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Daily Record
Daily Record
Sport
David McCarthy

Borna Barisic gets Rangers show of faith as Gio van Bronckhorst admits 'it is not easy'

Giovanni van Bronckhorst has vowed to help Borna Barisic get back to his best.

The Croatian is suffering a confidence crisis that saw him left out of the Hearts game at the weekend after being taken off at half time in the Old Firm clash three days earlier.

Barisic came on to replace the injured Leon Balogun in the win over Hibs and his manager believes his self-belief will return.

The Rangers boss said: "These are moments that will happen in your career. The only thing we need to do is make sure we give him confidence, we help him.

"It is not easy. You see when he came in (against Hibs ) he had to do it in a split-second, which is always hard and without a warm-up.

"As the game progressed he started to get in the game better. He is one of our players and we support him, not only me but the players, support him to get the performances which he needs."

(Getty Images)

Meanwhile, Van Bronckhorst reckons the pressure is on Rangers' fringe players to deliver at Annan as they try to avoid one of the biggest Scottish Cup upsets in history.

The Ibrox boss is set to make a raft of changes against the League Two outfit, giving game time to the likes of Jon McLaughlin, James Sands, Steven Davis and Kemar Roofe, who have seen little action recently. Aaron Ramsey may also be given his first start.

But Van Bronckhorst is demanding that whoever plays at Galabank must bring the same intensity shown in back to back wins over Hearts and Hibs in the past week.

He said: "You feel the pressure in every game. I am also glad that we can continue now in the cup which, for every team, is the shortest way to a prize.

"The pressure is on on Saturday, we are facing Annan Athletic and we have respect for every opponent that we meet and we play. We want to be in the draw for the next round and that is the pressure we feel at the moment."

Van Bronckhorst was delighted with the last two results and the manner in which they were achieved.

He added: "The players are understanding that once the press is made we all go forward and put pressure on the opponent. That is working really well and it must give the players confidence.

"They did it against two difficult teams and scored seven goals and not conceded one goal."

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