Rangers urged to act on goalkeeper weakness ahead of PSV return leg – BBC pundit
Rangers kept themselves in the tie on Tuesday night as the Light Blues secured a 2-2 draw at home to PSV in the Champions League.
Antonio Colak and Tom Lawrence scored the goals for Giovanni van Bronckhorst’s side on another typically raucous night at a packed Ibrox but the Eredivisie side fought back to take the tie back to the Netherlands on a level playing field.
Rangers will be particularly concerned with the goals they conceded though with set-pieces proving to be a downfall of the Bears and Pat Nevin wants something to be done.
“When you lose goals to corner kicks, people often look at the defenders but the top goalkeepers come out and stop it at the source,” Nevin said on the BBC’s Football Daily Podcast. “If the ball is six yards out, they come out and use their height to catch the ball.
“Rangers haven’t really got a goalkeeper that does that and McLaughlin might be slightly better at that than his slightly older teammate (Allan McGregor) and they have to do something about that.
“If Rangers let opportunities like that in the second leg, they will be in big, big trouble.”
Missed opportunity
The majority of Light Blues fans would have had a new goalkeeper on their summer shopping list considering the age of McGregor and McLaughlin’s failure to oust him for the number one jersey last season.
Given the level Rangers hope to play at this season, they can’t consider themselves as a team vying for success with two average goalkeepers at van Bronckhorst’s disposal.
Celtic have a top shot-stopper in Joe Hart and Gers needed to react in the transfer market but they have failed to do so as of right now.
Luckily for van Bronckhorst, there are still two weeks of the transfer window to go which should be plenty of time to find a good enough keeper to ensure they can challenge in the Champions League and not return to the Europa League.
The only issue is that there is not much time whatsoever for them to make a purchase ahead of the second leg in Holland next week so it’s time for the Ibrox chief to get their fingers out.
In other Rangers news, now is the time for the club to let these brilliant youngsters leave on loan to help keep their development going.