The central defender. A role in football which makes legends or laughing stocks and very little in between. Only goalkeepers or strikers draw more judgment from fans, and most of that is harsh at best.
British fans also seem to have very different notions to most as to how a centre-half should defend. Despite the fact they’ll see a lot of the ball, they are to “defend first” or “put it in row Z”. Any defender who is good on the ball but prone to the odd mistake is lambasted as “thinking he’s Beckenbauer”. Quite why attempting to be like one of the best players of all time is a bad thing is something I can’t fully understand.
But enough of my pontificating.
It’s been suggested that these votes should only include players who played in the top flight for us. I haven’t agreed to that, and that’s simply because the years getting back to the top are a big part of who we are now. We still paid handsomely despite our league status, and some of these players managed to look poor in a league of part-time clubs. If that’s not Worst XI criteria, nothing is.
I didn’t include Dan Eggen, Daniel Prodan or Phillipe Senderos in the below, purely because they never kicked a ball for us (Senderos played 3 games, and that can still be levelled at him). If you feel they should win this, let us know!
GORDAN PETRIC – 97 APPEARANCES, 4 GOALS
Petric was signed for £1.2m from Dundee United in 1995 and had looked like a good defender there. We thought we were getting someone who read the game well and would do a great job in the back three for us at this time.
Instead, we got a slow, error-prone, seemingly disinterested player, who was also injury prone and so unable to be relied upon we brought back Richard Gough from near retirement in 97/98. Somehow, Petric hung on long enough to be a starter in Advocaat’s first competitive game against Shelbourne. That was his last start before he was moved on.
KARL SVENSSON – 28 APPEARANCES
It was the summer we’d been waiting on. A young, exciting manager in Paul Le Guen had been hired. We’d been promised a revolution at Rangers, a move towards being a modern club. Young players would be signed, the cream of Europe, and developed into superstars.
In came Karl Svensson. 22-years-old, a captain at Gothenburg, highly rated in Sweden. A snip at a mere £600k. He was utterly amazing in Football Manager ’06. What a signing!
What a disappointment. Svensson was the epitome of our struggles at that point. All that promise was quickly dispelled as we watched him struggle to win a header. He never looked comfortable, and whilst many point to one game at Ibrox against Celtic where he played well, and wonder if he could have improved playing next to Davie Weir, he’s remembered more for his poor performances than anything else. I think the pressure at Rangers broke him, in truth.
ROB KIERNAN – 76 APPEARANCES, 1 GOAL
He’s not quite away yet, but it’s fair to say Kiernan is as good as gone, and not many will miss him.
One thing about playing centre-half is that the way a team is set up has a huge impact upon your effectiveness. If the midfield is open and not great at tracking runners, you’ll look poor as you’re exposed time and again. Often, this would be the defence of Kiernan, who has a lot of positive attributes. He is strong, good on the ball and quick enough to get by against most strikers. He’s also poor at defending set pieces or crossed balls, and makes loads of mistakes in terms of positioning.
But the thing with Kiernan was that he didn’t just make mistakes, he repeated them. The goal we conceded early in the Cup final against Hibs came from some awful decision making on his part, but we saw him do similar in games after that. There’s no doubt he lost confidence whilst at Rangers, but some of the simple stuff seemed beyond him. Such is his impact, he’ll be remembered as a “typical Warburton signing”, a now damnable criticism amongst the support.
EMILSON SANCHEZ CRIBARI – 42 APPEARANCES
Division 3. A horrible time to be a Rangers fan. We weren’t even sure the club was going to be playing professional football at one point.
In the stands early in the season was Emilson Cribari. A 32-year-old Brazilian defender who had played for teams like Napoli, Lazio, and Udinese. Surely he was too good for this level?
He was horrendous. Slow, poor on the ball, no leadership at all, weak in the challenge – against part time players he looked unfit and not good enough. No idea how he managed to play so often in Italy, given what we were subjected to.
ROSS PERRY – 36 APPEARANCES
A product of our youth system, Perry came into the side more regularly during the lower league years. At one point, he was rated as highly as Danny Wilson as a youth player. He’d played during the end of our season in the SPL after administration, so it was felt he’d do fine in Division 3.
Much like Cribari, he looked really poor. Perry will be remembered as one of the Nando’s generation. Many felt he chucked it in the cup game against Dundee United when he went off injured. He’s recently been released by Clyde. His career really hasn’t lived up to his seeming promise.
SEBASTIEN FAURE – 64 APPEARANCES, 1 GOAL
Faure made 64 appearances for us?!
Seb Faure was one of those players that fans can never really understand why they get games, yet he played a lot, and in various positions as well. His position was as a centre-half, but he was so bad there he couldn’t get in ahead of the likes of Cribari or Perry mentioned earlier. His natural build seemed to be rather… stocky for a footballer, shall we say.
Infamous more for his interview about training under McCoist than anything else, he was a poor player in a poor league.
BILEL MOHSNI – 60 APPEARANCES, 12 GOALS
I have to confess – I hated Bilel Mohsni. I honestly don’t believe I’ve ever seen a worse defender in professional football. He’d be 20 yards ahead of the backline constantly, he had no interest in actually defending, and was nowhere near as good a player as many seemed to believe.
He was signed from Southend for our season in League One, and played next to Lee McCulloch for the most part. The fact that McCulloch looked the more natural defender of the two spoke volumes.
Mohsni was a decent goalscorer for a defender. He had played up front in games elsewhere. It was clear he preferred that to actually defending.
No Rangers fan points to a performance, goal or anything like that when remembering Mohsni. He’s “loved” for kicking and punching Lee Erwin at the end of the playoff against Motherwell. That sums him up.
JOSE KARL PIERRE-FANFAN – 10 APPEARANCES, 1 GOAL
Fanfan was a 30 year old defender signed from PSG in 2005. This was during the time Eck enjoyed raiding France. He was described as quick, strong and experienced. I suppose one out of three isn’t always bad…
Fanfan scored in his first game, but it never went well after that. He was shunted out to right back more than once, and prone to injury. His 10 appearances all came before December of that season, and he was released by Le Guen the following summer. There will be Rangers fans who forgot he ever played for us.
We need 2 centre halves for our Worst XI, so vote for your “favoured” partnership in the poll below.
If there’s anyone you think we’ve missed, tweet us @rangersnewsuk and they’ll be included as a vote.
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