Ibrox View: Rangers regular must be sharper after uncharacteristic error
Borna Barisic has been a standout performer for Rangers over the past 12 months.
The Croatia international endured a difficult debut season in Scotland, but really hit his stride last term, and recorded 14 assists across all competitions.
He’s started this campaign at a bit of a canter too, registering four assists already.
But he’s hit a bit of rough patch over his past couple of appearances, and his role in Hibernian’s opening goal at Easter Road last weekend really hammered that point home.
Barisic won just 57% of his defensive duels in that game, some 9.7% lower than his season average in 2020/21, as per Wyscout.
And one blunder in particular cost him.
The whole things starts with a hopeful diagonal forward from Hibs.
There doesn’t appear to be a great deal of danger, but Barisic misjudges his header badly.
The full-back goes up but misses out entirely, and suddenly he’s faced with an overlapping run and a lot of ground to make up.
The left-back is then given a second chance when his winger takes a heavy first touch.
There’s a window of opportunity to for Barisic to get stuck into his man and nip this attack in the bud, but for some reason, he fails to take it.
Instead, he backs off, allowing the forward to get at him.
As soon as a full-back starts retreating back into his own box, he is in big trouble.
And so it proves here.
The winger is able to steal half a yard on Barisic and get his cross in.
Granted, the cutback is pinpoint and deserves a lot of credit, but this goal would have been entirely avoided had the Gers ace taken one of the numerous opportunities presented to him to cut it out.
A slight injury prevented Barisic from playing in the 5-1 rout against Motherwell on Sunday, but when he inevitably returns to the starting lineup, he has to be sharper than this.
In other Rangers news, ‘Focus on Rangers’ – Steven Gerrard urges attacker to ignore latest headlines.