‘Big factor’ – Exclusive: Alex McLeish claims teams will try to exploit Rangers duo
We’re delighted to welcome former Rangers manager Alex McLeish as our exclusive columnist. Each week he’ll be giving his views on the biggest talking points at Ibrox…
Alex McLeish has claimed that Scottish Premiership teams could look to exploit Rangers by keeping their full-backs out of games.
Borna Barisic and James Tavernier, especially, have been the standout full-backs in Scotland for years now, but have exposed defensively in the past.
Both are superb going forward, but McLeish believes that clubs will be looking to follow in the footsteps of St. Mirren after they inflicted the first defeat of the season on the Gers many weeks ago.
Speaking exclusively to Ibrox News, McLeish said, “When you look back at that St. Mirren game that they lost, they did really well in tying the full-backs up.
“They tried to do a number on the full-backs, realising they’re a big factor in Rangers tactical strategy, so other teams will have looked at that.
Could this be a problem for the Bears?
Looking at the defensive record of the club so far, definitely not. Rangers have only conceded five goals, and this has been a massive reason behind their success.
Tavernier and Barisic are both better attackers than defenders, and they may have been exposed at times, but not too often considering the record.
Maybe the critics are being harsh, after all, no one has averaged more tackles per game this season than the Bears skipper according to WhoScored.
With Rangers being so hard to beat this season, any team will be begging to find weaknesses in their game, and because the full-backs may have struggled once, everybody thinks they could exploit that.
Think again.
In other Rangers news, McLeish blames intensity of season for major Bears injury blow