Matt Polster has now been involved in three matches in a row. One as a sub for the hapless Jon Flanagan, and two starts.
It’s not accurate to suggest he’s been up there with Cafu, but what he lacks in dynamic flair play going forward he more than makes up for with comfortable, disciplined tight defending.
Indeed, Aberdeen and Ross County both found their opportunities down the left extremely limited, if not completely void, and that was lot to do with Polster’s intelligent reading of the flank and awareness of where to be and when.
We lost number of the times we saw him in the right place yesterday, with some clever interceptions and tracking back.
However, there’s an elephant in the room here, and that elephant is shaped in the form of James Tavernier.
There is no question the captain will get his place back – he’s the captain, and despite being unavailable for selection he was bafflingly put on the bench in place of a fit option yesterday – Gerrard is clearly that keen to get him back in the action as soon as possible.
But, equally, Polster’s defensive tightness would be a loss, as would his support on the flank too – the guy has a decent cross, even if he doesn’t have such an effective dribble or the pace of Tav.
Ergo, Ibrox Noise suggests a solution – leave Polster where he is, and replace the ineffective Joe Aribo on the right with Tavernier.
The Aribo experiment just hasn’t worked – it initially showed promise, but overall he’s just not giving the kind of width or delivery from wide that we need from a flanker, and that’s Tavernier’s domain.
We could think of much worse solutions than putting Tavernier out wide permanently instead of leaving him as RB, and in truth, he and Polster could easily swap responsibilities just like Tavernier and Daniel Candeias did back in the day to decent effect.
It’s a way to get the defensive reliability of Polster plus the flamboyant attacking of Tavernier in one without losing the service of either.
As for Aribo? No harm. He cost £250,000 and can be used as a good sub and for depth as and when needed.
We just think this is a better way.
Sure beats Ojo…