David Edgar from the Rangers-focused Heart and Hand podcast was full of praise for Leon Balogun’s performance against Aberdeen on Saturday in what was the 32-year-old defender’s competitive debut for the Gers.
Balogun moved to Ibrox on a free transfer earlier this summer. As per the BBC, he signed a one-year contract with the Glasgow-based club. Rangers boss Steven Gerrard cited the defender’s Premier League experience and ‘international pedigree’ as reasons behind his signing earlier this summer.
The 32-year-old former Nigeria international played the full 90 minutes of the Gers’ opening game of the 2020/21 Scottish Premiership season against Aberdeen on Saturday and his performance at centre-back helped the club to keep a clean sheet and secure a 1-0 win at Pittodrie.
Edgar discussed Balogun’s competitive debut for the Gers in a post-match reaction video that was posted to the Heart and Hand podcast YouTube channel and he was full of praise for the 32-year-old’s performance against Aberdeen.
Here is what Edgar had to say about Balogun’s performance versus the Dons: “[The] manager sprung a pre-match surprise, really, by giving Leon Balogun his debut and I’ve got to be honest there, at first I was [thinking] ‘what has George Edmundson done wrong, really?’ But Balogun was superb. He was absolutely brilliant today, I felt.
“I thought that he looks good on the ball, very comfortable, but just unflappable, really. Not afraid to put his head where it hurts.”
Were you impressed by Leon Balogun's performance versus Aberdeen?
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TIF Thoughts…
As per WhoScored, Balogun was Rangers’ fifth-highest rated player in Saturday’s league fixture. He played the fifth-highest number of accurate long-balls (three), made the highest number of clearances (three), and won the highest number of aerial duels (six) of any Rangers player against Aberdeen.
With that in mind, it may be fair to say that Balogun showed his quality in a number of areas in last Saturday’s Scottish Premiership fixture and it may not come as a big surprise that Edgar was impressed by his performance in this game.