Ally McCoist and Kenny Miller want Allan McGregor to replace Jon McLaughlin in goal for Rangers
Ally McCoist and Kenny Miller want to see Giovanni van Bronckhorst drop Jon McLaughlin and reinstate Allan McGregor in goal for Rangers.
McLaughlin has come under pressure after a below par start to the season, culminating in another error during the 4-0 defeat to Celtic at the weekend.
But after he kept his place in the side to play against Ajax on Wednesday night in Amsterdam, the two Rangers legends weren’t best pleased with the decision when asked for a reaction live on BT Sport 4 [7 September, 17:14]
“It’s a strange one,” McCoist said. “I got asked the question at the weekend regarding the goalkeeping situation.
“Jon McLaughlin is a good goalkeeper but I still feel that McGregor is the best option that Rangers have. I’ve got to be honest. I don’t see them in training or day in, day out.
“However, McLaughlin had a poor game at the weekend and it’s easy right now to jump on the bandwagon and say he shouldn’t be playing.
“I still think, even before the weekend, that the best option for Rangers at this moment in time would be Allan McGregor.”
“I tend to agree with Ally,” Miller added. “There’s a lot of Rangers fans as well for that matter. When you’re picking a team, I feel at the moment that maybe Rangers don’t have their best team on the field of play because Allan McGregor is sitting on the bench.
“That’s no disrespect to Jon McLaughlin, I just feel that over the years McGregor has proven his worth on the big stages.”
Hard to argue
It’s hard to argue with what the boys are saying, because McLaughlin has done very little to justify his place in the side based on the performance levels of McGregor last season.
Despite being in his 40’s, McGregor was arguably in the best form of his career as he helped guide Rangers to the Europa League final and pushed them to the runners-up spot in the league behind Celtic.
But he produced big moments in big games that were crucial, and convincing him not to retire only to relegate to the substitutes bench for the season just seems like a strange decision on the part of the manager.
If the plan was always to make McLaughlin the number one then there was no need to convince McGregor to stick around for another year, especially as he’s still the better goalkeeper.
The more results go against them the more pressure he will come under, and Van Bronckhorst will be asked about this question all season long.
In other Rangers news, senior ace axed as Rangers confirm starting lineup vs Ajax