Giovanni van Bronckhorst indicated that two of his players took to the pitch on Wednesday night knowing that they would not be receiving an imminent World Cup call-up.
Shortly after the victory over Hearts, the official confirmation came from across the Atlantic of the full squad selection for the USA national team, which did not include the names of Malik Tillman and James Sands but it transpires that notice had already been communicated to the duo.
It wasnt the best of games to say the least but it certainly was in interesting one in terms of Rangers’ Americans with an injury scare for Sands as well as Tillman grabbing the only goal of the game. The Bayern Munich loanee has been a particular talking point in recent weeks with some debate over his workrate against the value of his talent and what he can bring to the team.
His languid style can give a disinterested impression but similar was said of Joe Aribo, for example. With Tillman, he could possibly work on his application off the ball when Rangers are defending but it can’t be at the expense of his attacking expression. There is plenty more to come from such a talented player who is in his first full season as a genuine top team player. That has to be taken into account.
When prompted, the manager reflected on the performance of Tillman against Hearts as well as revealing the World Cup deflation:
“He is a big talent. That’s why we have him here. With young players the only thing their talent is always up and down that’s normal because of his age. I think he’s doing well. He heard the news that he’s not in the World Cup squad and for a young player it is a hard moment to take. That is why I spoke to the team. There are disappointments in life and in your career as a player. You have to turn that into a positive to work even harder and that’s what they did.”
“He was not the only one. James Sands was not called up, Colak was not called up, Matondo was not called up so that is a difficult moment for them. Not for Borna because he did get called up and I am really happy for him. Mentally you have to be very strong and I thought Malik’s performance was very, very good and of course he was the matchwinner.”
It all means that Borna Barisic will be the club’s only representative on duty in Qatar with his compatriot Anonio Colak left behind at Ibrox as well as the American pair and Rabbi Matondo who was not deemed ready for the Welsh World Cup effort.