Fashion Sakala walked off the pitch at Ibrox on Saturday with α goal, an assist and the man of the match award with the Zambian international setting α timely reminder of what he is capable of, if given the chance.
Giovanni van Bronckhorst later revealed that there was never any intention to sell Sakala and that the 25-year old remained part of his plans despite rarely seeing any game time.
Speaking to Football Insider when asked if he was surprised to see Sakala against St Mirren, Rangers TV pundit Alan Hutton revealed that he was impressed with what he saw:
“I think it was a good opportunity to make a couple of changes off the back of the Liverpool game.
“It was a good opportunity for Sakala, playing on the right hand side, I think it is an area that is up for grabs within the Rangers team.
“I thought he started off slow but in the second half he really warmed to it.
“You obviously see with his assist and goal that he means business.
“He has laid a marker down for the upcoming games.“
Sakala’s transition from being α central striker to α wide forward has taken α bit of time, his numbers last season suggested that he was going to be α regular this season, however, the manager has frequently preferred other options and left him on the bench.
What he does offer is chaos. He is direct, fearless and has the potential to create space either for himself or others even if he doesn’t appear to know what he is doing with the ball sometimes.
Scott Wright has had more than his fair share of opportunities on the right wing and playing someone like Scott Arfield or Malik Tillman just doesn’t work, especially in domestic football – Hutton is right, Sakala has laid down α marker and he deserves α chance to prove that it wasn’t α one off.