“Waste of time” – Hateley lambasts Gers new boy
Soccer Football - Pre Season Friendly - Rangers v Tottenham Hotspur - Ibrox Stadium, Glasgow, Scotland, Britain - July 23, 2022 Rangers' Antonio-Mirko Colak celebrates scoring their first goal Action Images via Reuters/Jason Cairnduff
How often do you see a former Celtic player slagging off either a manager or a current player?
Even when Leigh Griffiths was causing them all sorts of problems you had the usual suspects sticking up for him, however, at Rangers, it’s an entirely different story.
Mark Hateley – who should know better given how he started his Rangers career – has already written off Croatian international Antonio Colak after his display against Union Saint-Gilloise, speaking on BBC Sportsound, the former Gers striker far from happy with what he saw, as reported by Football Scotland:
“It was a poor, poor show. Weak and blunt. We don’t even know if Union’s back three are any good.
“Is the goalkeeper any good? We don’t know. Union figured Rangers out after 25 minutes.
“At the end of the day, Rangers are very, very lucky to come away with a 2-0 defeat. You could see a second goal coming all second half. Then you worry about the third goal.
“Colak, for me, was a waste of time. If Morelos is playing there, the ball goes into him. Colak didn’t demand the ball.”
Colak was disappointing but, then again, who wasn’t? What didn’t help the striker’s cause is that he had zero service aside from one Malik Tillman cross into the box.
The pass maps have shown just how little penetration we had and the positioning of our midfield which showed just how isolated Colak was, that James Tavernier only played a few passes into the box paints it’s own picture – a striker won’t score goals if they don’t get the ball. – as a former striker of some standard himself, Hateley should know this.
