James Sands has been criticised more than most players this season. With no John Souttar to slaughter, attention has turned to the new scapegoat in the American, who now seems to be flavour of the month for abuse from fans.
Despite doing absolutely nothing wrong.
We saw this pattern start in Belgium, when fans called him a disgrace and the worst player out there, when in fact he was clearly our most effective defender (not that the bar was high) and did a lot more than most at preventing goals.
And if you want to break down into numbers, no one lost the ball fewer times than he v Killie, and his passing range was well beyond 90%.
Ibrox Noise was one of the first to show apathy about the former MLS star when he was in midfield. He was tidy, but quiet, and had no clear impact on the team at all.
But in defence?
He’s been solid, hasn’t cost any goals, and while he’s had hairy moments (so have they all) he’s not been responsible for any fails at the back.
He’s also only 22, and barely more than a kid at this point – but he’s become the new fall guy now that fans aren’t able to blame Souttar.
It’s a shame really – no matter what he does, he will be the scapegoat, and we’re not going to present all his stats because most of you have made up your minds.
John Lundstram showed a player can win fans over, we suspect Sands will have to hit the same heights to do the same.
Indeed, almost every comment we get about Sands hints that he’s a bombscare and it’s a matter of time before it explodes in Gio’s face.
Which sounds very similar to the 10 years of threats we had from tims about tick tock until they eventually gave up.
It’s more wishful thinking from some fans that want Sands to do something wrong so they can blame him for the team failing at something.
Perhaps support the lot?
If even Ibrox Noise can conjure positive words about Goldson and Wright, surely you lot can back Sands?
As with goldson nonsense ,some people dont know the meaning of support ,plenty of others out there to slag and bring our players down ,total pish ! .
I never slaughterd Souttar, i think Souttar will actually come gd. I just dont rate Sands. I honestly hope i eat my words though.
Yes i was one who slagged him off for that first cl away game he had a nightmare,but i seen an improvement in him against killie more confident and again on Tuesday night,he seems to be growing each game,yes he made a couple of errors but iam sure he’ll sort that out in his game,iam actually starting to like the lad another Bassey in the making perhaps we’ll see,Onwards💪
WATP🇬🇧
Well said IN. I thought he got unfairly criticised in his first few games when their other players way off their best. He’s young and still relatively inexperienced. Having said that I believe the option to buy at the end of the season is around £4m and I’d be surprised if he turned out to be worth that much.
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