Borna Barisic being dropped for the visit of Hearts was far from a surprise, not only have his recent performances been below par but across the season, he hasn’t been producing his usual numbers.
The problem is that Calvin Bassey isn’t exactly pulling up trees either.
Both left-backs have three assists in their 26 and 27 appearances respectively, admittedly Bassey has played most of his football at centre-half since the end of November but neither is really putting their hand up to be the first choice.
Even against Hearts, when he was decent going forward and had a major hand in the first goal with a lovely pass through to Ryan Kent he could have cost his side dear – twice, with the score at just 1-0 lapses in concentration could have been punished if Hearts had been more clinical, thankfully they weren’t and the rest is history.
He lost possession 31 times, won half his ground duels and had no successful crosses, on a pitch where everyone in blue was outstanding, I can’t help but think the scoreline hid his performance a little.
It was almost exactly the same sort of issue that saw us drop points at Ross County, basic errors that he needs to cut out of his game, the foundation is there to be a really good player, however, he will only go so far if he costs his side a goal every now and then.
We all know what Barisic is capable of but he is very much a confidence player and his appears to be shot just now, he came back from the European Championships having never really been fit all summer and has never really got going, perhaps, being dropped for his understudy could be the best thing that happens to him.