There is no doubt that Jack Butland has been Rangers signing of the summer but the frugal nature of the defence relies on Connor Goldson just as much despite having a season that he might want to forget personally.
That the other centre-halves have to rotate and the 31-year old doesn’t says it all about his standing in the team under every manager since he signed.
This doesn’t mean that he is immune to criticism though with the latest mistake for Rangers seeing Connor Goldson questioned once again.
Rangers need to hope Connor Goldson recovers from slump
As early as the Champions League qualifiers, the vice-captain had cost his side a goal with a calamitous own goal v PSV Eindhoven.
Then, against Celtic at Ibrox, he failed to clear his lines or deal with the rebound to allow Kyogo Furuhashi to score what would be the winner.
Against Aris Limassol, he left his man to score a free header and was culpable during that period of repeating that mistake.
He’s got away with a few too, both in the Scottish Premiership and in Europe, but the two goals conceded against Bojan Miovski are amateur and a player of his experience really should be doing better.
We know he’s not the quickest and so do opposition strikers, since his long-term thigh injury, he has clearly lost a yard so – like David Weir did so well – he has to adjust his game.
Against teams like Aberdeen, you know the ball is coming back at you from distance.
Rangers like to play a high line, which isn’t a problem, but Connor Goldson has to be on his bike, just in case, whenever the ball drops to opposition players in midfield.
It is easier to step back up again than it is to try and catch a striker who is quicker than you and on the wrong side.
Everyone makes mistakes, however, making the same one two or three times in the same season would see most other players dropped.
Hopefully he has, finally, learned his lesson.
