It’s really very simple, isn’t it. Connor Goldson dropped, and suddenly Rangers’ defence looks a lot more robust and the team secures its first win in what seems like an ice age.
Ibrox Noise was amused by the number of comments along the lines of ‘yous lot wanted Clement fired yesterday’ when any regular reader knows we demanded he change what wasn’t working.
This is not to say he was and still is flavour of the month – he has a LOT of work to get back into our book of trust.
But dropping Goldson and installing Leon Balogun had instant results, and while the defence wasn’t impenetrable by any means and there was a bit of confusion between John Souttar and the Nigerian now and then (it wasn’t a vintage performance from the Scotland international) it was a tonne better than it’s been lately.
The huge frustration is why Philippe Clement didn’t do this sooner, didn’t swallow his pride earlier and reinstate Balogun long before now.
The damage done in the past 4-6 weeks may have cost us 56, and so so much of it was due to Goldson’s dreadful form – we lost our advantage in the league, and while technically it’s still in our hands, we’ve given them lot a head start.
All because the manager refused to drop Goldson.
The official line is ‘rested’ – now we really hope that’s ‘football talk’ for dropped because 56 may well ‘rest’ on Goldson remaining ‘rested’.
Balogun and Souttar, by a distance, is, and always was, Rangers’ best defence – it needs a little bit of time to get back up to speed, but they’re two brilliant defenders.
So if Clement happily restores Goldson for the trip to St Mirren Stadium this weekend, it will just confirm stubbornness and an unwilling to learn.
Goldson is dreadful. Not just dreadfully off-form, but he’s downright dreadful, and he’s a drag on the team. Balogun is on a different planet to him, and must keep his place, injury, of course, permitting.
We do not know why Clement spun that nonsense about him being ill, it was evidently absolute poppycock, but either way, Balogun is back in now.
He has to stay in – he might not be getting any younger now but he’s just a far better model than Goldson, and 56 may well actually have a slim chance if Leon Balogun and John Souttar remains our defence.
Clement would be a fool to change it willingly at this point.