'What are you doing?!' - Pundit baffled by Rangers call which proved him wrong in Kilmarnock romp
12/06/2024 08:30 AM
Philippe Clement has been guilty of getting big calls wrong this season.
The Rangers manager, however, got everything spot on when Kilmarnock visited Ibrox on Wednesday evening as they sunk their opponents 6-0 in the most convincing performance of the campaign.
James Tavernier had a good game and opened the scoring before Danilo, Hamza Igamane, Vaclav Cerny and a Cyriel Dessers double secured the points on a comfortable evening.
But for both Gordon Dalziel and Derek Ferguson, it was a player who was not on the score sheet who made the biggest impact.
Ianis Hagi has had a difficult season at Gers so far with his playing time limited initially.
He was even told by the manager he could leave as Clement had no room for him in his first-team squad and that he did not fit into the plans.
Fast-forward a few months, though, and the Romanian playmaker has proved himself worthy.
Against Derek McInnes’ Killie, Hagi started on the left-flank and that was a decision which had Dalziel scratching his head before kick-off.
As it transpired, he whipped in an assist for the first two goals of the evening and put on a strong showing.
Ianis Hagi starting on the left-hand side surprised Gordon Dalziel
And that’s where both Dalziel and his fellow Open Goal pundit Ferguson reckon the 26-year-old has shown himself to be one of the difference-makers for the club right now.
“Know what I was surprised at? When Hagi started on the left-hand side,” Dalziel said on Keeping the Ball on the Ground podcast.
“I’m going, ‘What are you doing?!’ But the ball for the first goal.
What Derek Ferguson said about Hagi being Rangers’ difference-maker
“Don’t get me wrong you’d be having a go at your defender….”
Ferguson added: “All that crap from the beginning of the season, ‘If he plays one more game he gets a signing on fee or whatever’.
“See for not sorting that out? Hell mend you.
“And it looked like at one time he was gonna leave. But he’s the difference at the minute.”
