Barely a soul among our Giovanni van Bronckhorst-doubting section of fans has mentioned it, but Rangers just won four matches in a row without conceding a goal.
After a spell of dodgy form in which we drew 3 competitive matches in a row (and one friendly v Dortmund) the knives were out from a fair portion of fans ready to fire Gio and declare 56 a bust.
We even ran a poll on our social media channels asking fans if they believed we’d win 56, and a shocking number (well over half) said no.
The climate has changed a lot in the last four matches.
Two solid (if uninspired) wins over Aberdeen and St Johnstone, a stonking gubbing of Red Star in Europe, then a decent win with improved domestic form entertained us at Dens.
Whisper it – Rangers are playing quite well, but more importantly we’re keeping the zero.
For a defence which continues to be abused by so many of our fans who can’t stand Connor Goldson (or Tav let’s face it), it’s doing a darn decent job of not conceding goals.
We’ve gone 360 minutes of football without conceding any, and that’s pretty remarkable given how many supporters have wanted to give Gio his P45 more than once this calendar year.
Are we saying our form is completely sorted? No, we subscribe to the Barry Ferguson school of thinking on this one where we’re not fully convinced until we go 10 unbeaten, including maybe 8 wins minimum.
But 4 wins in a row with complete blank shut outs is a start, and it shows our manager is evolving, learning, and figuring things out as he goes.
Let the haters hate?
Re Goldson I think it should be noted that he has been the only constant in central defence in recent years during which time we have mostly had an excellent defensive record. Also, for the majority of the time we have played with two attacking full backs. He is no Butcher or Gough and has made mistakes but, imo, he deserves a lot of credit. We will miss him if he goes in the Summer.
A fit and willing Goldson is a great asset to the club and let’s face it, he will not experience football highs like he is experiencing now if he goes and that will surely be on his mind. Some of the negativity towards Tav was because he had a form dip and everyone thought Patterson could so better. Don’t hear so many complaints now and his numbers are on the rise again. I’ve had the odd niggling doubt about Gio, not about his ability to take us forward but about his on pitch decisions. Not spotting frailties that are glaringly obvious to us and not taking the steps to change them. He is learning his squad and how to play them on the fly and there are signs that he knows exactly what he is doing. Lundstram is now a really important link between defence and midfield and Kamara is being pushed further forward in the same role he does so well for Finland. In time he’ll know exactly where everyone fits best. He is changing tactics mid game when he feels it is the sensible option and the league draws and defeat will have given him the harshest lesson.
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