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Daily Record
Daily Record
Sport
Ross Pilcher

Barry Ferguson revises Rangers opinion on Antonio Colak as evidence of Malmo masterclass emerges

Barry Ferguson believes he's now seeing the Antonio Colak that dumped Rangers out of the Champions League.

The Croat is fit again following a calf injury and was at the double in midweek as Rangers steamrollered Hibs 4-1 at Easter Road. Colak didn't find the net against Kilmarnock last weekend, but was the top man in blue as Michael Beale’s team ran out 3-1 winners with Alfredo Morelos reduced to a watching brief once again.

Ferguson picked Colak out as a talent back in 2021 when he bagged a brace at Ibrox to send Malmo through in the Champions League qualifiers, and was delighted to see Gers snap him up at the start of this season. However, he was revising his opinion on Colak’s all-round game, despite a red hot start to the campaign in front of goal. But over the last two games, Colak has shown there’s more to his game than just finishing and the former Ibrox skipper has been waiting to see that from the Govan club’s number nine.

“You can’t argue with his goal record,” he told Go Radio. “I was just unsure of his all-round play in terms of being a number nine; his build-up, link up play etc.

“Listen, he knows where the back of the net is, no doubt about that. The difference I’ve seen in him - I watched the game the other night - is excellent. One touch layoffs, his movement and as I said, you can never argue with his goalscoring and his work rate for the team is really good.

“I've seen an improvement over the last two games and he deserves to keep the jersey up top because he;s been on fire the last two games. Although he never scored against Kilmarnock, he was Rangers’ best player.

Rangers' Antonio Colak (centre) scores to make it 2-1 against Hibs (SNS Group)

“He scored a double at Ibrox and he was the one that stood out like a sore thumb. Maybe I’m being too greedy but I expected that when he came, I just thought he was a different player.

“Maybe Michael Beale has worked on him in training. He’s had a calf injury and maybe that’s been a problem for him but the last two games, I've been really impressed and for me, he's the main striker at Rangers.

“You want to see players do well. Rangers spent a bit of money on him - just under £2million. The quality over the last two games has gone up a lot.“

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