We all know the line about football and opinions, however, on this occasion, Barry Ferguson has had a bit of a stinker when it comes to Rangers line-up for Benfica.
Gers boss Philippe Clement has his hands tied in terms of how many injuries he has to contend with, there is also the issue of players who aren’t in the squad.
Rangers will need to be at a level above the performances against Real Betis in the group stages but Benfica don’t have their troubles to seek either but, who does Ferguson think the gaffer should go with?
Rangers selection tip for Benfica a non-starter for Ferguson
Against Motherwell, Connor Goldson and John Souttar both had nightmares.
They weren’t the only ones, but they were particularly bad and merited the 3/10 player ratings scores.
Because of this, Fergie has a solution ahead of the trip to Portugal as told to the The Go Radio Football Show:
“I was thinking that after the game on the way home that obviously they were a bit shaky defensively no doubt about it.
“Big Balogun has now had a few weeks since that bad bang on the face and I think we’ll probably see him come back into the team on Thursday night over at Benfica.”
There is one small problem with this.
Leon Balogun isn’t in Rangers Europa League squad.
When Philippe Clement had to make changes for the knockout stages, he had just three options available.
Sam Lammers and Jose Cifuentes left in January and Kieran Dowell is injured.
The players he went with left one of the three new signings missing out due, mainly, to Michael Beale’s puzzling selection.
Ridvan Yilmaz was added along with Mohamed Diomande and Fabio Silva.
Oscar Cortes was the one that didn’t make it, which was beginning to look like a mistake given his form, however, a serious hamstring injury has put paid to that.
Beale preferred to go with Ben Davies in the squad which, added to the new additions, meant that there was no room for Balogun to be squeezed in – even though he has been a firm favourite of Clement.
Fergie is right, had he been available, the veteran defender probably would have been picked, as it is, seeing his name on the team-sheet at around half-past four on Sunday for the Scottish Cup tie against Hibernian is almost guaranteed.
It’s one thing having an opinion but, if you are paid to give one, at least make sure you get your facts right.
