Michael Beale has Ben Davies and Connor Goldson to thank for saving his Rangers job
Most of the attention surrounding Rangers’ win over Livingston in the Viaplay Cup has been focused on whether or not Abdallah Sima’s opener should have stood.
But while the Gers’ attacking talent ran riot at Ibrox on Wednesday (27 September) Ben Davies and Connor Goldson professionally went about their business in defence to ensure that the Light Blues earned their fourth clean sheet in as many matches since the international break.
The two centre-backs have now played 20 games alongside one another at the heart of defence and are yet to lose a single match when they have started together, since Davies made the switch to Ibrox in 2022 [The Fourth Official, 23 September].
In the four games before the international break, Michael Beale’s side conceded eight goals and although they played PSV twice in that period the return of Davies to the starting XI has seen a level of defensive stability that has otherwise been missing.
Before the international break, the pressure was mounting on Beale at Ibrox with plenty of calls for him to be sacked due to the Gers’ lack of bite in the biggest games of the season and while performances haven’t improved massively, the defensive performances are ensuring Rangers keep winning matches.
Against St Johnstone, Davies and Goldson won a combined 13 duels during the game and seven recoveries, while against Betis they won 10 duels between them and made nine ball recoveries, all while only allowing Manuel Pellegrini’s side to have an expected goals of 0.84 from 12 efforts [Fotmob].
In comparison, when Goldson and John Souttar lined up together against Celtic, they registered an xG of 0.95, despite having only seven shots in the contest as the pair only won six duels between them and were forced into making 18 ball recoveries.
While it is hard to compare the standard of Betis and Brendan Rodgers’ Celtic, there is a clear improvement in the sort of chances that Davies and Goldson are forcing opposition strikers to take, when compared to the chances that Souttar and Goldson have allowed.
Given Jack Butland’s impressive start to life in Glasgow, Rangers fans will feel relatively comfortable if sides are forced to shoot from worse positions as it is more than likely that the former England keeper will be able to keep the ball out of the net.
The defensive solidity allows Beale to get the most attacking output from his full-backs as well and that was evident in the win over Livingston on Wednesday, with James Tavernier picking up an assist and Ridvan Yilmaz scoring his first of the season.
Clean sheets are currently the difference between Beale being in charge at Ibrox and losing his space in the dugout so the Rangers boss should be starting the unbeaten pair of Davies and Goldson whenever they’re fit.
In other Rangers news, David Martindale has claimed three or four Gers players couldn’t believe Sima’s goal stood