Rangers defender Borna Barisic has ended up staying at Ibrox.
Rangers defender Borna Barisic has told The National that he has ‘had some problems’ with Steven Gerrard, but feels they’re all in the past now.
The Gers started with Jon Flanagan at left back against Celtic, leaving Barisic on the bench despite Flanagan being naturally right-footed.
Flanagan’s defensive ability helped shackle James Forrest, but didn’t offer as much going forward as Barisic, meaning the battle between the two will likely go on.
Barisic did recently show his quality with a stunning free kick at St Mirren just a week before the Old Firm derby, giving Rangers a 1-0 win in a tricky away game.
The Croatian has never really been able to nail down a regular spot in Gerrard’s team, even though the Gers paid £2.2million to land him Osijek last summer (BBC).
Barisic hasn’t lived up to his billing on a consistent basis, with Rangers fans still really waiting for the 26-year-old to nail down that left back spot for good – and he was even linked with a move to Dijon by Soccer Link, but he ended up staying at Ibrox.
Barisic has now admitted that he has ‘had some problems’ with boss Gerrard, because he came back from international duty injured, and there were fears that the same would happen again if he kept going.
The defender now believes that the problems are behind them because he will always put Rangers first, and even called for Gerrard to come out of retirement and play for Rangers because he’s ‘great’ in training.
“Whenever he trains with us, he’s great,” said Barisic. “It would take him about a month to be fit again, but he would be really dangerous. Every cross he puts in is quality.”
“I had some problems with him because of my injury with Croatia, but that is behind us now. I will always be concentrating on Rangers first and it will be that way for as long as I play with them,” he added.
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