When we talk about certain Rangers defenders, it sometimes feels like we are judging two different players: the one our eyes remember from the odd bad moment, and the one the numbers quietly describe over a season.

Full-back or centre-back – it is a different job

For a start, the role at full-back and the role at centre-back are nowhere near the same. At full-back you are constantly exposed. You are asked to get up and down the line, join the play, offer width, then sprint back and defend one v one. You are often isolated, dragged into wide areas, and left dealing with tricky wingers and overlapping runners.

It is not just a case of standing on a man and marking him. You are defending space, watching runners inside, and still expected to be an outlet in possession. For some players, that constant up-and-down work and exposure can make every mistake look worse than it actually is.

At centre-back, the picture changes. Most of the time you have a centre-forward occupying you, your position is more central, and your movement is more controlled. You are not asked to bomb on in the same way. The man-marking part can feel more straightforward because you are rarely left totally alone in acres of space.

Switching off or let down by others?

There is also the question of whether a player really "switches off" or whether, at times, he is simply let down by others around him. You can see why some fans think he loses concentration, but there is another side to it. Quite often a defender sets himself expecting a team-mate to do their job, only for that not to happen.

The European example with Djiga failing to head clear is exactly that kind of moment. One player assumes the danger will be dealt with, it is not, and suddenly everyone is looking at the nearest familiar face to blame. From the stands it is easy to pin the whole thing on the defender you already have doubts about.

Stats, memories and the one bad ball in five

Modern football is full of data. There are plenty of sites with people paid to log every pass and every touch. Those numbers are not perfect, but they do give a different angle. If they are saying four out of five of his passes are successful, that tells you something.

Yet many supporters will hang on to the one bad ball in five and forget the four that were fine. The poor cross that goes straight out, or the pass that sells a team-mate short, sticks in the memory far more than the simple, tidy stuff. It is just how we are wired as fans.

On top of that, he has been here through a period when we have not been as successful as we would like. So it becomes easy for some to join the dots and decide he is part of the problem, almost as if he is the single reason for everything that has gone wrong. That is not realistic, but it is how narratives build.

Truth is, any fair assessment of a Rangers defender has to take in the role he is asked to play, the system around him, and a bit more than just the handful of mistakes we all remember on the way home from Ibrox.

Written by Angus1812 — 6 December 2025