The clamour to have Juan Alegria promoted to the first-team seems to have died down amongst Rangers fans, as have the calls claiming that Fashion Sakala doesn’t have what it takes to make it in Glasgow – amazing what a hat-trick and 10/10 performance can do to change opinion, isn’t it?
The problem was never the individuals that were leading the line in terms of ability, it was how they were linking up as a unit and as we saw when Sakala got his chance against Motherwell, sometimes playing a “lesser” player can help the team collectively, it’s safe to say that the Zambian grabbed his opportunity with both hands which means there is no chance of seeing Alegria anytime soon.
Alegria though has been enjoying a decent run of form after returning for injury, however, B team head coach, David McCallum believes it is still too early for the Colombian teenager to make the step up, as told to Rangers News:
“Juan has just arrived – he’s learning how we play, he’s learning what we want from him as an individual within the team structure,” he told Rangers News after Saturday’s win.
“Obviously, he’s scored a few goals here and there and people become interested to look at that. I think, first of all, Juan needs time to settle.
“Juan needs time to try and make sure he’s fully up to speed with what the team and group want to look like. From an individual point of view, yes he’s scoring goals, but there are other areas we’re looking at to try and make sure he’s a bit more refined.
“That’s in terms of linking play etc and what it all looks like out of possession, so he understands that when hopefully he does get to the first team.
“I think any player that scores goals does bring an interest but he just needs time to understand what it looks like to play for Rangers.”
As McCallum says, Alegria has barely played five games for the B team against opposition nowhere near the same level he would be lining up against for the senior team, let’s give him a chance to settle.
He is training with the Steven Gerrard’s squad though and will be kept under close scrutiny to assess if and when he deserves to join them on a match day, however, given that our strikers finally appear to be hitting the target more often and with the return of Ryan Kent, we might have to wit a bit longer than some would like.