There has been a collective improvement from Rangers under the leadership of Michael Beale but on an individual basis, Fashion Sakala has a strong claim to be the greatest beneficiary of the new regime.
Since the changing of the guard and subsequent post-World Cup restart, the Zambian international has posted three goals and three assists across five starts with one additional sub appearance. Crucially, every one of those impacts have been very important, given that they came in single goal victories or moments of change in other games.
In terms of the latter, he was pivotal in the Celtic comeback then his moment of quality ensured the breakthrough at Tannadice last Sunday.
Moments like those add to the frustration with the former Oostende man who is either very good or really poor with rarely anything at all in between. That obvious weakness to his game prevents the attacker from being a regular, dependable option but he still retains a goal threat due to his directness, allied with the dangerous pace that defenders fear.
How far can he progress?
Sakala will be 26 in March and should be approaching his peak over the next couple of years. The difficult challenge for him is to show that he can find another level and if he can unlock an extra dimension to his game under Beale it could yet enhance his time at Rangers but as it is, the unpredictable, hard working attacker still has plenty to offer with recent weeks representing a return of satisfaction for the player who said of his recent regular time on the pitch:
“I’m very happy. I hope I continue to work extra hard and get game time. I appreciate the good work from the other players. They are helping me to get the confidence to stay in the team all the time.”
“Obviously the more I play the more I can feel motivated and I’m getting confident. It was very difficult at the beginning of the season. Now, I’m feeling like a football player again and I’m very happy.”
More of the same please, for the followers of Fashion.
🎙 "It was a little bit congested, they were defending with 9 players in the box, so it was very difficult for us to find chances"
Fashion Sakala explains why Rangers found the first half difficult and that he's 'feeling like a football player again' 💙 pic.twitter.com/FQLmgdEGdh
— Sky Sports Scotland (@ScotlandSky) January 8, 2023
If they can teach him how to run with the ball without falling over, how to attack a defender without giving the opposition the ball and how to finish then maybe he would be a useful sub. At the moment he has contributed a few highlights to offset all the other awful stuff we have had to watch but we can`t carry him for most of the game waiting for him to do something .Especially when we are also doing the same with Tillman .The two of them were shocking at Tannadice for 45 minutes and could easily have been hooked at half time. They came good in the end but they are not doing enough.