At 3;45pm on Sunday, there wasn’t a single Rangers fan questioning why John Lundstram was playing as the left-sided centre-half against Motherwell.
He was composed in possession, winning his battles and looked comfortable alongside Connor Goldson, he must’ve been doing something right because our opponents had rarely trouble our box never mind our goalkeeper.
When Kaiyne Woolery outpaced him to set up what should have been a mere consolation, we were reminded that it isn’t his natural position, however, with half of the pitch to run into, only Calvin Bassey of our regular defenders might have stood any chance of matching the Motherwell forward stride for stride.
The cross should have been dealt with by Allan McGregor and Goldson but Lundstram’s involvement didn’t go unnoticed which led to a few questions of the manager at full-time, Giovanni van Brocnkhorst explaining why he went with the scouser in an unfamiliar role, as reported by The Glasgow Times:
“Filip was not available [on Sunday]. Leon has just come back from injury and we took quite a risk to put him in the game on Thursday. For him, he wasn’t able to start.
“I think John did really well and first half you could see his passing and defensively he was also strong. We were putting him in midfield to build up and I think that worked well.
“In the end, you look to the players you have available and try to get the best possible.”
Lundstram has been one of our most consistent performers of late playing with Ryan Jack in the middle of midfield, in reality, what he was doing on Sunday wasn’t much different. He was winning possession back and keeping the ball moving, albeit from a position about five yards deeper, on paper, it was an idea that was sound in principle, and until we through away a two goal lead, one that worked in practice too.
For all that he got exposed with their first goal, there is no reason why we shouldn’t see Lundstram line up in that position again, however, I’d rather have specialist defenders given the sort of threat that Scottish teams usually possess.