Glasgow Rangers had one of their better afternoons of the 2025/26 campaign on Saturday when they beat Hibernian 2-0 to reach the semi-finals of the League Cup.
Goals from Nicolas Raskin and Bojan Miovski secured the win for Russell Martin’s side, after Martin Boyle had a goal disallowed at 0-0 in the first half.
It has been a frustrating season for the Light Blues, with no wins in the Scottish Premiership to date, and there have been issues all over the pitch under the new head coach, particularly in the left-back position.
Why Rangers have struggled at left-back this season
It was evident that Martin was not happy with Jefte and Ridvan Yilmaz as his options at left-back at the start of the season, because right-footed right-back Max Aarons started the campaign in that position.
Once it was clear that having a player out of position at left-back was not working, Jefte came into the side for a few games before the club decided to sell him to Palmeiras, shortly followed out of the door by Yilmaz, who returned to Besiktas.
Having sold their only two natural full-backs, Rangers brought Jayden Meghoma in on loan from Brentford. A young player who had only started 11 league games in the 2024/25 campaign, all on loan at Preston in the Championship.
The English defender has lost 56% of his duels and failed to register an assist in three appearances for Rangers in the Premiership to date, per Sofascore, and the club may rue that they let go of a star who was once compared to Lionel Messi.
Rangers fumbled their own Lionel Messi
Back in 2019, Croatian coach Davor Rupnik compared Borna Barisic, who was at Ibrox at the time, to Barcelona and Argentina’s legendary attacker.
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Rupnik said: “Many people don’t know he is a superb free kick and set piece taker. He has a left foot like Lionel Messi. He has improved massively and he is also an exceptionally hard worker. He used to ask for extra gym work in the evening after training.”
Of course, this does not mean that Barisic was dribbling past four or five players and scoring two or three goals every week, like the World Cup-winning icon, but he did have a left foot that consistently delivered quality at the top end of the pitch.
23/24
17
3
22/23
29
10
21/22
19
3
20/21
30
7
19/20
22
8
18/19
15
3
Total
132
34
As you can see in the table above, the Croatia international provided a big threat in the final third as a creative force from left-back throughout his Premiership career.
The left-footed star created 12 or more ‘big chances’ in all competitions in three of his last five seasons at Ibrox, which shows that he was still at the top of his game from a creative perspective up to the point that he was released at the end of the 2023/24 campaign.
Looking back, given what has happened in the left-back position up to this point, Rangers may regret alowing Barisic to move on because he was a proven Premiership performer who made a big impact at the top end of the pitch.
Unfortunately, for the defender, he suffered a cruciate ligament injury for Leganes in LaLiga in January and is currently without a club, having been released by Trabzonspor whilst dealing with that horrendous injury in the summer.
Ultimately, though, Rangers lost a star who was “like Lionel Messi” on a free transfer, and their current left-back situation shows that they are still looking for his replacement over a year on from his departure.