Connor Goldson Rangers injury has exposed massive issue with James Tavernier

There’s no question the injury to Connor Goldson has truly exposed a deeply-flawed Rangers strategy of completely relying on the centre-half and having no plan in place to cover an injury.

That’s right, Giovanni van Bronckhorst admitted no one is coming in to replace Goldson, meaning we must make do with what we current have.

Meaning? The same lack of plan or strategy is clearly in place for both James Tavernier and John Lundstram, meaning we are just one catastrophic injury away from an absolute nightmare.

Rangers made Tavernier and Goldson completely immune to rotation, immune from dropping, and had absolutely no plan in place to replace them. It was clearly decided we’d rely on lady luck and their resilience to keep them fit, and for four years, that’s worked (Nathan Patterson notwithstanding).

But with Goldson gone, no one else coming in and Rangers’ defence threadbare, it’s a ticking timebomb especially with Tavernier: only Adam Devine can cover him, which really isn’t overly reassuring.

Then there’s Lundstram. Bit different – he exploded this year only, under Gio, so he’s not been in place so long as to be immune despite form. And in fairness, while there’s some disagreement in places, his form hasn’t been horrible this season, and he was one of our better players midweek.

But the Tav and Goldson situation had been bubbling for almost half a decade, even longer in Tavernier’s case. He’s been first choice since he joined, since 2016. That’s six years of him at RB with no plan to replace him, and the one contingency we did have, Nathan Patterson, we sold to Everton because, well, £16M.

Cursed luck has him out for the season too now at Goodison, so make of that what you will, but as things stand, Tavernier has no plan B and no one to cover him.

It’s the same for Lundstram now – lose him we are in desperate street, because it would be just Davis and Kamara, and we’re not overly reassured by those either.

So thank you Rangers board for failing completely to plan ahead.

We’re up the creek without a paddle and it seems like the boat is now leaking.