Goldson fronts up over woes at the heart of defence
AKEY part of bouncing back from your mistakes is accepting responsibility for them. There are no problems with Connor Goldson on that score. He knows he has been guilty of some high-profile errors. He holds his hands up to that.
If he’d returned them to his side and got on with the game rather than claiming a foul as all hell was breaking loose around him in the box at Pittodrie on Wednesday night, mind you, Aberdeen might not have earned their 2-2 draw and he might not find himself the centre of such fevered debate ahead of the biggest game of his career.
Rangers have been losing sloppy goals of late. Goldson has been at the centre of many of them. He was poor for both in midweek.
Feyenoord’s equaliser to make it 2-2 in De Kuip 10 days ago, scored by Luis Sinisterra after the £3.5million arrival from Brighton and defensive partner Filip Helander had looked like giraffes on ice, still makes for uncomfortable viewing.
Lewis Smith’s headed effort for Hamilton during Rangers’ 3-1 league win ahead of Europa League duty in Rotterdam was another comedy of errors, while Mickel Miller really ought to have made it 2-2 in the second half of that game when missing from a matter of yards out after the Ibrox side’s entire rearguard had been posted missing in action.
It has all led to debate over Goldson’s position in the build-up to today’s Betfred
Cup final. Is manager Steven Gerrard too loyal to him? Is his partnership with Helander strong enough? Should Nikola Katic or George Edmundson be getting more of a chance?
Accepting criticism is one thing. Dealing with it is another. Goldson insists he switches off from the incessant debates in newspapers, on websites and on social media and messageboards, choosing to invest himself in his family life with partner Kayleigh and son Caleb away from Ibrox and Auchenhowie.
There is, however, a certain strength that comes from within, too. From accepting that mistakes are an inevitable part of being human. From telling himself that there is really nothing more he can do to eke more out of his career.
Whether that is enough to placate an expectant support should the eight-year wait for a major trophy not end today remains to be seen, but it is a coping strategy. And a good one at a club where the need for success is felt so intensely.
‘I try to do my best,’ said the 26-year-old. ‘I am a human being and I know I do every single thing in my power to perform well and help Rangers win games of football whether that is in preparing or recovering, doing things in the gym and eating right.
‘If I have a bad game or I make mistakes, that is due to me being a human being and not being the best central defender in the world, which I obviously know I’m not.
‘But I think, over the course of a season, I try to limit them as much as I can and stay as professional as I can. As long as I know I can go home after every game and look at myself in the mirror, I try not to listen to anything else that comes from the outside.
‘I know that I can look myself in the mirror and I know I do everything right.
‘You deal with it. I have a family that I go home to every single day after a match or after training that keep me away from football.’
Of course, part of the media circus ahead of today’s match has centred on former Celtic striker Chris Sutton, who, in promoting broadcasting firm BT Sport’s match coverage, branded Rangers captain James Tavernier ‘a serial loser’.
Tavernier wrote off the comments as ‘irrelevant’. Goldson, informed of Sutton’s viewpoint in the same way he had to be told of the current debate over his own position and the general strength of the Rangers
defence, felt they were way out of order. ‘I think it is poor when ex-professional football players these days come out and slate people,’ he said. ‘They know how hard it is to do the job.
‘With fans, you accept that they have never been footballers and don’t know the pressure or the hard work. They think it is an hour-and-ahalf of training each day and what a life it is, but the pressure you are under and the hard work you do every day comes after you leave the training ground too.
‘You constantly have to care about what you eat, what you do away from here, what time you sleep. Everything you do is a routine. For exprofessional football players to come out and scrutinise players just so they get a headline is poor, I think.
‘I wouldn’t do it personally. I don’t come out and slate any other players and wouldn’t do it after I finish playing. He has done it to get a headline and I don’t want to say anything, personally, that is going to get me a headline.’
There is some criticism, for all that, which has clear validity in Goldson’s eyes. Gerrard was unhappy with his team’s defending at those Aberdeen goals at Pittodrie. He accused them of being unable to handle the pressure after being 2-0 up.
Goldson has taken all that on board and admitted that he could — and should — have done better at Andrew Considine’s leveller.
‘Personally, I accept the criticism for the second goal. At the time, I thought it was a foul, but, looking back, it is a little bit soft,’ he said. ‘Listen, we are human and we have all been in tough scenarios and dealt with it before.
‘I thought we were brilliant to a man in the first half and the goal before half-time hurt us because we were in full control of the game and it gave them belief. When you let a two-goal lead slip, you are open to criticism and we accept it.
‘The defensive record has been really good over the course of the season. You are going to concede goals in games of football, but there have been a few sloppy ones lately.
‘No one is immune to criticism at this football club. You make a mistake and everything is magnified. We are used to it. A lot of the players have been here long enough.’
Goldson was put under the microscope when Rangers lost 2-0 at home to Celtic earlier in the season. A slack pass to Mikey Johnston led to Odsonne Edouard’s opener that day and the centre-half concedes he
I know that I can look myself in the mirror and I know I do everything right with my preparations
was in the wrong, but he believes the Parkhead side will face a different proposition today thanks to Ryan Kent being back in the fold at Ibrox following his permanent £7m move from Liverpool.
‘It was a game of hardly anything, truthfully. It was a mistake for the first goal by me, but, apart from that, it was a scrappy Old Firm,’ reflected Goldson.
‘They came and did a job on us. We couldn’t get going. We couldn’t create much and didn’t have many chances. They didn’t have many chances either. Since then, though, we haven’t lost a game domestically, so the confidence is high.
‘This is a cup final. It is completely different from any game we will play as professional footballers.
‘We know we can hurt them. Ryan is one of our main threats. He’s a player with such quality in the attacking third and can take people on, create things and score himself.
‘I think that piece of magic was missing at the start of the season. We are going into this game, I think, in a better place than we were in August.’
Goldson is also in no doubt that he has never played a bigger game in his life.
‘I’d say so. Being a cup final with what is on the line,’ he conceded.
‘We’ve been almost nine years without a major trophy and this squad has been assembled to bring that in.
‘There is a lot of hunger and a lot of excitement. I am sure there will be a little bit of nerves before kick-off and that can help. A bit of nervous energy usually brings the best out of you.
‘I think we have a great chance. We are going in with full belief that we are going to win the game.
‘If you look at the squad now compared to when I first arrived and match them against the Celtic squads, we were behind, but, truthfully, I don’t think we are now.’