McGregor woes protecting calamity Connor Goldson from criticism

It’s not much fun analysing the Rangers defence these days, save the four conceded against Borussia Dortmund given the level of opposition, some of the goals we have let in recently have been borderline amateur.

As Giovanni van Bronckhorst noted, whenever you lose goals the goalkeeper will always come in for criticism and Allan McGregor is getting more than his fair share, however, he isn’t the only one who should be getting it in the neck during team meetings.

Connor Goldson has been more than culpable in games in which we have lost soft goals; Ross County, Dortmund, Motherwell, the vice-captain could have done better in clearing his lines or when picking up forwards, in each of these games we have lost goals under no real pressure because he scuffed clearances or lost his man – the basics of defending.

As the saying goes “class is permanent” but the form of both McGregor and Goldson is worrying, the both look as if they have other things on their minds – one of them retirement and the other, where he will be playing his football next season.

It could be a case of looking for something that isn’t there but it can’t be a coincidence that two of our most dependable players and part of our leadership group are the ones that are costing us the most just now.

The issue is that it simply isn’t an option to drop Goldson, to put it in perspective, in the last four games, he has played alongside John Lundstram, Filip Helander, Calvin Bassey and Leon Balogun at the back, he needs to have a consistent partner for the next few weeks.

Title winning teams have always been built on a solid defence, if we are to have any chance of retaining the Scottish Premiership we need Leon Balogun and Filip Helander to remain injury free for the rest of the season, the team, and Connor Goldson simply aren’t the same without them.