Ibrox Noise hasn’t yet covered in great depth the huge Rangers news of Connor Goldson being out for the season.
It’s a very, very strange story indeed, with a number of fans a bit suspicious of manager Philippe Clement’s account of what actually transpired, in that Goldson was allegedly involved in a freak collision in training as players fell on his knee awkwardly and it was scanned as a medial ligament damage.
The timing is definitely weird, as was the further admission that Goldson will remain in the dressing room to ‘support the lads’ which we have NEVER in a million years heard any manager say about any recently-injured player.
But aside the conspiracy stuff (and there’s a lot of it) what are the implications here?
Well, Goldson’s form the past few months and arguably past few years has been borderline scandalous. He was strong in 55, and had a good run to Sevilla aside the final, but apart from this he’s been utterly abysmal for the most part.
There’s a reason Rangers concede stupid goals in big matches, and he’s part of it.
So the end result is Rangers go into the big last four matches without him, with Leon Balogun, John Souttar and Ben Davies as our three remaining centre backs. Ultimately it’ll be Balogun and Souttar as the pairing, and it is the best pairing Rangers have.
Balogun did allow the striker to get goalside v St Mirren, with the predictable ‘Goldson would never have allowed that’ rubbish from some fans despite the numerous errors he makes. That was a clear error showing that Balogun isn’t flawless, nor did we say he is.
But he’s a better CB than Goldson, simple as that – he’s physically bigger, stronger, faster, and offers far more defending. Goldson is taller (massive boy) and good for aerials but that’s about the extent.
The fact is in the past two matches with Balogun and Souttar Rangers have conceded one silly goal. In the previous four with Goldson and Souttar it was 7. It’s a bit different, no?
Rangers are in safe enough hands with those two at the back, but we’re also into the business end of the season – the Split will be tough and it doesn’t get any easier v Killie.
Here’s hoping they hold up.