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Hagi proves doubters wrong as physicality myth is put to bed in Old Firm revival

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Image for Hagi proves doubters wrong as physicality myth is put to bed in Old Firm revival

I’ve always thought it funny how a narrative can be built around a player without any real substance to it, remember when Andy Halliday and Jon Flanagan were better left-backs than Borna Barisic for example?

It took for the Croatian international to win a tackle that was no better than 60/40 against him before Sheyi Ojo fired in the winner against Feyenoord for him to be accepted as first choice, despite the statistics always being there to back up his claim as undisputed number one.

We are seeing a similar story now with Ianis Hagi, apparently he is too light weight, doesn’t get “stuck in” and struggles with the physicality of Scottish football but, as covered in an article by Jamie Currie in This is Ibrox, the Romanian international is far from shy when it comes to firing into tackles.

Hagi won four tackles and six out of his seven ground duels with opposition players, not bad for a 45 minute cameo compare this to the man he replaced, Kemar Roofe, who didn’t make any tackles and won only three from seven of his duels – the increased intensity that the £3million signing from Genk brought to Rangers saw a noticeable change in how high up the park we were playing our football.

Did Hagi change the game v Celtic?

Yes

Yes

No - sending off did

No - sending off did

He might lose possession from time to time but he is that sort of player, but with four goals and ten assists in 26 appearances – almost half off the bench – his importance to Steven Gerrard’s attacking options can’t be down played.

Winning league titles is always about the squad and not just the starting XI, being able to bring good players in when others are out of form was always a luxury afforded to Walter Smith and we are now beginning to see Gerrard also reap the benefits from a solid recruitment strategy – a narrative that we can all get behind.

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