. BAE had his usual excellent 85 mins and 5 poor mins... got punished but deserved more. Lennon just doesn't look fit.

Lennon concerns me a little bit, he's just not taking players on like he used to, is it fitness or confidence?

 

[Shamikebab]

If you think Rooney was better then you don't have a clue, Rooney had one of his utterly useless games tonight. He did nothing, barely even registered 1 shot all game

As for Gibson had any of his shots been on target then the keeper wouldn't of been saving them, only a fool would think otherwise

I'm sorry I forgot a players worth was measured by number of shots, no wonder you thought Gibson was the best. Remember that Gibson and Fletcher probably had about 75% of our possession and yet did nothing with it, Rooney got the ball in far more dangerous positions and did far more with it.

Only a fool would think that Gibson only has to get a shot on target to get it in?.....yeah, right Tom

His first shot that went just wide, his volley straight after half time and his last which bent right at the end. Keeper wouldn't of saved any of them IMO

The only other one I can remember was a tame one that was on target

His first shot that went just wide? The replay showed the keeper had it covered. That was probably his closest effort. Hernandez got the closest to scoring with that header in the first 20 mins as the goalie was nowhere near it.

 

[Shamikebab]

Fergie says that Valencia could be out for the rest of the season Unless Obertan suddenly becomes....anything that leaves us with one attacking winger left This season couldn't have started much worse.

 

[drunkenmaster]

Fergie says that Valencia could be out for the rest of the season Unless Obertan suddenly becomes....anything that leaves us with one attacking winger left This season couldn't have started much worse.

He's mostly basing that on how long Smith took to come back, I was wondering actually, it looked ruddy awful but, apparently it was a dislocation and a break, which could actually be, not "good" news, but not terrible. If the break is so bad the foot is on the wrong way, thats terrible, but a dislocation "could" be much less worse as the dislocation could be responsible for the about faced foot, and the break higher up could be a much cleaner/more basic break.

However, if its his ankle he dislocated he has a ridiculously high chance of bad ligament damage so who knows. It didn't look pretty, hopefully he makes a full recovery, theres a rather gruesome picture on The Sun website which shows him, which I thought he did, sitting up quite far and seemingly only at that point noticing his foot was utterly ******. I still don't know what happened, did one of the guys step on his ankle, or was it a Owen type studs in the turf situation, a bit of both, in realtime I just didn't notice anything that looked like it could cause that.

AS for those defending Gibson as a goal threat, I LOVE the arguments of "if it was on target the gk was no where near it, it would have been a goal".

THe problem being, the shots WEREN'T on target, the GK could have gone off for a cuppa, still wouldn't be a goal(unless the phatom goal ref was in charge). Lots of people can shoot all game from 30 yards, he was almost entirely useless including his shots. If you can consistantly score from 30 yards, or hit the target I should say, its a good option to take a shot now and then, when you've scored a few but shoot constantly wasting better opportunitys and aren't scoring, its a waste.

Though I'd have to disagree in saying Rooney was quite effective, his passing was mostly awful, conceded posession frequently and never really looked dangerous at all. You really can't have a midfield of Park, Fletch, Gibson, off form Rooney and Hernandez/valencia(both not looking very sharp) and expect to create things, you have to have a Scholes type to direct that lot and get the perfect pass when someone makes a run.

 

[Jambo]

/sigh

It's games like that which destroy my faith in football as a whole. Rangers were well entitled to play 10-0-0 but i'm not going to commend them for it i'm afraid.

As a fan i'd rather see my team go down 5-0 than go anywhere with a game plan like that.

As for United, well, it's a really sorry state of affairs. Ronaldo was the only consistently world class player we had and he left with no replacement. I think Rooney is world class but only when on form, which seems to be never at the moment.

I agree 100%. Although I am a United fan, I am also a 'supposed' Rangers fan but their football in Europe is absolutely disgusting. It annoys me that Rangers fans are happy with tonights display.

All in all it was a bad night for me as I am so frustrated with United's lack of creativity as well. I know it's early days but I really can't see us winning the league. Chelsea look too strong.

 

[McRod]

As a fan i'd rather see my team go down 5-0 than go anywhere with a game plan like that.

You`d rather lose 5-0 than hold out for a 0-0 and a point?. ?

How very very strange.

 

[duc999]

You`d rather lose 5-0 than hold out for a 0-0 and a point?. ?

How very very strange.

Rangers got their tactics right against a far superior team so fair play for that even if it was totally boring. Talk about parking the bus.

Would you like to see them do the same thing at Ibrox ?

To be fair getting draws is the only outside chance you have of going any further in the group.

 

[McRod]

I agree 100%. Although I am a United fan, I am also a 'supposed' Rangers fan but their football in Europe is absolutely disgusting. It annoys me that Rangers fans are happy with tonights display.

All in all it was a bad night for me as I am so frustrated with United's lack of creativity as well. I know it's early days but I really can't see us winning the league. Chelsea look too strong.

Its quite amusing how the term anti-football is used to describe Rangers' performances on Europe when we have no other option but to set up defensively in the hope of scoring in the break.

Do you really expect us to throw everyone forward and allow your strikers clear chances?. We`d lose heavily.

Rangers weren`t there to entertain you, thats your own team's job and they failed miserably.

We were there to grab a point and the 300k that goes with it.

We are realists, we know our level and we don`t pretend to be something we are not.

As for being a supposed Rangers fan?. Stick with Man United.

 

[McRod]

Rangers got their tactics right against a far superior team so fair play for that even if it was totally boring. Talk about parking the bus.

Would you like to see them do the same thing at Ibrox ?

To be fair getting draws is the only outside chance you have of going any further in the group.

I completely agree.

We know where we stand in the grand scheme of things. We are a large club in a very small country with huge financial problems yet a supposed Footballing superpower were unable to force a save from our keeper.

Rangers have had their reality check over the last 5 years. Our expectations at this level are very low based on being in a far inferior league with players who are 40 years old.

Perhaps it`s time you guys had a reality check also?. Perhaps you aren`t really as good as you think you are?.

I was equally as unimpressed by Manchester United as you were with Rangers. More than a little disappointed by their attempts to get past Davie Weir who only just passed a late fitness test on his athritis.

I'll be happy for more of the same at Ibrox.

 

[FrankJH]

Well, at least Nani should get some solid game time now and I hope he can sort his consistency issues out. If he does, it would be quite superb.

with no competition (for a few months at least in all liklihood) for the right wing - Nani will boil hot and cold as he always does

 

[eddiemcgarrigle]

Looks to me as though Fergie did Rangers a huge favour by not fielding his strongest team. He seems to have given Rangers a bit of a chance that I don't think will be offered to anyone else at Old Trafford unless Man Utd are through to the knock-out stages, topping the group, with group games still remaining.

Old pals act.

 

[McRod]

Looks to me as though Fergie did Rangers a huge favour by not fielding his strongest team. He seems to have given Rangers a bit of a chance that I don't think will be offered to anyone else at Old Trafford unless Man Utd are through to the knock-out stages, topping the group, with group games still remaining.

Old pals act.

A champions league thread is no place for paranoia. Or Celtci fans for that matter.

To suggest Fergie deliberately helped Rangers is just so wrong.

 

[Greenlizard0]

Vermaelen's still out. Still, this is why we did so much dealing over the summer with our CBs. Match day 1 of the group stage, couldn't think of a more ideal time to further bed in Squillaci and Koscielny.

Looks to me as though Fergie did Rangers a huge favour by not fielding his strongest team. He seems to have given Rangers a bit of a chance that I don't think will be offered to anyone else at Old Trafford unless Man Utd are through to the knock-out stages, topping the group, with group games still remaining.

Old pals act.

Pessimistic is usually right.

However as said^, you only need to win 3/6 games in the group stages to qualify. The other 3 are expendable. Fergie has Liverpool this weekend as well, irrespective of when that match comes it's a big one. After two league draws on the bounce he's quite rightly shifting focus onto that form. He's rotating his squad I see nothing wrong with that.

Even with putting a second string side out, I get the impression (didn't see the game) that Rangers still ended up parking the bus anyway. I don't see Rangers faring that well against Valencia either. 3rd spot and a UEFA Cup spot I reckon.

 

[One More Solo]

Its quite amusing how the term anti-football is used to describe Rangers' performances on Europe when we have no other option but to set up defensively in the hope of scoring in the break.

I have no problem with Rangers playing as they did, but don't kid yourself thinking they ever tried to score on the break. The only time you ever committed players in front of the ball was when Rooney broke against you and almost played Hernandez in towards the end of the first half. That seemed to be enough of a warning for you to stop attacking all together.

 

[The Running Man]

No we haven't

mein gott, you're right. how did i forget the wham match? its as though it never happened.

but still 3 draws out of 4 competative matches is not inspiring stuff, especially when you consider that the entire rangers team probably cost less than berbatov

same with fulham and probably the everton team as well (if u include berbatovs wages so far anyway)///

at the end of the day, you can only compare yourself to your nearest rivals, who would be chelsea. out of our last 4 matches we have a total of 6 points chelsea have 9 points and a game spare by my workings. thats right in the same set of 4 games chelsea might have accumulated double the points we have. that is the benchmark, we should be comparing to. not how bad our last season start was - but by how well chelsea have started this season.

oh and as for valencia? well it looks like my midas touch fot fantasy players has struck agaibn. this season i personally feel accountable for at least 3 players going down: Dawson, Zamora, Valencia. just through having incorporated them into my team. for everyone else and their clubs im sorry, i did try to pick chelsea players but they seem, beyond interference.

 

[McRod]

I have no problem with Rangers playing as they did, but don't kid yourself thinking they ever tried to score on the break. The only time you ever committed players in front of the ball was when Rooney broke against you and almost played Hernandez in towards the end of the first half. That seemed to be enough of a warning for you to stop attacking all together.

Watch it again and you`ll see several forays in to Man Utd`s box. Particularly in the second half.

You`ll also see a penalty claim waived away which, on another day, may well have been given.

As i said, we under no illusions as to how we play football but as a club but expect no apologies for taking that point.

With regards to actually trying to score a goal, i don`t recall our keeper having to make any type of save.

Were you guys actually trying to score too?.

 

[Tute]

Hoofing he ball clear is not an attempt to attack the opposition. Rangers spent 96 minutes trying to keep the ball as far away from their goal as possible. Even when they went into United's half it was all about possession over creating any kind of chance.

And to the person who mentioned the Barcelona games a few years back - that was a counterattacking setup rather than a park the bus one. There's a very good difference. The same tactic was used against Arsenal last season.

 

[Weebull]

I love how Rangers are getting blamed for how boring the game was last night. Nothing to do with Man Utd's utter lack of creativity, poor passing, inability to try any tactic other than deep crosses to a team of midgets and the occasional wishful hope Darron Gibson could save them any further effort.

I mean, honestly, wasn't it something like 55% possession for United at the end of the first half? And they didn't even manage to win a corner until the 85th minute or something ridiculous. If you're playing against a defensive team, they very first thing you should be doing is making sure you dominate possession, and then trying to force errors out of them, at least. Then you might have a bit more ground to complain.