BBC Sport pundit rages at ‘horrendous’ John Souttar and Ben Davies in Rangers vs Aris Limassol
Steven Thompson was furious with the “horrendous defending” by Rangers as Shavy Babicka ran away from John Souttar and Ben Davies to put Aris Limassol ahead at Ibrox.
The BBC pundit reacted live on Sportsound, as per the BBC Sport live-blog (30 November), as the visiting attacker broke onto a ball over the top in the 28th minute after Todd Cantwell had been caught in possession just outside the Cypriots’ box.
With Connor Goldson suspended and Leon Balogun not registered for the European squad by former manager Michael Beale the centre-back pairing from the 1-1 draw at Aberdeen had to be changed, and Thompson bemoaned the speed, or lack thereof, shown by the replacements.
He said: “It is horrendous defending. None of the players have got the pace to catch Shavy Babicka.
“Far, far too easy. A mistake-laden goal.”
Caught on the hop
The defending was just one element of the set back in a miserable first half for Rangers that saw them go in at the break trailing, with a lack of fluency in attack and an absent midfield also contributing.
Cantwell was punished for his role as Philippe Clement replaced him after just 36 minutes in favour of Ross McCausland, who scored his first for the club just after half-time.
In truth Sam Lammers and Jose Cifuentes were both easily as bad in the first 45, and while there were few obvious alternatives to the Ecuador international in the midfield it was a surprise that the manager had opted for the Dutchman over both McCausland and Tom Lawrence for the starting XI.
It is also difficult to heap too much criticism on the two centre-backs when they were caught on their heels by the quickly overturned possession, although perhaps they could have started to drop with more urgency.
And when both Goldson and Balogun were also caught in similar fashion by Bojan Miovski’s Dons opener at Pittodrie at the weekend it is potentially more an issue of the squad options not being suited to the tactics.
On their day all four Rangers centre-backs are good defenders, but none are exactly dynamic, and it may be that a weakness has been identified two games in succession.
In other Rangers news, a “really, really horrendous” Ibrox ace has been singled out for major criticism for what he did this week.