CONNOR STONE OF SUCCESS
Defensive ever-present Goldson knows what is expected as Gers bid to end title drought
MUCH has been made of Rangers’ attacking threat as they’ve stormed to the top of the Premiership but Steven Gerrard’s earlyseason success has been built on the cornerstone of a sound defence.
Or maybe the Connor stone. While new boy Leon Balogun has received many deserved plaudits for the manner in which he’s settled in at Ibrox, the man alongside him has been equally impressive as three successive clean sheets in the league would testify.
In fact, Bayern Leverkusen are the only team to have scored against Rangers pre-season or otherwise this term.
Connor Goldson has been almost an ever-present under Gerrard, while defensive partners in the shape of Balogun, Filip Helander, George Edmundson and Niko Katic have been rotated and his steadying influence has played a massive part in allowing the more eye-catching individuals ahead of him to do their stuff.
The former Brighton defender is one of Gerrard’s most trusted lieutenants on and off the field, part of a ‘leadership group’ appointed by the manager and Goldson is clearly relishing the responsibility.
He also believes he is in the form of his life, having come to terms with the challenges that playing for a club of Rangers’ magnitude entails, physically and mentally.
“When you are down in England, I don’t think you understand the size of it, but I came to realise very quickly and I understood what is expected,” Goldson told Rangers TV.
“It’s different from down south. You learn quickly that you can’t draw a game of football. A draw is a loss. I’ve come to understand it and deal with it. It’s a great pressure to have, knowing that every single game, no matter who you’re up against, you’re expected to win.
“It’s instills a winning mentality into me personally and the whole team. We know that if we want to win titles and different competitions then we have to win every single game.
“You know you need to be at it 100 per cent every single week. You are everyone’s biggest game domestically, so you know everyone is going to give 100 per cent when you’re playing against them. “Every week when
you’re playing, you need to be at it and the thing I’ve learned the most is the recovery in between games.
“In the first year I found it difficult playing so many games but in the second year I got to know my body more and I got to know what I need to do between the games to get myself back to full recovery and be ready to go for the next game.
“I used to play a game, eat what I wanted after it and stay up late. But now I’ve got to the stage where I’m 27 and I have to realise that playing so many games here, you’re not able to do that. I’m a lot stricter with my own routine. I know what my body needs now and that’s helped me a lot.
“You understand the top players at the big clubs who play this many games, what it takes. I had to understand that coming to Rangers and playing 50-60 games a season.” And he hasn’t been slow to impart that understanding on the younger players trying to make the grade at Ibrox. The Englishman, now in his third season, admits Gerrard’s influence on turning the club around has been massive.
“He’s been big for the whole club,” Goldson said. “If you look at our squad now, compared to the squad when I joined, it’s chalk and cheese. We still have a long way to go. We have to win things together but I feel the club is in a much better place.
“Even the vibe with some of the players we’ve got, international players in most positions, and I think that’s a massive credit to the manager in his first job.
“But there’s a long way to go and we need to push on with this squad as it’s capable of winning things and we need to do that this year. The manager wants a group of us to run the changing room, in a way that he doesn’t have to do it.
“Fines, discipline, making sure that everything’s right between the players. We try to do that; to lead by example.
“With the young players, it’s the same. You try to lead by example every day. Whether that’s training or doing extras. Gym, living right. You try to make them understand you only have a short career so you don’t look back with any regrets.”
We know if we want to win titles and different competitions then we have to win every single game
CONNOR GOLDSON