Rangers’ 27-game unbeaten run came to an end with a 3-2 League Cup defeat at St Mirren on Wednesday night and Steven Gerrard will be kicking himself for taking an unnecessary risk with his team selection.
With Celtic and Aberdeen already out of the competition, the Gers had a golden opportunity to end their major trophy drought.
Yet, they conceded three goals in 90 minutes to a team who’ve scored just nine times in the league this season.
Gerrard didn’t field a majorly weakened side, but his decision to rest Borna Barisic sticks out as an unnecessary and ultimately costly risk.
His stand-in, Calvin Bassey, has had an excellent start to his Rangers career. Yet, he’s still extremely inexperienced and that showed in Paisley.
The former Leicester City academy star clumsily gave away the penalty that allowed St Mirren back into the game before failing to stop the Dylan Connolly cross that eventually led to the hosts’ second.
He was replaced by Barisic just four minutes after the Buddies took the lead, but in some respects, the damage was already done.
The manager and his staff know the condition of their players much better than those on the outside. Yet, the fact that he was brought on for the final half an hour, proved that Barisic was fit to play and had simply been brought out of the starting XI for a rest.
Of course, it’s possible that he also could have made mistakes if he’d started the game.
Yet, he’s a high quality senior international and given that he was rested for the trip to Ross County ten days previously, the rotation was an unnecessary risk.
Had he played and helped Rangers progress to the semi-final, he could easily have been rested for Saturday’s home Premiership fixture against struggling Motherwell.
Speaking after the game, Gerrard took full responsibility for the defeat [RangersTV] and it’s likely that that particular selection call will haunt him for some time.
