Ally McCoist wowed by ‘Fantastic’ Rangers fringe player: ‘We never talk about him’
Ally McCoist was delighted by what he saw from Leon Balogun on Thursday night when the Rangers defender stepped in to play in the 1-0 win over Lech Poznan.
Rangers’ defence has earned all kinds of plaudits this season with Steven Gerrard’s side conceding just four goals in 17 matches across all competitions.
Only one of those goals have come while Balogun, 32, has been on the pitch although the Nigeria international has played just seven times in all competitions since arriving on a permanent basis from Wigan in the summer.
Despite being on the fringes of Gerrard’s first-team squad due to the strength in depth the manager has at centre-back, McCoist believes that Balogun should probably get more credit than he does.
“Defensively, they’ve been excellent,” said the Rangers legend on BT Sport 3 after the win over Lech Poznan at Ibrox on Thursday night.
“Connor Goldson and [Filip] Helander have been terrific but the big fellow who comes in again, Balogun. Al (Alan Stubbs) and I were talking – I’m surprised we never talk about him – he gets caught wrong-sided late on in the second-half but his speed gets him back and he makes a fantastic tackle.”
Stats by WyScout show that Balogun had a really good game for Rangers on Thursday night.
The former Wigan defender completed seven clearances, 14 recoveries, nine interceptions and won both of the aerial duels he challenged for.
He also completed 93 per cent of his passes, with all four of his passes into the final third finding a Rangers team-mate.
Balogun did a bit of everything against Lech Poznan.
He was a defensive rock who won possession back both on the ground and in the air while also playing it cool, calm and collected when in possession and even sprung a couple of attacks.
Gerrard has quite the selection dilemma at centre-back with pretty much all of his defenders performing way better than every other defender in Scottish football.
We love the partnership of Goldson and Helander but having Balogun there to use as well is one of the key reasons why the Light Blues’ defence has been so imperious this season.
In other Rangers news, the Gers want to sign this Liverpool-born Premier League player on a cut-price deal.