Everyone makes mistakes. At the elite level of sport, the best make them too, they just don’t make the same ones twice, a lesson that Clinton Nsiala will need to learn for Rangers.
So far, his progress has been pretty linear since Philippe Clement handed him his debut, that he kept Robin Propper on the bench shows how highly the France youth international was rated by the former Rangers manager.
Against St Mirren though, it’s safe to say that he had an off day, with both goals coming from individual mistakes from Clinton Nsiala on an afternoon that he will want to forget.
Clinton Nsiala needs to learn lessons from Rangers horror show
The 21-year old isn’t the first Rangers centre-half to have a stinker. One of the best partnerships of modern times had two players who had been written off and were constantly criticised in Craig Moore and Lorenzo Amoruso.
Nsiala got bullied, plain and simple.
The Rangers No.19 is athletic and has a good frame, so there is no excuse for being thrown about, however, Robin Propper wasn’t exactly setting a good example.
Calvin Bassey made more than a few mistakes, and he is now one of the most consistent centre-halves in the Premier League and a key reason why Fulham are chasing a European place.
He also made Rangers £19.6m.
The more senior of the two spent more time on the ground than he did on his feet contesting for the ball.
It is one of the areas that needs to be addressed in the summer with Rangers yet to find a consistent and reliable centre-half pairing.
Can Nsiala recover from St Mirren performance?
According to Clement speaking a week before his departure, Nsiala will prove to be a “really good signing” and is the type of player who will learn from his mistakes:
”Every meeting that we have with him, with individual images, he’s so focused on getting better, so hungry to become better,” claimed the Gers boss.
“So those are the kind of young players you’re looking for, because they develop fast. And I had a few in the past that made really big steps forward in a short time.
“He’s doing that also, and it’s now the question to keep this focus and concentration and the hard work, and then he will be a really good signing at the end of the season.”
For the two St Mirren goals, there is nothing complicated that Nsiala has to change, but it will happen again if he doesn’t toughen up and realise that he won’t get any favours of referees in Scotland.
