Bruno starts for Portugal

Buffalo said:
He played 19 games for us last season
Wilson 14
Bates 12
Cardoso 12
Martin 10
McCrorie maybe 7 at Centre Half?

Im not excusing any of the CH's last season, Disgraceful is the best is I can muster at some of the performances, but Centre Halfs need consistent runs of games, ideally with the right partner, you look at any succesfull side, the CH pairing will play together for 80-85% of the matches in the season.

Not one of our Centre halves played more than 50% of our league games last season.

When you count Wilson, Cardoso and Martin played 36 games between them its no wonder we lost 50 goals in the league. 3 CH's who are utter shitebags.

If Alves stays, and I wouldn't be bothered at him going given his wages, then he will be a first pick with Goldson, we get a quality left back and we have a solid back 5.
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Solid back five? With Tav? No thanks.
 
Big Bawz Baloo said:
Probably didn't realise that it's difficult to play the Scottish game.Too fast and don't get time on the ball.Alot of good players have failed miserably here because they misjudged our game.
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Aye the Scottish game is so great that it’s core players have not qualified for a major tournament since 1998 - foreigners must quake in their boots about facing Hamilton and St Johnstone .......
 
Blutoe said:
Aye the Scottish game is so great that it’s core players have not qualified for a major tournament since 1998 - foreigners must quake in their boots about facing Hamilton and St Johnstone .......
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I never said it was great.Its crap.
It's still a difficult game to play here and takes a bit of adjusting to the no time on the ball.
 
Facts are, he's been a big disappointment for us.

It actually makes it worse that he’ll be playing for Portugal in the World Cup, when he failed to look the part against the might of Hamilton and Ross County in the Scottish Premiership.
 
Blutoe said:
Aye the Scottish game is so great that it’s core players have not qualified for a major tournament since 1998 - foreigners must quake in their boots about facing Hamilton and St Johnstone .......
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It’s not great quality but it is a hard league to get accustomed to quickly, especially without a run of games.

Moreso when your playing for a team that isn’t treated the same as others when it comes to referees.
 
The Ultimate Warrior said:
And when they won 3-1 at Ibrox he looked slow, washed up and a bit of a shambles.
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We play 2 attacking full backs and 2 wingers. Our defence are totally exposed and, for our system to work, we need quick centre halves. Alves is a great backs to the wall centre half, in the way cuellar and weir were. The difference is Walter played to their strengths.
 
final_straws said:
Only reason he will be getting picked is past reputation and really limited other options (apart from Fonte (done post injury) and Neto, the rest are vastly inexperienced).

Suits a team parking the bus but as soon as someone runs into space either side of him, he is a huge liability.

Hope he plays well and we can get shot of him
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Or maybe the manager trusts him e to do the job he wants him to do and nothing to do with reputation
 
MearnsUnionist said:
I seem to recall it was the usual suspects that wouldn't recognise a football if it skelped them in the mouth.

I'm friendly with a member of the Rangers medical team through my own career and it was a genuine injury, as everyone with half a brain knew .
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It's laughable for anyone to suggest he 'shat it'. He's played in far more hostile games than a current day Old Firm.
 
Der Berliner said:
BTW, Portugal won 3-0 against Algeria ... though I did not really want to interrupt another pro and con debate on one of Portugal's finest football performers and whether he's actually a footballer or not ...
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This is what I came into the thread for, thought that the game might have been discussed... silly me! Did you watch any of the game? If so did Bruno play well?
 
One things for sure, we want Portugal to do well, the longer big Bruno is there the more cash Rangers get.

Taken from Fifa Website

The amount of around USD 8,530 is multiplied by the number of days each player is at the World Cup, starting two weeks before the Opening Match until the day following the last match of his team (total per player). The total per player is then distributed to the club (s) with which the player was registered during the previous two years.
 
MearnsUnionist said:
I seem to recall it was the usual suspects that wouldn't recognise a football if it skelped them in the mouth.

I'm friendly with a member of the Rangers medical team through my own career and it was a genuine injury, as everyone with half a brain knew .
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Agreed. To suggest a guy of his calibre who has faced the best strikers in the world would somehow shit himself at the thought of facing Dembele and the Thumb is actually embarrassing.
 
Scott McRoberts said:
One things for sure, we want Portugal to do well, the longer big Bruno is there the more cash Rangers get.

Taken from Fifa Website

The amount of around USD 8,530 is multiplied by the number of days each player is at the World Cup, starting two weeks before the Opening Match until the day following the last match of his team (total per player). The total per player is then distributed to the club (s) with which the player was registered during the previous two years.
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That amount will bearly cover his close season wages mate.

Would much prefer him back early and fighting fit after a longer rest, so that he's available for the Europa qualifiers.
 
Scott McRoberts said:
One things for sure, we want Portugal to do well, the longer big Bruno is there the more cash Rangers get.

Taken from Fifa Website

The amount of around USD 8,530 is multiplied by the number of days each player is at the World Cup, starting two weeks before the Opening Match until the day following the last match of his team (total per player). The total per player is then distributed to the club (s) with which the player was registered during the previous two years.
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Dont quite agree with his last club getting a cut. But them the rules I suppose.
 
ICA_86 said:
It’s not great quality but it is a hard league to get accustomed to quickly, especially without a run of games.

Moreso when your playing for a team that isn’t treated the same as others when it comes to referees.
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Nailed it. Alves watched the Stokes/Tav farrago & assaults on team-mates (Jack, Dorrans etc), closely & realised Scottish football isn't a level playing field. A magnificent 'clean-out' (for which he was correctly booked) aside, Alves used 20 years experience to avoid unfair penalties. Martin was simply finished. There is a difference.
 
Gioloya1 said:
Bates wasn't at fault for that goal.
He actually did great to get something on Rogic.
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No way Bates can be blamed for that goal.

It came from Goss being caught on the wrong side of Rogic in the middle of the park and then the shot takes a wicked deflection off Bates.
 
The Ultimate Warrior said:
Alves missed games because he is old and his body is broken - how will that change, is he going to get younger?

He didn't feature much after the St Johnstone game at home because he was comedy shit.

He was without doubt our best paid CB "our best CB" he is fucken supposed to be our best CB - even in a thought process where he did outperform a Bates - its David fucken Bates for christ sake, he is paid to be better than him.

The premise of rebuilding our side with holding midfielders, fullbacks who sit and CB who has to babysit Alves...nah...just get a better CB...and set out a team to play like a side who is trying to win games not accomodate a CB...

We took a gun to a knife fight last year and lost - the higher paid players like Alves were as culpable as any in that...
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Bruno missed a lot of games last year because the kiddies coach thought Danny Wilson and Russell Martin were better options than him.

Which is borderline insanity.
 
MearnsUnionist said:
I seem to recall it was the usual suspects that wouldn't recognise a football if it skelped them in the mouth.

I'm friendly with a member of the Rangers medical team through my own career and it was a genuine injury, as everyone with half a brain knew .
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Correct. I have met Bruno in a restaurant we both use and there is no doubt about his injuries. He is aware of the injury problem and is trying to do what he can to avoid future problems. He may not be the answer for us going forward but he is a fine player coming to the end of his career which is not his fault ..we all get older.
 
Amato Turn said:
I don't know if I would say he "shat it" from the mentally challengeds but if you look at his record against them last season:

Missed the first Old Firm game through injury and didn't even bother staying in the country for it.

Hobbled out of the second Old Firm game of the season after about 15-20 minutes through injury.

Played, not very well, in the third Old Firm game of the season - a game that turned when Bates got injured and the bombscare brothers Cardoso and Alves ended up as our centre back pair.

Tried to go off injured late on in the fourth Old Firm game of the season at Hampden but, having made all our subs, was forced to stay on.

I can't even remember what part he played in the 5-0 game at the end of the season. I think he phoned in sick again.

You can see where the accusations come from. It's hardly the record of a guy we can' trust or rely on.
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Exactly. But he did send us a photo from a hospital in Madrid and someone on here knows someone inside Ibrox who can confirm he was injured. I guess were just unlucky, again.
 
Alves is still a very good defender in the right system. Our system leaves his main weakness - lack of pace - too exposed. Simple as that really.

All depends on how we're going to set up next season.
 
ICA_86 said:
It’s not great quality but it is a hard league to get accustomed to quickly, especially without a run of games.

Moreso when your playing for a team that isn’t treated the same as others when it comes to referees.
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How come ever single time a foreign team plays one of our "better" sides in Europe they win with ease then?

They don't have a run of games against similar opposition to get up to speed but you can bet your bottom dollar that FC Tractor of Moldova are putting Aberdeen or Hibs out in the early rounds of the Europa league.
 
Yer da said:
It's laughable for anyone to suggest he 'shat it'. He's played in far more hostile games than a current day Old Firm.
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Yes but if he values his international career more than playing for us, perhaps her didn't fancy getting injured by well known "hard man Broony".
 
Buffalo said:
All Alves is needs is the following

A centre half who can cover players running in behind
A run of games
A competent manager

The guy is a dominant in the air centre half who clears his lines, the problem last season was he was always paired with someone who couldn't do what he couldn't do - so in effect we had two CH's with no pace struggling with players in behind.

Our fans unfortunately expected a mix of a silky, play it from the back defender who was going to keep 38 clean sheets on his owns.

Like every player he has his strengths and weaknesses, with centre halves weaknesses are compensated because his partner has them as strengths, our 2 incompetents couldn't see that, indeed one of the absolute imbeciles to "grace" our Dugout thought that Martin, Wilson, Bates, McCrorie were all better centre halves than him, or at least he didn't want someone with authority and presence in the team.

He conducted himself well in the shambles of the Semi Final also, actually behaving like a leader.

I think he can do an excellent job for us next season, although its all down to luck with injuries - but id give him the season.
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Excellent summary of the situation
 
Laudrup1 said:
How come ever single time a foreign team plays one of our "better" sides in Europe they win with ease then?

They don't have a run of games against similar opposition to get up to speed but you can bet your bottom dollar that FC Tractor of Moldova are putting Aberdeen or Hibs out in the early rounds of the Europa league.
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Because Scottish Football is bizarro-land.

What other League in World Football can World Cup Winners (Guivarch) European Cup Winners/Finalists (Rothen, Boli, Capucho) and big names (Juninho, Flo, Barton, Alves) that (on paper) should stroll it up here - come in and largely bomb spectacularly whilst becoming the butt of jokes whilst the 'star players' of the league often end up being guys signed from wee diddy teams to much less fanfare.

Scottish Football is not a good retirement home. It's very physical, 100 miles an hour punt and grunt where the refs let thuggery go unpunished and the league is full of nippy wee fannies absolutely choking to blooter a Rangers player so they can brag to their mentally challenged mates about it when they're out on the piss later that night.

Alves realized that pretty early and, like plenty before him, clearly decided he didn't much fancy it.
 
The guy had injuries, he’s 37, at his age you don’t keep form and keep your body in top condition by sitting on the bench. It’s important you keep playing. He was saving himself for nothing, merely a victim of injuries, a shite team and shite management which exposed his most glaring weakness. He’s not faultless but I don’t think he’s been skiving off either.

Admin should dish out foil hats to everyone who signs up here. There’s always a conspiracy, always an ulterior motive and the most logical explanation is seemingly never the correct one.
 
Big Bawz Baloo said:
I never said it was great.Its crap.
It's still a difficult game to play here and takes a bit of adjusting to the no time on the ball.
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It’s difficult because it’s crap. The replacement of skill with brawn is a culture shock for many, particularly the likes of Bruno Alves with many miles on the clock and the pace gone.
 
Definately a big player who can do a job for us if used properly. Don't know what went wrong with him (maybe that he was played with players that are worse than playing with 10 players), but I'd hope he would get a chance with good pairing.
 
Scott McRoberts said:
One things for sure, we want Portugal to do well, the longer big Bruno is there the more cash Rangers get.

Taken from Fifa Website

The amount of around USD 8,530 is multiplied by the number of days each player is at the World Cup, starting two weeks before the Opening Match until the day following the last match of his team (total per player). The total per player is then distributed to the club (s) with which the player was registered during the previous two years.
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Bear in mind we only get half the total amount, the other half going to his previous club.

I'd still like to see him do well though.
 
I'd say that Bruno is very decent at his job as centre back. Which is why he has many caps for one of the top European countries in his playing lifetime and still being chosen at top international level. He may be too old nowadays to carry dross defenders along but he would still be more than decent with decent defenders either side of him that he didn't need to cover for.
 
Gioloya1 said:
Bates wasn't at fault for that goal.
He actually did great to get something on Rogic.
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Correct, another Sean Goss howler and Fod should have done better.

Carbon coby of McGinn running past Goss, Id imagine if we had a manager at the time who had of tore into Goss for that vs hibs, the Celtic goal might not have happened.
 
Tavenar said:
Solid back five? With Tav? No thanks.
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Again as with Alves, we can't replace every single player at the club, we need to prioritize positions, its not rocket science.

It would cost us a fortune to replace Tav, and he might not be the best defender, but going forward he is one of our best players, defensively for the first half of the season he was fine, if he can keep that form then its stupidity to prioritise getting rid of him.

BTW , The majority of games the tims played last season included only 3 signings from Rodgers

Thats 8 players that Warburtons team beat playing regurarly.

If people don't think some of these players can do a job for us and help us win a title, when we were only 12 points away with a clusterfuck of a season, then they should probably seek help - its as if most of the folk on this forum have never been to a game before.
 
If Alves has a good World Cup then either ways it's a good thing for us. If he leaves we surely get a transfer fee and if he stays we get a decent centre back who's played at the biggest football competition in the world coming back to a revitalised Rangers.
 
Buffalo said:
Again as with Alves, we can't replace every single player at the club, we need to prioritize positions, its not rocket science.

It would cost us a fortune to replace Tav, and he might not be the best defender, but going forward he is one of our best players, defensively for the first half of the season he was fine, if he can keep that form then its stupidity to prioritise getting rid of him.

BTW , The majority of games the tims played last season included only 3 signings from Rodgers

Thats 8 players that Warburtons team beat playing regurarly.

If people don't think some of these players can do a job for us and help us win a title, when we were only 12 points away with a clusterfuck of a season, then they should probably seek help - its as if most of the folk on this forum have never been to a game before.
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Wish people would stop talking about this ' we were only 12 points away despite a clusterfuck of a season'.
We maybe ended up as 12 behind but would have been a further 6 if they hadn't lain down in the final games after the split. We were way way behind them. But I do reckon most of the squad were good enough to challenge but short of two or three quality players and the coach / manager situation was a joke. GM, nice guy but really brutal as head coach. Can't overstate enough how a poor coach can bring down the whole squad with his selections, formations, instructions and decisions.
 
Foddo Foddo said:
Wish people would stop talking about this ' we were only 12 points away despite a clusterfuck of a season'.
We maybe ended up as 12 behind but would have been a further 6 if they hadn't lain down in the final games after the split. We were way way behind them. But I do reckon most of the squad were good enough to challenge but short of two or three quality players and the coach / manager situation was a joke. GM, nice guy but really brutal as head coach. Can't overstate enough how a poor coach can bring down the whole squad with his selections, formations, instructions and decisions.
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That might be the case re the last 5 games, however look at the games we lost also.

Dundee, Hamilton, St Johnstone, Games we normally win, and should win, comfortably.

Hibs at home - we lost the game tactically
Celtic at Home - we lost the game tactically
Killie away - we lost the game tactically

Murty was the reason we were over 10 points behind, and in turn the board.
 
Alves only a few away from 100 caps, he will be hoping they get out the group stages and gets a chance along the way. TBF him and Pepe looked a decent CB pairing.
 
I must admit, the only time I noticed Bruno was when he was going off. The rest of the time he was pretty inconspicuous but, the Algerian forward line was also pretty inept. Alves however was and still is, a better choice for center half than the people that Murty seemed to prefer.
 
Buffalo said:
That might be the case re the last 5 games, however look at the games we lost also.

Dundee, Hamilton, St Johnstone, Games we normally win, and should win, comfortably.

Hibs at home - we lost the game tactically
Celtic at Home - we lost the game tactically
Killie away - we lost the game tactically

Murty was the reason we were over 10 points behind, and in turn the board.
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I agree. Murty and Pedro for sure but still need 3 quality experienced players in my opinion.
A lot of optimism which is great but who is going to defend and who will hit 20+ league goals for us? No team wins a league without a talisman. We don't have that at the moment and the players brought in? well I'm not as optimistic as some fans are. However, a decent manager with decent assistant could definitely get the best out the squad which if they can do that then we won't be too far away.
 
Foddo Foddo said:
I agree. Murty and Pedro for sure but still need 3 quality experienced players in my opinion.
A lot of optimism which is great but who is going to defend and who will hit 20+ league goals for us? No team wins a league without a talisman. We don't have that at the moment and the players brought in? well I'm not as optimistic as some fans are. However, a decent manager with decent assistant could definitely get the best out the squad which if they can do that then we won't be too far away.
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We need 3 top quality players for me - A proper Centre half, the brighton lad looks promising, A proper Left back and a solid centre midfielder.

We then need to buy suitable back up CH's x2 and a Striker who can play off or with Morelos.

The way some are going on they want 18 players replaced, that simply dilutes the quality we bring in.

Players at the club are more than capable of challenging and winning that league with the right coaching and manager.

There are of course, players who will not be good enough, Halliday, MOH, Hodson, Cardoso, Hererra etc.
 
I think it’s going to be as simple as whether Steven Gerrard wants to keep him or not.

If our new manager sees the player’s experience as an invaluable asset and can convince Alves he has a part to play, I’m fine with that.

Similarly, if we decide his is a wage that can be better used towards acquiring another player, then that’s fair enough too.
 
If he was being linked with is this summer rather than last summer we would all be getting excited, I think we would get more games out of him next season as this will be his last summer tournament for portugal so he wouldn't be as risk adverse at playing with niggles
 
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