Giovanni van Bronckhorst defends Barisic for Celtic v Rangers nightmare
Giovanni van Bronckhorst has come to the aid of Rangers defender Borna Barisic after his poor performance v Celtic.
The Gers dropped down to second in the Scottish Premiership after suffering a 3-0 defeat at Celtic Park.
Van Bronckhorst sympathised with the 29-year-old who came under much scrutiny after the game.
“For Borna, it was a difficult game,” GvB told The Scotsman. “Those are moments that will happen in your career.
“The only thing we need to do is make sure we give him confidence, we help him. It is not easy. You see when he came on against Hibs, he had to come on at a split-second, which is always hard without a warm-up.
“As the game progressed, he started to get in the game better. He is one of our players and we support him – not only me, but the other players. We support him to get the performances which he needs.”
Back stronger
As poor as he played and as hard as the result was to swallow, Barisic needs to be given the benefit of the doubt.
Admittedly, he virtually laid on the floor for the Hoops’ first goal, but no one performed to the standard they should have so to put all of the blame on the left-back is very harsh.
He has been a stalwart in the Bears’ defence since coming to Scotland in 2018 which needs to be remembered.
Hopefully his confidence isn’t completely shot to pieces after being left out of the Gers’ last two games by van Bronckhorst, but that Dutchman is undoubtedly just protecting Barisic.
In the meantime, Calvin Bassey has been brought over to left-back to cover for the Croatian but Barisic will want his position as soon as possible.
He is an experienced professional who is more than used to the ups and downs that football brings.
Barisic will be back stronger and the Gers will need him at his best as they look to return to the top of the league and clinch back-to-back titles.
In other Bears news, View: James Sands could struggle with Aaron Ramsey in the fold at Rangers.