Rangers told they've signed Borna Barisic 2.0 as winter arrival comes with licence for attacking thrill
A Rangers signing from the winter transfer window has been subject of acclaim.
Rangers have been told they have found a worthy successor to Borna Barisic at Ibrox, after a thumping win over Queen’s Park.
Danny Rohl’s side continued their good form and showed no mercy at the Scottish Cup round of 16 stage, against a lower league side who eliminated them last season, dispatching the Spiders 8-0. It provided first starts for some of Rangers’ winter transfer window acquisitions, including Tuur Rommens.
The left-back arrived from Westerlo in his native Belgium and lit up Ibrox off the bench in last week’s 5-1 rout of Kilmarnock at Ibrox. He again proved a thorn in his opponents’ side on Sunday and it has set up a mouthwatering quarter-final with Celtic next month, and Rommens has displayed his attacking intent ahead of it.
What is the difficulty of playing Rangers at Ibrox?
Stephen Craigan was on punditry duty for Premier Sports at the game and with Jayden Meghoma left on the bench after being the undisputed number one left-back this season, the former Motherwell and Northern Ireland defender reckons Rommens is Rangers’ Borna Barisic replacement.
The Croatian left Ibrox in 2024 after six seasons of rampaging down the left-hand-side and winning a title in Govan, and Craigan reckons Rommens can thrive in an area where Ridvan Yilmaz, Jefte and Meghoma have tried to nail down the position. Craigan said at half-time with Rangers already 5-0 up: “I'd said ahead of the game. The fear coming here as a visiting player sometimes is that you can be beaten heavily and the game can be taken away from you very, very quickly.
“Danny Rohl has made so many changes over the past five or six weeks, if not beyond that. Sometimes when you make those number of changes there's lack of continuity, lack of consistency within the team. That can be a little bit of a fear coming into this but they've hit the ground running. There's just so much fluency. Everybody wants the ball. The early goal clearly gives them a huge lift in the game. They've handled it very well. They've been very professional.
Tuur Rommens at Rangers assessed
“They haven't been too relaxed in trying to take it easy. They have the game exactly where they want it and Danny Rohl has got everything from the game that he expected. Sometimes you have to be careful because you look at the level of opposition and maybe how easy it is. But it's Rommens’ intent.
“Every time he lays the ball off, whether it's out to Oliver Atman, whether it's in the midfield to Chukwuani, the first thought in his mind i I'm going to run forward. I want to try and break lines. I want to try and upset defenders and move them out of the way. You may not always get the ball, but you then create a little bit of a space for someone else to go and work it and work the magic.
“When he's in the final third, he's got composure. He lifts his head. The last Rangers left back, I think that reminds you of someone like that, was Borna Barisic. And they've tried so many since. Ridvan Yilmaz has played there. Max Aarons has played there. Meghoma’s a young boy, of course, a lot of learning still to go. He's made impacts but when you get into the final third you're judged by your final pass, and I think his is certainly very impressive.”