Jury’s still out on Hagi
BARRY FERGUSON
IANIS HAGI is a player all right. The question is can he be a Rangers player for longer than the rest of the season?
It seems my old club has an exclusive buyout option on him and on the evidence of his performance in the last 23 minutes against Braga on Thursday night, you would say it was a no-brainer.
But Steven Gerrard will want to see how the Romanian kid handles going to places like Perth tomorrow, where he’s going to have to roll his sleeves up and dig deep. That’s where we’ll see what he’s made of.
It’s not going to be pretty. You know what the weather’s like – it’s going to be wet and windy. This is where you have to be prepared to do the horrible side of the game.
There’s no doubt the guy is technically superb. I still don’t know his strongest foot. That tells you everything. He scored a brilliant goal with his left foot and then took the free-kick with his right.
The last guy I saw doing that was Lubo Moravcik at Celtic. So the ability is there but he has to show it at McDiarmid Park, at Fir Park, at
IBROX LEGEND WRITES EXCLUSIVELY FOR YOU EVERY WEEK Tynecastle, at Pittodrie. That’s what and was excellent as were the two thought it was all or nothing. At 2-0 it really means being a Rangers central midfielders. down at home, you are practically player. Can you change? Can you But they’ll give you a chance with out of the tie if nothing changes. do the dirty side when you need to? the way they play so high up. You But Gerrard put on three
Hagi sparked that fightback from can get runners in behind. attacking players to show an intent two goals down and you’ve got to That means Rangers can hurt to go forward. It changed the think doing that and beating a very them and I think they’ll score in dynamic of the match. That and good team will re-ignite the season. Wednesday’s return. It’s going to be the lift they got from the stands after difficult but you have to go over the first goal. Braga didn’t know with the same attitude they showed what had hit them. The atmosphere in that last 23 minutes. If they do, carried the players and that’s what they’ll have a real chance. European nights are like at Ibrox.
Gerrard has been criticised at points this season for taking too long to make substitutions but the ones he made changed the game, so he and his staff deserve credit.
He brought on Flo Kamberi to go two up top and didn’t just replace Borna Barisic with Andy Halliday. Instead, he threw on Greg Stewart and moved Joe Aribo to left-back but, as we saw with his goal, he still had real attacking instinct. He just
I saw a side to Rangers a lot of people have been questioning, their mentality, desire, hunger, whatever you want to call it. They showed that in abundance.
When that first goal went in, although I wasn’t at the game, you felt the atmosphere coming through the TV. You know what the Rangers fans are like. It kicked the players on.
I had seen clips of Braga and thought they were a good team. But technically they were better than I thought they’d be. I was impressed.
The No.77, Francisco Trincao, is going to Barcelona in the summer
The one downside was yet another daft booking for Alfredo Morelos that means he misses yet another vital match.
I know what it’s like if you get a decision against you and have a pop at the ref but in the modern game even if you look at the ref the wrong way you’ll get booked.
He has to learn. He’s missing yet another massive game and there’s no need for it. If he had been booked
There is no doubt that Ianis Hagi is technically superb
for a late challenge when he had been closing somebody down, you could accept it. But not for dissent. Morelos needs to learn to channel that frustration.
But the positives far outweighed that negatives and Rangers have a real chance of progressing. As do Celtic, and both clubs deserve huge credit for what they’ve done in Europe over the past two seasons.
Right now both have a real chance of making the last 16 of the Europa League. They are in the driving seat to get through.
Now it’s back to league business for both tomorrow. Rangers have to soak in that last 23 minutes and take it into the St Johnstone game. The way players get looked after in terms of recovery means they’ll be ready physically.
They just have to take the confidence and belief from that comeback against a very good team. Last midweek I was throwing my flip flops at the telly as they blew it against Kilmarnock. This week I was doing somersaults.
That’s why we love the game. We never know what’s coming next.