Giovanni van Bronckhorst has hailed a recent improvement to his defence with the return of Ben Davies playing a pivotal role in the upturn.
The weekend victory over St Mirren wasn’t flawless in terms of his back line or chances that came the way of the visitors but there are visible signs of stability and progress. A clean sheet was secured with the 4-0 scoreline but at least two clear cut chances were squandered by Stephen Robinson’s men as well as a decent long range strike from Curtis Main which beat Allan McGregor in the second half, only to rebound off the bar and back into play.
With Davies slotting into the left centre-back role, there is a clear balance as well as an understanding with Connor Goldson next to him.
Gio touched on this when asked if a consistency of selection was contributing toward the progress:
“Ben (Davies) wasn’t able to play at the beginning of the season but he is getting stronger and stronger. He was positive in midweek and he was positive again today. It is good to have him because he provided us with strength.”
“Leon (King) came on again and we are working better as a back line. You cannot switch off against a team who are third in the league. They have been getting a lot of good results and the approach we had was positive. It was good to keep a clean sheet.”
Momentum
The important games keep on coming with Liverpool set to provide another very tough test on Wednesday at Ibrox. As much as everyone wants to get a result, it is in the league games that Gio, his defence and the overall team will be judged.
There are those signs of a work in progress with Davies central to it. He is showing his qualities and getting up to full speed which augurs well for the weeks ahead but only with consistency and quality will a confident unit reap the rewards.