Lonely this Christmas
...but Barisic insists sacrifices of being an elite athlete in Covid times are worth making as he focuses on task of winning title with Rangers
IN RETURN for lifting a hefty wage each month, players in the Premiership sign a pact with the devil. While civil society opens a door to peace, goodwill, rest, indulgence and close family, footballers don a set of blinkers and block them all out.
For overseas players, Christmas Day means a Zoom call to relatives at home. Later they might gather in a hotel with team-mates to prepare for a game on Boxing Day. Abstinence is no-one’s idea of a perfect Christmas, but for a football player it’s an occupational necessity. And this year a world pandemic makes it harder than ever to relax or spend quality time with their nearest and dearest.
Strip it all away and the football is really all they have left. As Britain tries to find a way out of the darkness and uncertainty caused by Covid-19, Borna Barisic regards a busy period of festive games as the life raft guiding him towards better days and a first Rangers title in ten years.
‘If I said to you now that it was easy, I would be lying,’ admits the Croatian international. ‘It’s not easy, of course. Especially with me because I am far away from my family.
‘But we know what we want from this season. We know that we want to win every game if we can. We know our plan.
‘So all the other things I remove from myself. I am only concentrating on this club and trying to win every game.
‘Your team makes things a little bit easier but of course it’s not easy when you’re far away from family, especially this Christmas time.’
In years gone past, the winter break offered respite and a chance to return to close family for a belated celebration. With Covid- 19 i solating the British Isles from the continent — in every conceivable way — there is no escape from the grinding pressures and demands of playing for Rangers.
Over the next ten days, the league leaders play four pivotal games against St Johnstone, Hibernian, St Mirren and Celtic. With borders closed since the emergence of a new covid strain, management and players must lean on each other for support and strength.
‘Yes, it’s more difficult for sure because there is this quarantine,’ adds Barisic. People cannot come. As you can see from the last few days, there are no flights to the UK, it’s not easy.
‘But always when I think about that I say to myself: ‘What’s your target this season?” I know what my target is with
Rangers. There’s no problem with that.
‘We need to sacrifice some other things for that. It’s not easy but I don’t have a problem with i t. Mindset i s very important in these situations. I know what’s in my head. I know that the plan is only to win every game for Rangers. That’s the mentality I have and I’m sure every player has in our dressing room.’
In the last two years people have habitually queried the mindset of Rangers players. In a healthy position to win the league after the New Year Old Firm fixture, Steven Gerrard’s team fell to bits after the winter break.
And when they lost to St Mirren in the Betfred Cup and found themselves 1-0 down to Motherwell after 70 minutes of Saturday’s league game, it seemed like history was repeating itself.
In a stirring late response, however, a Kemar Roofe double and a strike from Cedric Itten steadied the ship.
‘There was no panic when we were losing 1-0 to Motherwell,’ Barisic insists. ‘We stuck to our game plan and believed in each other more than any other time.
‘This is the first time this has happened since I came here. When we go behind we still believe in each other and that goes for the whole squad. It was a hard game but we showed a lot of character and managed to get the three points.
‘It is normal during a season you will lose a game like St Mirren. You cannot play at your best every time. Of course you always want to win but it is not always easy. When it happened in the cup it was hard and it hurt a little bit more. This is when you have to show more character and especially so when we were 1-0 down against Motherwell.
‘They had ten players behind the ball and it was not easy to beat them. At the end we managed to score three times and I was very happy about that.’
Despite t he St Mirren setback, Rangers look better placed t o withstand any wobbles this season.
In past years, a suspension for Alfredo Morelos usually meant t r ouble. Yet t he addition of Roofe and Itten to the attack means Gerrard no longer has to rely on his Colombian talisman.
Given his troubles in front of goal this season, it might be just as well.
‘ Last season the belief wasn’t always there and the season before also,’ Barisic acknowledges.
‘But we are now in our third season together and everyone at the club knows this situation.
‘We have been in it in the previous two seasons. We’ve made a deal with ourselves not to panic, to stick with our plan. That is the only way that we will win.
‘Every time we play, we are aware a lot of teams will have a low block, like Motherwell. It is not always easy to score goals against teams who always play with ten men behind the ball.
‘ But this i s our third season together, we know the league, we know the expectation.
‘ The g uys who c a me here this season have adapted very well and very quickly. Even from the substitutes’ bench they bring a lot of energy and quality. ‘ That allows the whole squad not to panic and to play right until the end of every game.’
Mindset is very important in these situations. I know what my target is