Chris Sutton blasts Rangers defender Leon Balogun live on Sky Sports, Philippe Clement will be furious
Chris Sutton slammed Leon Balogun for the Rangers defender’s role in Bojan Miovskis’s goal for Aberdeen at Pittodrie in the 1-1 draw on Sunday afternoon.
The Dons grabbed the lead in the 11th minute after the North Macedonia striker latched onto a header by Ester Sokler, who knocked on Kelle Roos’ long kick from the penalty area.
Balogun failed to pounce quick enough to stop Sokler’s header from reaching Miovski, leading to the Aberdeen forward having a fairly simple one-on-one against Jack Butland, who’d earlier been called into action to deny Sokler from scoring his own goal.
Sutton believes Rangers manager Philippe Clement will be furious with Balogun for his mistake.
Speaking at half time on Sky Sports Main Event on Sunday (26 November, 12:56pm), Sutton said: “Miovski’s anticipating where the header is going to land and Balogun isn’t and that’s the difference.
“I’ve got to say, the finish was superb but it was really avoidable from Rangers’ perspective.
“I think Philippe Clement will be very disappointed by the nature of that goal. That’s as basic as it can be.”
Harsh?
It’s a bit over the top to blame Balogun for that, in our opinion.
The issue is that Sokler was allowed to win that header completely unchallenged.
Because there was no pressure on the Slovenian forward, he was able to play a perfect pass that pretty much went in between Connor Goldson and Balogun, allowing Miovski to run onto it when he was already going in that direction.
Where was the midfield in trying to win that header against Sokler?
Jose Cifuentes is marking the referee, based on the clip above while James Tavernier is perhaps the closest of the four defenders to not make a move.
Goldson and Balogun are probably the least to blame.
Sutton needs to be looking at Cifuentes there. He should be dropping back and trying to win the aerial duel.
If John Lundstram was closer to the kick instead, we reckon he’d have had a go for it.
In other Rangers news, Gary Keown has blasted this Ibrox star for lying to some “random punter” about his stats.