Umar Sadiq

11
Umar Sadiq


If one player’s selection was a shock yesterday, it was the introduction to the starting XI of Umar Sadiq.

We had a small suspicion at Ibrox Noise that he would take his maiden bow at Hampden but didn’t follow up on it, plus we know the comments would have been filled with outrage at such a preposterous idea.

Which, in many ways it was; Sadiq has been a laughing stock since his arrival, unable to coherently perform and looking at best gangly and at worst utterly awkward.

But he was the only striker at Steven Gerrard’s disposal yesterday so it was either deploy a different position as the number 9, regret the lack of Jason Cummings, or change the formation.

Truth is, none of these were valid ideas, and the solution Gerrard had was his effective hands tied outcome.

And you know what – apart from the naïve offsides (just like Morelos has done a lot of the season) and the blood to the head moment of the dive, he actually played pretty well.

He played no worse overall than we’ve seen from Lafferty and Morelos at times this season, managing to hold the ball up several times, take some good touches, and be a nuisance in the Aberdeen box.

But sadly due to his dive the rest has been forgotten, and it must also be borne in mind Sadiq is not exactly an elegant customer and gravity is not as kind to him as it is to others so we’re even willing to give him a certain benefit of the doubt that his tumble wasn’t a wilful attempt at cheating.

After all, clean through on goal and we can’t fathom what any player would gain from diving when they have the clear advantage.

But the reaction to this match has been to scapegoat the Nigerian. Which is disappointing, as he was definitely by far not one of Rangers’ worst performers.

We’ve seen similar outrage over Morelos’ red-mist moments too, and some are even blaming the Colombian for the result given his indiscipline led to his being banned from this match – that’s a little far for us.

But yesterday’s loss had nothing to do with Umar Sadiq. Plenty of Rangers shirts had far worse displays than he, and overall it was another systemic failure at this level by all concerned.

No posts to display

11 COMMENTS

  1. No no. Sadiq begged SG for the chance and he hinted that he would move heaven and earth and was ready. That's what I heard. He done nothing, like that. He was not, ready. Morelos is still not a reliable striker, like Lafferty is, in my opinion. His form, is like a box of chocolates. So don't think it's right, to bring Morelos into it. Sadiq should never be given such an opportunity again. I for one, hope January brings a good clear-out and an influx of players who aren't duds. Harsh, maybe. But SG saying we can't blame Sadiq, wound me up a little, tbh. 'Just not good enough', is where we're at.

    • Joe you've lost the plot. Given that he had only 15 minutes of football before yesterday I thought he did ok, Lafferty has hardly done better when he has played and to compare either to Morelos is just a laugh. The wee man is streets ahead of them.

  2. Would'nt blame the big lad but please do not expect there to be any benefit from his appearance.The best that can be said for him is that Aberdeen did have difficulty dealing with his unorthodox style,but MORE PERTINENTLY his Rangers team mates were unable to read him,and as we can see S.G. is trying to create a side with a method and attitude fitting of a top Rangers side,and for me SADIQ will never be at the level to feature in that type of team.

  3. Have we ever been so bad in the last third of the pitch with the final ball? Tavernier's corners and free kicks were just abysmal and you could say Candeias crossing wasn't far behind.
    When Warburton was manager we kept possession with short free kicks at corners, admittedly it was overdone but if we kept statistics for this year I would like to know how many goals we have scored direct from corners. Just mix it up occasionally. Do we do any coaching on throw ins? It appears to me that our players are only about ten feet away from the thrower every time, leaving no time and space to control the ball and do something creative. Lets see some movement! McGregor and the back four; how often do we lose possession when he punts it up the park, we have the smallest front three in the league and he continually punts it. When the ball is passed back to him I want to see either full back or centre backs go towards him and demand the ball to start us on the front foot again. None of this holding the ball until the opposition is all back defending before giving it the hoof, that is schoolboy stuff.
    I know it's an angry post, but for all the domination of the ball against a really shite side we should have won it.

  4. for me managers fault, playing the big man also too many players not performing and still been getting picked ,couabally ,ejaria they look good but produce nothing .candiass is another ,tries but produces very little ,gerrard did call it right top half were shockingly bad ,why did he not change it ,umar sadiq was not to blame for that defeat .

  5. So IN if you don't blame Morelos for his indiscipline leaving us without a recognised striker going into a semi final then unsurprisingly failing to score then who do you blame?

    • We deliberately ommited the youth dive from this piece to see how long before it took someone to mention it. A lot longer than expected Stuart! You win our star prize!

  6. Send him back to Roma!
    Boy is Pish
    …Get Solanke on Loan Instead

    And Either Sign another Permanent Striker or Give Hardie/Rudden a Run of Games once They return from Loans.

Comments are closed.