Rangers defender Borna Barisic is heading for the exit door this summer if he doesn’t turn his form around according to Kris Boyd.
The Gers turned in a fine performance on Sunday afternoon, beating St Mirren 4-0 away from home.
Kemar Roofe’s hat-trick had already wrapped up the win before Joe Aribo curled an absolute beauty into the top corner.
Rangers needed this win badly after a testing week. Losing to Celtic was a huge blow and then a 1-0 defeat to Braga in the Europa League left Giovanni van Bronckhorst needing a result.
Van Bronckhorst certainly got that result with the 4-0 thrashing of St Mirren and Rangers will now hope to finish the season strongly.
One Rangers player particularly needing a strong end to the season is left back Barisic, who has endured a difficult season.
Branded ‘outstanding’ by former Rangers boss Steven Gerrard, Barisic was a star for Rangers with major quality coming from the left flank.
The Croatian had a tough start at Rangers before becoming a fan favourite at Ibrox, but his performances have dipped this season.
A torrid outing against Celtic in February was so bad that Barisic has lost his place to Calvin Bassey.
Bassey has become Rangers’ first-choice left back of late having previously been utilised as a left-sided centre back with Barisic in the team.
Barisic did come back in against St Mirren and will be hoping to have done enough to secure a start against Braga at Ibrox too.
Pundit Kris Boyd isn’t sure about Bassey’s future though, telling Sky Sports (10/04, 11:42am) that he thinks his career is ‘only going one way’ and that’s away from Rangers.
Boyd can understand why Rangers have been playing Bassey of late, but thinks Barisic can provide major attacking quality – and wants to see him save his Rangers career.
“How can you improve and how can you win games more comfortably? If you shut up shop and try and nullify your opponents, I think Calvin Bassey is a better defender than Borna Barisic for me,” said Boyd. “But I think Borna Barisic gives you that little bit of quality in the final third as well, similar to James Tavernier. The crosses, the types of crosses which help strikers and onrushing midfielders is better when Barisic plays.
“I can understand why Rangers went with Calvin Bassey, I can understand why [Barisic] has missed out. I’ve said it before, I don’t think that Giovanni van Bronckhorst has got full trust in some of his players and Barisic is one of them.”
“He’s been a good player for Rangers for a number of seasons and hopefully he can resurrect his Rangers career because, as it stands right now, it’s only going one way and that’s probably out the door in the summer because of the performances of Calvin Bassey,” he added.
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