Van Bronckhorst less than impressed by Barisic touchline incident in Rangers win v Hibs
Giovanni van Bronkhorst wasn’t happy with Borna Barisic on Wednesday night as Rangers won 2-0 against Hibernian at Ibrox, according to Times journalist Paul Forsyth.
Writing on The Times’ website, Forsyth reports that after Leon Balogun was forced off with an injury, Barisic “took an age to get stripped” to be substituted into the game by a less-than-impressed van Bronckhorst.
Six minutes after his 15th-minute introduction, the 29-year-old left-back was booked for a late challenge. Forsyth reports that van Bronckhorst was also unhappy with that.
Liability
There’s a reason why Barisic has been dropped to the bench lately – he’s been an absolute joker for the Gers lately.
The Croatia international was hooked at half-time in the 3-0 defeat to Celtic after what was one of the most embarrassing 45 minutes by a Rangers player we’ve ever seen.
Calvin Bassey has since started the last two games at left-back with Barisic only entering the fray to replace the injured Balogun on Wednesday night.
Not being ready and taking ages to get prepared to be substituted in is inexcusable and then to run onto the pitch and get yourself booked within six minutes – 21 minutes into the match – is laughable.
Barisic is a liability and it’s fair to say that he no longer deserves a place in van Bronckhorst’s squad.
What makes you laugh is that The Scottish Sun reported on 4 January that Rangers turned down a £2million bid from Watford for Barisic.
It was claimed that the Gers turned it down because they want £5million for the ex-Osijek left-back.
Based on his performances this season, Watford would have been overpaying for the out-of-sorts left-back, who’s definitely not even worth a seven-figure sum based on what we’ve seen in the last two weeks.
In other Rangers news, Michael Stewart has reacted to the penalty controversy at Ibrox on Wednesday night.