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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
Sport
Samuel Meade

Amad ruthlessly hooked in Rangers loss as he and "naive" teammates blasted after loss

Amad was among three Rangers stars who were hooked at half-time in Wednesday night's Old Firm derby.

The Manchester United loanee moved to the Glasgow outfit late in the January transfer window to pick up more game time.

He took just minutes to score on his debut for Rangers at the weekend, notching in the 3-3 draw with Ross County.

Amad was given a brutal reminder at half-time at Parkhead just four days later though.

Celtic raced into a 3-0 lead and Giovani Van Bronckhorst was forced to ring the changes.

The Ivorian, as well as Glen Kamara and Borna Barisic, saw their evenings ended at the interval, although the changes did little to revive Rangers' fortunes.

Van Bronckhorst bemoaned the attitude of his players, referring to them as "naive" as Celtic took control of the title race.

Have Your Say! Does Amad have a long term future at Man Utd? Tell us here.

He said: "Very disappointing. It seemed like it was the first Old Firm we played.

"We know what you have to do, the environment we go into and the pressure we get but it seemed like we weren’t ready for it.

"You see the way we gave the goals away, it’s sharpness. I can't say otherwise. Not going with your man, not being ready for the battles and it was unbelievable.

"Our Old Firm game started in the second half, we were much better and much more aggressive and played really well but the first half we gave the game away.

"For sure it wasn’t something I expected. When I see the training we have, the focus we had before the game but when the whistle blew I think we were just waiting for the goal to be scored and for me that’s impossible.

"We were too naive and we deserved to be down 3-0 with the way we played."

Amad had been warned about the magnitude of the Glasgow debut before Wednesday's defeat.

"The pressure of a Celtic v Rangers match is incredible. There is nothing like it anywhere," Paddy Crerand, who played for Celtic and United, told the club's website.

"You don’t know what it means unless you’re living in Glasgow. It’s bigger than Man City v Man United and maybe even Liverpool and Manchester United.

"I watched Amad’s first game at the weekend as it was on television and he certainly started off well. He’ll soon understand what this game means to the people of Glasgow and being part of that experience will be a great lesson.

"The whole move should be a good one for him as he’ll experience the pressure of a title race."

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