GARY MCALLISTER has hailed the 'bravery' of playmaker Ianis Hagi after his heroics against St Johnstone took Rangers another step closer to title glory this term.
The Light Blues re-established their 23 point advantage in the Premiership standings as Hagi netted the only goal of the game to overcome the Saints on Wednesday night.
Rangers had missed clear chances in the first half as Ryan Kent, Kemar Roofe and Connor Goldson fluffed their lines in front of target.
But Hagi stepped up when it mattered most as a fine effort from the edge of the box beat keeper Zander Clark to clinch a huge three points.
The Romanian now has five goals to his credit this term and assistant manager McAllister was delighted to see him prove his worth in the final third once again.
🎥 REACTION: Gary McAllister spoke to @RangersTV after tonight's victory against St Johnstone at Ibrox. pic.twitter.com/bRjs6uNNms
— Rangers Football Club (@RangersFC) February 3, 2021
McAllister said: “Ianis is a player who takes risks, he plays in inches and plays in an area of the pitch where teams try to make it very difficult for us and the low block and packed defences is something that we are accustomed to playing against.
“When I look at Ianis, I see a player of flair, but I also like the bravery in his play. The fact that he goes for passes, he goes for shots, he takes the responsibility.
READ: Steven Gerrard capitalises on Rangers' position of strength with January deals
“On occasions, sometimes the shots go high and wide and sometimes if he goes for a cute little through pass it might get intercepted. But I like the fact that he is brave and he takes the chance to go for those high level assists and goals.
“Likewise, Kemar Roofe, Kenty, Scott Wright who we have just signed. These are the sort of players who we need to show that imagination and that cuteness.
“It is a bravery thing as well. These guys are the first to get criticised when things don’t go well, the flair player is the one people say ‘he is not working that hard’. But I like that we have guys who take the risk.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here