Rangers midfielder Ianis Hagi got in a bit of hot water after blaming Romania’s tactics, as they lost 4-0 to Norway. Here’s why that doesn’t really matter…
I know I’m beating a dead horse here, but the international break is objectively rough. We go regularly scheduled football droughts throughout the year – close season, winter breaks, international breaks – and the latter is by far the worst. Yes, I’d personally rather have no football at all than meaningless football, less chance of injuries or that big 2020 equaliser, Coronavirus.
I never feel like, outside the big competitions, the national teams really gel all that well, and why should they? They have little time and experience together as a team, with regular switches and swops and borderline unlimited subs which are almost always implemented. Just watching England vs Belgium last night was an exercise in staying awake. England didn’t play well but somehow fell upwards and won, that’s all I can really say about the game.
Ultimately though the game many Bears might have focused on was Norway vs Romania to catch a glimpse of our own Ianis Hagi in action. Hagi joined Rangers permanently over the summer and has been growing into an absolutely integral part of the team, the James Tavernier of the midfield, if you will. In the 7 games he’s featured for us so far he’s made some 5 assists and bagged a goal too, a pretty decent return for someone who the media often portray as underperforming in Light Blue.
Hagi is absolutely adapted to the being in a setting where he’s pressing, rather than being pressed
Nonetheless, things haven’t been so rosy for Ianis in his national pursuits. He’s never really managed the same kind of performances as he does for Rangers, though not having Ryan Kent playing off you is doubtless an inhibiting factor, and gets a good bit of stick for it. Last night, things went from bad to worse for Hagi and Romania. Put to the sword by Borussia Dortmund frontman Erling Haaland and his merry band of marauding Vikings, Romania never looked like they were ever getting a look in.
After the game, Hagi was interviewed and the 21 year old, visibly upset, turned the screw on still-fresh Romanian head coach Mirel Radoi by claiming his tactics were to blame. Romania, he insisted, were always chasing the game looking for opportunities rather than attempting to control it.
These comments right here show both how much Hagi has matured into a Rangers player and how these international breaks are poor judges of a player’s technical ability. Steven Gerrard has built the Gers from the back forwards, it’s true, but our game has always been about control. Hold the ball, pass the ball, cut out the opponent’s play, frustrate and wear them down, minimise opportunities for them while maximising your own. This is reflected in the Light Blues having an eye-watering 65% average possession rate for the season.
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Hagi is absolutely adapted to the being in a setting where he’s pressing, rather than being pressed. Tavernier and Borna Barisic are as much in the opponent’s box as their own, creating more avenues of passing and movement for Hagi to work in. Yes, Romania don’t have a player anywhere near the level of Haaland, who even in his RB Salzburg days was drawing comparisons to Kylian Mbappe, but Radoi got it all wrong last night and Ianis was made into a scapegoat.
All we can hope is that it does little to dent Hagi’s confidence going into the first Old Firm clash of this season this weekend. Alas, with several more days of the national teams going at it, the real football just feels all too far away.