Steven Gerrard has dramatically u-turned on an announcement he made prior to Livi. Rangers’ manager obviously selected Niko Katic on Saturday to face Aberdeen, but it was confirmation pre-Livi that was the most interesting and Saturday’s selection did not match up.
Gerrard said pre-kick off that the Allan McGregor, James Tavernier, Connor Goldson, Filip Helander and Borna Barisic back five was what he was planning to stick with, to ‘keep together’, but following the Swede’s horrific display that night the ex-Bologna man found himself back on the bench for Aberdeen.
Stevie had clearly aimed to retain that preferred back five, but the 26-year old’s disappointing display that evening may have led to a dramatic change of heart from Rangers’ manager opening the door for the Croat to get another chance.
Sadly he was maybe one of Rangers’ weaker performers yesterday with a number of mistakes reminiscent of last season and which looked like he’d reverted a little back the way, but if he is selected for Young Boys this week we’d expect him to put in a much better performance.
As for Helander, his display v Livi showed a real struggle to get to grips with the league – it’s one thing doing it against a horrendous St Johnstone, quite another struggling against a slightly above average defender in Dykes, and getting away with a stonewall red card.
This is not to entirely smite the Swede – he was excellent against Feyenoord, but the Dutch side barely played any better than St Johnstone and Aberdeen did – whether that was failings on their part or just superior coaching from Steven Gerrard we can’t quite be sure.
But Gerrard has seen fit to bring Katic back in, in a sensible response to such a poor display on Wednesday, giving us absolutely no clue who will start on Thursday…
I expect Helander will play alongside Goldson on Thursday. He did have a tough time against Livingstone, playing in Serie A he probably hasn't come across the Livi style of football very often. But he was excellent against Feyenoord, who were a vastly better side than St Johnstone or Livi.
It's hard to know whether Katic has so badly lost form because of being dropped from the team, or whether he was dropped from the team because he has lost form. But Helander, having played 50 or so games in Serie A and faced some of the top players in the world, would look like a better option to face Young Boys on Thursday.
For sure it is going to be a tough game for Rangers, if we get any points at all it will be a fabulous result.
Livingston pitch is a joke maybe Helandar just wasn’t suited to that artificial grass he’s not the first or last and katic was bad on Saturday so I wish the gers with tinted glasses on would see it we just haven’t got a proper pair of centre backs and will be caught out big time .
Young Boys play on plastic too.
You watching a different game to everyone else. I thought katic was superb yesterday and well deserved his place in the team. Would pick him over goldson just now
Who knows what Gerrard thinks! Because Goldson needs a break. I'd give Katic and Helander a run.
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