It’s a sign of the recruitment done in January that Michael Beale managed to cope without almost an entire starting XI and still put in a dominant performance.
Specifically, Malik Tillman was a surprise omission from yesterday’s squad with Todd Cantwell tasked with stepping into his shoes albeit from a deeper midfield role rather than the one that the USA international normally occupies behind the striker.
⭐MotM today could’ve went to Raskin or Cantwell tbh, both put in a great shift but I’m giving mine to Cantwell. He’s looking like a great fit for #Rangers, they both do tbh. Who got your MotM today? pic.twitter.com/R1e5qJELXr
— 𝐖𝐞 𝐀𝐫𝐞 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐏𝐞𝐨𝐩𝐥𝐞 (@WATP72RFC) February 18, 2023
The January signing was impressive and more than matched Nico Raskin for the man of the match award but there was no escaping what we were missing.
Tillman’s ability to dribble out of difficulty to start attacks and the quality that he has when creating chances for team-mates might have been the difference in making the afternoon even more comfortable. Scoring goals from open play remains an elephant in the room under Michael Beale in recent weeks.
Following on from his Raskin compilation, @PenaCartel provided a similar masterpiece for Tillman on Twitter only for it to be pulled for copyright reasons and it was every bit as good. If anything, you forget how often in a game we have nothing on and he puts on the afterburners or drops defenders with a change of direction with Brian Laudrup-like ease. If you weren’t lucky enough to see it, here is a YouTube video by AM Scout which is every bit as good.
Tillman took a few heavy hits against Thistle with Beale explaining that hamstring and calf issues saw him miss the Livi game, alongside John Lundstram and Ryan Jack, hopefully, it has been precautionary due to the Toni Macaroni Arena’s artificial surface.
It’s not quite certain where Cantwell’s best position is yet; he’s a good passer, can evade pressure, is athletic and a dynamic dribbler of the ball but, with the league cup final a week away, there is still only one person that I’d want to see in the designated attacking midfield role – magic Malik.