Earlier we penned a piece about how neither Calvin Bassey nor Borna Barisic are completely convincing at LB.
What amused us about the reaction, aside the abuse, is the condemnation of the piece.
Not, you understand, a word about the criticism of Barisic, but massive abuse about the criticism of Bassey.
Much reaction calling it a negative article, but only with regards to Bassey, not his Croat team mate. It seems everyone was quite happy to read criticism about Borna…
We digress.
Much of the criticism was about how Bassey is the superior model, all round, it seems. Some said ‘going forward’ some said ‘defensively’.
Many pointed to his assist v Dortmund as proof that he could cross the ball in Europe, failing to note that the cross was slightly speculative, and was in fact intercepted – an error in Dortmund’s rearguard (had it been Goldson doing that we’d have blamed him solely for the goal) led to it creeping over to Tav who soaked it up. Sadly, the official stats don’t completely agree (some stats sites say it was, others say not) that it was an assist or a successful cross.
But if we give him that, then it’s one assist in 3 UEL appearances as a LB. Which isn’t bad at all.
Barisic has 8 assists, and 3 goals in 30. More experience and he was a UEL top assists provider in 2019.
It’s not that we dislike Bassey, far from it. In fact the angry ones out there who flew off the handle at our earlier piece might like to know we’ve been his biggest supporter all season, pleading with Gio or the ex boss to play him at LB.
But it doesn’t alter the fact that at their best, Barisic offers more going forward.
How can a player with his crossing ability be forgotten this aggressively by fans?
We know the man is low on confidence now, not helped by the debacle at Parkhead, but fans dismissing Barisic and what he’s been for us in favour of the younger model are being very unfair on the Croat.
The ones calling us negative and abusing us for pointing out Bassey isn’t the finished article are the ones abusing Barisic and demanding Bassey plays. Can’t have it both ways folks.
On a form level right now, we agree Bassey is the better option. He also has lots of potential to develop.
But Borna was a top player when he was in form, he was one of the best LBs in the UK for a while.
It just seems fans are ready to bin players far too quickly.
Borna Barasic is a Top player proven international and a valuable player. He is unfortunately having a real challenge with Gerrard /Beale tactics versus GVB s. He is a better technical FB than Bassey who is a big strong lad who gets up and down but has a few mistakes in his game. I really think Barasic is the option needed for Europe and OF games . I wish all Rangers players the best always , we all get annoyed but let’s keep our anger for those that disregard and disrespect our great club
Put it this way, Calvin Bassey wouldn’t get close to being Croatia’s first pick left back. I don’t know what’s gone wrong with Barisic but that player is still in there. Hopefully, GVB can find it and coax it out again.
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