Bairns should have defensive leader high on shopping list
Like a number of Premiership clubs, we are facing a pretty big rebuild over the close season. Several loan players will return to their parent clubs, while some of our standout performers will inevitably attract interest elsewhere.
[BBC] Like a number of Premiership clubs, we are facing a pretty big rebuild over the close season. Several loan players will return to their parent clubs, while some of our standout performers will inevitably attract interest elsewhere. There are also a handful of players nearing the end of their contracts who, for one reason or another, are unlikely to stay on.
However, Saturday's 3-1 home defeat to Hibernian again highlighted that bringing in a centre-half must be high on John McGlynn's list of priorities for next season. Conceding from set-pieces continues to plague us, a flaw that dates all the way back to our League 1 days. It remains a glaring weakness and was exposed again early in Saturday's loss.
We found ourselves behind almost immediately when conceding a cheap goal from a corner, leaving us with a mountain to climb and, ultimately, seeing our European hopes go up in smoke. While they are a rare breed in today's game, we're in need of a proper old-school leader beside Liam Henderson - someone capable of organising the backline and bringing the aggression needed to deal with this ongoing issue from set-pieces. Given the level of detail McGlynn puts into his work, you would imagine he is already exploring ways to solve this problem, but hopefully it is near the top of his summer shopping list.