After drawing pitifully at Dundee, many may have allowed Borna Barisic’s return to have been overshadowed by the result.
The Croatian left-back made his first appearance in six weeks after a hamstring knock kept him sidelined for club and country. It was an untimely set-back for the big man, who’s looked the part whenever he’s featured.
Despite that, however, Rangers managed to get a good half-hour out of their returning star. And he didn’t exactly look to hide either.
Some players like to keep quiet after they return from a long injury. Easing themselves back into action to make sure they don’t aggravate their knocks again can be a priority to some. Not for Barisic.
The Croatian bombed up and down the left and looked to combine with Glenn Middleton whenever he could. Rangers got some real productive action down the left-hand side against Dundee in the second half. That was mainly after Middleton and Barisic came on, however.
His return is a huge boost not only for Thursday night’s game at Rapid Vienna, but for Rangers’ title-challenge as a whole. If Celtic win their game in-hand as it stands, Rangers would go five points behind. What that means is that there’s barely any room for error at this stage.
Barisic has now solidified his place in the side
So many of Rangers’ issues have come from Jon Flanagan being defensively poor at left-back. Andy Halliday did plaster the wound when he moved to that role, but Barisic returned to dominant effect at Dens Park.
It was certainly an ideal game for him to make his mark. With Dundee down to 10 men, they weren’t too interested in getting forward, allowing Barisic to make overlapping runs and whip crosses into the penalty area.
The only downside is that it may limit Halliday’s chances of staying in the team as consistently as he has done over the last six weeks. Steven Gerrard could, however, just shift Halliday back into a holding role.
The big plus-point is that surely it now limits Flanagan to very minimal time on the pitch. He’s been a woeful signing so far, with not enough quality to compete at the top-end of Scottish football.
Whilst it was a dismal result yesterday for Rangers fans, the return of Barisic could be a key moment in the club’s season.
