Michael Beale has today revealed his opinion of Rangers’ loss to Liverpool, and it matches Ibrox Noise’s exactly.
Regulars will be aware Ibrox Noise did not slaughter former manager Giovanni van Bronckhorst in the same way as the majority of the fans did, but instead we pointed out the loss of Connor Goldson and Leon King as his replacement completely changed the match.
Till that point, Rangers were toe to toe 1-1 with Liverpool, and had even scored our first goal of the Champions League campaign, a fine finish from Scotty Arfield.
But after Goldson had to go off, and King replaced him, the side was completely and roundly slaughtered in the worst home defeat in the club’s history and one which stills pains Rangers fans to contemplate.
Beale agrees:
“Losing Connor, not only since then but in that game, was massive. Until that moment in that game, Rangers were showing up quite well, weren’t they?”
Yes, yes we were – we’d matched Liverpool completely in the first half, and actually outplayed them.
Want proof?
First half – 50/50 possession, 6 goals attempts, two on target to Liverpool’s 3 attempts and one on target. 2 corners to Liverpool’s 1, and even on free kicks at 6 all.
Second half without Goldson? 42% possession, one attempt on goal to Liverpool’s 58% and 17, yes 17 attempts.
Anyone putting the blame of this match at Giovanni van Bronckhorst is simply not being factual – as horrible as the loss was, it was down to losing Goldson and having no one to replace him with, having to resort to an 18-year old rookie. Or pure and utter bad luck, with a hint of bad planning, having no able deputy who could fill in for Goldson.
So effectively, Beale, like ourselves, is rightly defending Gio for that one, even if many fans still blame him for the evening, without a hint of justification for doing so.
It was a bad night at Ibrox, very bad, but even Michael Beale backs up GVB on this one by admitting it was a pretty darn good first half, better than good.
Amazing what happens when you lose your best players isn’t it?