Michael Beale revealed Antonio Colak was forced off with an injury in Rangers’ 2-0 win over Dundee Untied at Tannadice as he revealed a half-time rocket helped Fashion Sakala and Malik Tillman turn on the style in explore second half start.
The Ibrox side toiled in the opening 45 minutes but two goals in three second half minutes helped turn the game their way as Beale made it five wins in a six-game unbeaten start to his Rangers reign to send them into the League Cup semi-final against Aberdeen on a high. Beale hopes Colak will be available for Hampden after he went off at half-time in Tayside, replaced by Alfredo Morelos.
The Gers boss, who welcomed Kemar Roofe back after a lengthy layoff, said: “It was nice to see Kemar Roofe come back. He was the top scorer in the season we won the league and has been lost to us for a while now but Antonio Colak picked up a knock and had to go off at half time so that was enforced change rather than one we wanted to make and that’s unfortunate for him but I’m hoping it’s not a long one. He felt a problem in the lower half of his calf. It's a new injury, so it's frustrating.
“I see Malik as a goalscorer so rather than picking between him or Fashion Sakala, we pick both. Sakala is in fine form. I was a little frustrated with them both at half time to say the least and we had a laugh and joke about it after the game because they were two I really wanted to change how they were playing first half and they did really well in the second half so I was pleased.
“Ryan chipped in with a goal last week, Fashion did well for the penalty and Malik and Fashion scored today. I’m delighted with that and Kemar is back and hopefully Antonio will be back next week. We’re in a good place going forward and we’re stopping the ball going in at the other end.
“We can improve by getting players fitter and stronger, understanding the ideas more, playing more games and adding players to it this month if they’re the right players to take us forward. We chopped and changed the team a bit, Jon came in and kept a clean sheet and Ryan Jack had a really good game in for Glen Kamara, and we changed the number nine position. There’s a lot of positives but we’re nowhere near where we want it just yet.”
Beale said it was the most pleased he has been after a game, saying: “We had control of the game the whole game but we were lacking a bit of quality in the final third in the first half and didn’t test the keeper enough. We got into good areas but we were frustrating. Dundee United sat deep and made it difficult and tried to play on the counter.
“That didn’t really materialise in the game. We had the full control but at half time we spoke about running off the ball more to disrupt and upping our focus on our quality and we did that at the start of the second half and it became a very comfortable game. This is a really difficult place to come and play, they’ve won the last couple of games and seemed in quite good form but that’s the most pleased I’ve been after a match because as the away team we were never in danger. It was just about finding the quality and we did, the first goal was an excellent goal.
“There’s one or two things about how you can create more space for yourself when a team drops down. You may have to overload in certain areas. We certainly had to up our quality. There were times in the first half the initial part of the move was good but our final action was horrible. We were honest with each other in there.
“We also said all the things we spoke about before the game. Doing the difficult things well, the second balls, making sure we were strong defensively still counted but we had to find that quality in the final third and we managed to do that and it became very comfortable. We might have scored another goal but we managed the game well and it’s another clean sheet, another win away from home and although it might have looked easy it certainly isn’t and a lot of preparation and effort goes into it.”
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