Rangers boss Steven Gerrard has expressed his satisfaction with the performances of Joe Aribo and Fashion Sakala after they secured a 4-2 win against Ross County in a Scottish Premiership fixture on Sunday.
It was Joseph Hungbo, who put County ahead with only five minutes played before 25-year-old Nigeria star Aribo levelled the scores for Rangers in the 19th minute and Ryan Kent scored the second in the 30th minute for a 2-1 lead at the half-time break.
On resumption, Rangers added the third courtesy of Juninho Bacuna, who finished off a cross from Aribo, before defender Alex Iacovitti scored an own goal to make it 4-1 in favour of the Gers.
Though Jordan White pulled a goal back for County in the 87th minute, it was not enough as Rangers picked maximum points at Ibrox Stadium to maintain their lead at the summit of the table.
Zambia international Sakala also featured in the game, even though he did not manage to find the back of the net, he also received praise from the Liverpool legend.
“I’m very pleased, there are a lot of positives,” Gerrard said as quoted by The Scotsman.
“Bacuna has come in today and put in a real top performance, Joe Aribo was at it, Ryan Kent scored a worldie goal, I thought Fashion Sakala’s performance was really selfless, a lot of hard work and running in behind.
“We looked really mobile and dangerous today, which is great and why we want fast players in those positions. Ten goals in two league games, we are entertaining our supporters and that is the main thing from a going forward point of view. We have just got to stop conceding these sloppy ones now.”
On why he pulled out Nigeria defender Leon Balogun, Gerrard said: “Their first goal was offside – very marginal, but in my position, I am always going to point a finger at that.
“The second one is sloppy but I have taken Leon Balogun off [by that stage] to protect him because we need him for the League Cup semi-final against Hibs and with Fil Helander being out injured, he is so important.
“So I am putting people in positions that they are maybe not fully up to speed with or strong in. So maybe I will take part of the responsibility for the second goal.
“But, in general, we need to stop conceding sloppy ones and get back to clean sheets and being tough to play against. If we do and we keep showing that quality going forward, we will be difficult to stop.”
Rangers are now on 30 points from 13 matches while Celtic are second on the log with 26 points from the same number of matches.
