Going for 55? Aye Mate Defoe

[FootballManagerLad]

That's right, it is a Rangers manager story, a Steven Gerrard manager story. I will be playing as Steven Gerrard as I aim to end Celtic's Scottish dominance and reclaim title number 55. Celtic currently are on the verge of a treble treble which is simply 3 years in a row of winning all 3 domestic trophies (which they have accomplish IRL), our aim is to stop that this season along with lifting a trophy of our own along the way. Rangers currently sit on 54 Premier League titles and Gerrard has arrived to end Celtic's dominant stint and lift that much wanted number 55. I plan to make this save somewhat realistic so will likely copy the signings Gerrard has made in the real life summer window of 2019 whilst also offloading the same players he has offloaded/will offload and then from then on in the save it'll be my own calls.

Here is the aims of the save;
Season 1 - Stop the treble treble and perhaps pick up a trophy of our own along with a decent European run
Season 2 - Win League title number 55 and stop Celtic winning 10IAR (10 league titles in a row, currently on 7 as we start the save)
Season 3 - Win the title again and this will now be expected every season, we also want to be aiming to always win the domestic cups along with a good European display
Season 4 - We should be performing well in Europe and comfortably reaching knockout stages.
Season 5 - hopefully the coefficient has increased somewhat and both the old firm are now in the Champions League, hopefully have won a domestic treble by now.

We will see where we are after this point and see how much further we can go.

First update will be the European Qualifiers.

 

[FootballManagerLad]

UEFA Europa League 1st Qual. Rnd Leg 1
Coleriane vs Rangers

So we meet Coleraine in our first qualifier, a comfortable win in the away first leg see's us as good as through! Debut goals for Katic & Arfield as Ryan Jack finally scores his first Rangers goal. Steven Gerrard starts off his reign with a comfortable win.

UEFA Europa League 1st Qual. Rnd Leg 2
Rangers

vs

Coleriane​

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​

Ten changes to the starting eleven for us in the second leg as a few more players are handed their debuts. Jermain Defoe gets off the mark as a Rangers player and there is also a first Rangers goal for Glenn Middleton.

Onwards to round 2 now where we face Ferencvaros from Hungary.

 

[FootballManagerLad]

UEFA Europa League 2nd Qual. Rnd Leg 1
​

Rangers​

vs Ferencvarosi

Round two see's us at home and we get the job done comfortably enough, the Hungarian side grab one back to keep a bit of hope in the tie. Alfredo Morelos grabs his first two goals of the new season.

UEFA Europa League 2nd Qual. Rnd Leg 2
Ferencvarosi vs ​

​

Rangers​

​

​​​

We get the win in the second leg to see us through, Defoe's goal the only goal to separate the two sides.

It is a very tough test for us in round 3 as we take on AZ from the Netherlands.
​

 

[FootballManagerLad]

UEFA Europa League 3rd Qual. Rnd Leg 1
AZ vs RANGERS

Well well well...heartbreaking to say the least, disappointing performance from us here and Steven Gerrard as he is beaten as a manager for the first time. This result could've gone either way as we dominated large periods of the game and both sides had clear cut chances, AZ were just more clinical. Alfredo Morelos missed two one on ones at 0-0 and continued to miss further good chances when we were behind. Lafferty came off the bench and looked to have grabbed a huge goal for us when he got on the end of Defoe's cross only for Goldson to lunge in at the other end and give away a silly penalty. Big challenge for us now to get through this tie.

UEFA Europa League 3rd Qual. Rnd Leg 2
RANGERS vs AZ

AND WE'VE DONE IT! What a phenomenal game, we had a dull performance first half and Morelos again missed some big chances for us so I feared the worst going into the second half but a great bit of play down the left saw us work in a cross for Morelos to volley home with half an hour still to play. Defoe was brought on with ten to go as we went two up top to chase for that all important goal. Ibrox erupted on 89 mins as Tavernier slipped Defoe in behind on the right, Morelos was free screaming for the ball to be cut across to him but Defoe went alone and boy did he go alone hammering the ball beyond the helpless keeper. We are through and set ourselves up with a tie against Rio Ave for the final qualifier. Can we do it?

Next update will be a small break from Europe as we see the first two league games of the season, Aberdeen away to start and then newly promoted St Mirren at home.
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[FootballManagerLad]

Scottish Premier League Week 1
ABERDEEN vs RANGERS

Finally the league campaign begins, seems like we are so far into the season already with all the European games! Tough match against Aberdeen to start, a side who will want to make sure they finish above us yet again. Solid performance from us though to set a marker, Morelos, McGregor & Tavernier the three stars as we get a comfortable enough win, Morelos winning the pen for Tavs goal and then Tavernier crossing for Morelos to grab the second. McGregor made various good saves as Aberdeen had their fair share of chances but they couldn't finish, overall we deserved the win.

Scottish Premier League Matchday 2
RANGERS vs ST MIRREN

Last season's Championship winners are welcomed to Ibrox and boy did we make this hard! A game we should be winning comfortably and this actually came after the first leg against AZ which we lost so we were looking for a reaction which seemed to fail to spark as Defoe had come in for the disappointing Morelos and wasn't really involved in the game. Luckily a change of tactics which saw Morelos and Lafferty paired together upfront resulted in a Connor Goldson winner 8 minutes from time as he scored his first goal for the club whilst captaining in Tavs absence (rested). Kyle Lafferty scored another header moments later to have us all questioning what we were even worrying about.

Next update it is back to Europe with a nice trip to Portugal, C'mon the Gers!

 

[LiamCFC88]

I can’t support you, I’m clearly to bigoted COYBIG HH