The Guardian’s Ewan Murray has launched a defence of Giovanni van Bronckhorst on The Press Box podcast amidst Rangers‘ recent poor displays.
It has been a pretty disastrous time of things lately for Van Bronckhorst and Rangers as they haven’t won a game since 30th August when they beat Queen of the South 3-1 in the League Cup, with back-to-back 4-0 defeats following that victory.
Those two defeats weren’t just bad days at the office for Rangers, as they came against their league and city rivals Celtic and on their return to the Champions League after a 12-year absence, which has cast doubts around whether or not they have what it takes to compete at this level under their current manager.
Murray, however, has launched a staunch defence of Van Bronckhorst after he revealed what the manager had told his players before the Old Firm derby.
He said: “In Van Bronckhorst’s slight defence, and this is the only defence I’ll give him, when players who will have been told – and I know they were told – time and time again about Celtic’s quick free-kicks and quick throw-ins just switch off, I’m not sure what the manager can do about that. That reflects badly on the players, you saw it with Celtic’s goals – the players just stood still.
Should Van Bronckhorst be sacked?
Yes!
No!
“Now, with managers and coaches – and again, I know that this was drilled into the Rangers players that this is what Celtic do – you can lead a horse to water and all that, so I would give him a slight out with that.”
TIF Thoughts on Van Bronckhorst’s situation at Rangers…
After being backed sufficiently in the transfer market with seven new arrivals and a new contract to centre-back Connor Goldson, there should be no excuses for Van Bronckhorst not making his Rangers team a competitive one.
Last season was an extreme high for the Gers as they reached the final of the Europa League, but that counted for nothing in the end as they lost out on penalties, and that hangover appears to have stayed with them at times this season.
While we feel Van Bronckhorst is unlikely to be nearing the sack at Ibrox given what he managed to achieve last season in Europe, he will need to ensure that results and performances pick up in the near future because he can ill afford to fall further behind Celtic in the league and lose touch on the third spot in their Champions League group, which would see them at least remain in Europe.