Holloway's record

[Stanley]

What have we learnt??? Well Freeman is a miss when he's not playing, unlikely to see Doughty again, probably still need prolific striker and Manning has huge potential but not quite ready as the answer

Any other observations??

Luongo finally coming of age.

Other than that (and what you've already mentioned), it's mainly about potential:

Furlong, potentially a permanent replacement for Perch.

Smith and Washington potentially forming a decent goalscoring partnership.

[72bus]

i bought tickets recently to derby, hotel for 4 , food , petrol etc , 3 tickets to brentford , may go to norwich . i want to see our best 11 try and win these games . i'd like to see our well paid players run themselves into the ground for the shirt and make us fans proud ... the last thing i want to hear is it's ok for olly to experiment , let him do that monday to friday at training if the bloke doesn't know his best team by now he'll never know... losing is no good to any team or the fans , say we win our remaining games the players will go into pre season on a high and the fans will respond by buying ST's , experiment in the pre season games not now

[CroydonCaptainJack]

When Ollie joined the club were still talking about aiming for promotion. Club on bare results has actually gone backwards under him and is lower mid table at best. Just saying ...

Been a few promising signs but for me jury most definitely out.

If you honestly think we have gone backwards under Holloway then you've been watching different games to me.

[Bluehoop]

It's amazing how many on here have a short term mentality. We have been a rudderless ship for so long (even under Warnock it was only ever the here and now) but since he came in Holloway has made it very clear that this is about (re)building an identity throughout the Club. Players at all levels will know what's expected and required and we, as a fan base will do too. It's simple to say that because we have a passionate manager and a team that appears to be proud enough to wear the shirt that "we've got our Rangers back" - well no, not yet we haven't. The process will take more than half a season and Holloway has clearly said that as soon as we are safe (which we are) he is going to be looking at formations, squad players and giving opportunities to people to show their worth and/or potential.

These are proper competitive games and you simply cannot judge what Holloway is looking for in meaningless stroll about pre-season friendlies. This is absolutely the right time to be doing what he's doing and the view that "he should know his best team by now" is again, short term and illogical. He has found a way to get the results needed to secure us for next season, a lot of what we have seen was all about that one objective and now the process of organic growth can move forward.

Sorry to all you "we want it now" and "we should be beating everyone in this league" types but it is going to take time and I for one am delighted to see the progress made to date and am excited by the prospect of actually getting our Rangers back in the future.

[Stanley]

It's amazing how many on here have a short term mentality. We have been a rudderless ship for so long (even under Warnock it was only ever the here and now) but since he came in Holloway has made it very clear that this is about (re)building an identity throughout the Club. Players at all levels will know what's expected and required and we, as a fan base will do too. It's simple to say that because we have a passionate manager and a team that appears to be proud enough to wear the shirt that "we've got our Rangers back" - well no, not yet we haven't. The process will take more than half a season and Holloway has clearly said that as soon as we are safe (which we are) he is going to be looking at formations, squad players and giving opportunities to people to show their worth and/or potential.

These are proper competitive games and you simply cannot judge what Holloway is looking for in meaningless stroll about pre-season friendlies. This is absolutely the right time to be doing what he's doing and the view that "he should know his best team by now" is again, short term and illogical. He has found a way to get the results needed to secure us for next season, a lot of what we have seen was all about that one objective and now the process of organic growth can move forward.

Sorry to all you "we want it now" and "we should be beating everyone in this league" types but it is going to take time and I for one am delighted to see the progress made to date and am excited by the prospect of actually getting our Rangers back in the future.

Amen. Post of the month

[corbray]

It's amazing how many on here have a short term mentality. We have been a rudderless ship for so long (even under Warnock it was only ever the here and now) but since he came in Holloway has made it very clear that this is about (re)building an identity throughout the Club. Players at all levels will know what's expected and required and we, as a fan base will do too. It's simple to say that because we have a passionate manager and a team that appears to be proud enough to wear the shirt that "we've got our Rangers back" - well no, not yet we haven't. The process will take more than half a season and Holloway has clearly said that as soon as we are safe (which we are) he is going to be looking at formations, squad players and giving opportunities to people to show their worth and/or potential.

These are proper competitive games and you simply cannot judge what Holloway is looking for in meaningless stroll about pre-season friendlies. This is absolutely the right time to be doing what he's doing and the view that "he should know his best team by now" is again, short term and illogical. He has found a way to get the results needed to secure us for next season, a lot of what we have seen was all about that one objective and now the process of organic growth can move forward.

Sorry to all you "we want it now" and "we should be beating everyone in this league" types but it is going to take time and I for one am delighted to see the progress made to date and am excited by the prospect of actually getting our Rangers back in the future.

[FurtiveFox]

Marginally better points per game than JFH isn't he? Jimmy just drew so many bloody games.

The real improvement is in spirit and the way we play in my opinion. The team look like they care again which to be honest, has been missing since our promotion season under Warnock.

In my opinion, we're still missing a few players. We desperately need someone in the Shaun Derry mould in the middle of the park. I also don't like us at centre back. I'll get panned for this but I reckon Ned needs to go and be replaced with someone more comfortable with the ball at his feet. I'd also like to see a 4-4-2 with Freeman and Pawel on the wings.

This is what positive side of me thinks and agree with your squad observations. Jury is out for me but we have seen some signs of improvement in spirit and you can't fault Ollie's commitment.

Was probably wrong of me to say we have gone backwards. Would have been more appropriate for me to have said no significant improvement and long way from the promotion contenders we supposedly still were when he took over. On results still lower mid table. What I would have expected was for us to have won more than we lost. What we have is lost more than we won but hoping we can sort out some consistency for next season.

[Bigdave]

It's amazing how many on here have a short term mentality. We have been a rudderless ship for so long (even under Warnock it was only ever the here and now) but since he came in Holloway has made it very clear that this is about (re)building an identity throughout the Club. Players at all levels will know what's expected and required and we, as a fan base will do too. It's simple to say that because we have a passionate manager and a team that appears to be proud enough to wear the shirt that "we've got our Rangers back" - well no, not yet we haven't. The process will take more than half a season and Holloway has clearly said that as soon as we are safe (which we are) he is going to be looking at formations, squad players and giving opportunities to people to show their worth and/or potential.

These are proper competitive games and you simply cannot judge what Holloway is looking for in meaningless stroll about pre-season friendlies. This is absolutely the right time to be doing what he's doing and the view that "he should know his best team by now" is again, short term and illogical. He has found a way to get the results needed to secure us for next season, a lot of what we have seen was all about that one objective and now the process of organic growth can move forward.

Sorry to all you "we want it now" and "we should be beating everyone in this league" types but it is going to take time and I for one am delighted to see the progress made to date and am excited by the prospect of actually getting our Rangers back in the future.

Very good post.

I get what 72 is saying and it is hard for those of you that go every week but building foundations is a must for a club like us.

[Shepherds Mush]

Only thing that bothers me about the tinkering is I think we aren't giving enough time to grow the Smith / Washington partnership

[davieqpr]

You can still try players and formations out with only a couple of changes per week.Sometimes players can't get used to different line ups every week. Iv'e seen every home game and quite a few away games,
including Newcastle,Villa,but I won't be spending my money to go to Bristol to see another experiment.

[hal9thou]

It's amazing how many on here have a short term mentality etc etc

None of which alters the fact that you have to learn from obviously deficient tactical mistakes. So it shouldn't take that long to work out how 3 at the back exposes the flanks and at the other end has the knock on effect of Smith (of all people) spending too long back to goal. But we still keep seeing mistakes repeated. You need exceptional players to function as wing backs covering a three, we simply don't have that and there are better solutions. Even experienced managers don't always seem to get it: look at Wenger. The Arsenal wing backs play like wingers, there is absolutely no cover in wide areas behind them and they're being torn apart. Big Sam saw them coming. Unless you have Cafu and Roberto Carlos forget it, full backs (and wingers) every time.

[SuperHoopNik]

We have absolutely nothing to play for right now so why not start pre season early and trial new systems and tactics. We'll be better prepared for next season that way.

[72bus]

just hope he has his best team out at griffin park and we take the game to them

[Bigdave]

just hope he has his best team out at griffin park and we take the game to them

Yeah same here. Surely Holloway will realise this is their cup final and we need to be at full strength

[Shepherds Mush]

Yeah same here. Surely Holloway will realise this is their cup final and we need to be at full strength

I'll be well p*ssed off if we don't turn up at Brentford. Simply cannot dismiss a derby game as a dead rubber.