Rangers have been linked with Jonathan Panzo with many thinking that he would be an upgrade on Ben Davies.
Davies hasn’t had his problems to seek of late with his error in the recent Parkhead Old Firm only intensifying criticism.
Alongside Connor Goldson, the 27-year old has formed a solid partnership but he has looked shaky of late, with uncharacteristic mistakes creeping into his game.
With John Souttar fit and on form, Davies is under even more pressure but the arrival of a new centre half would really set the cat amongst the pigeons.
The reality is though, has a couple of mistakes led to a flawed fan opinion of Ben Davies?
How does Ben Davies compare to Rangers-linked Jonathan Panzo?
Comparing Davies and Panzo, analyst Patrick Caskie ran the figures when the on-loan Nottingham Forest stopper was first mentioned as a possible target and some surprising results were revealed.
You want your central defenders to be good in the air, solid 1v1 and comfortable on the ball – across almost every metric, Davies is better than Jonathan Panzo with the aerial statistics marginal.
Surprisingly, Panzo is the better progressive passer meaning that he plays more passes forwards to break lines, however, this maybe doesn’t tell the whole story.
For Rangers, Davies will often have a central midfielder between him and Connor Goldson, someone tasked with being the metronome and to drive the team up the park.
Davies, normally, will only have to be more aggressive with his passing if the opposition is pressing or he sees a teammate free between the lines.
The reality is that Davies is a decent centre-half.
The former Liverpool man might not have positional sense as good as Filip Helander or be as commanding in the air as Goldson or John Souttar but he is consistent across the board without any real weakness.
What he has done is make the fatal error of gifting a goal in an Old Firm.
Better players than Davies have suffered in the Light Blue jersey – Gary Stevens and Terry Butcher spring to mind – but have come through the other side.
Only good performances will see talk of a departure and faith restored, a clean sheet on Sunday would go a long way in helping his cause.
