It hasn’t taken Mali international Lassana Coulibaly long to settle in at Rangers and the midfielder is already fast becoming a hero to the Ibrox faithful.

The twenty-two year old arrived on loan from Angers this summer and has impressed with the amount of energy and hard work he puts in during the ninety minutes. If the Scottish Premiership club haven’t got an option to buy the midfielder put into the deal with their Ligue 1 counterparts, then they’ve really missed a trick.

New Gers boss Steven Gerrard clearly knew what he was getting, as he raved about the player after signing him in the summer:

“Coulibaly is a destroyer type midfielder, he is very different to what he have here. I have watched him numerous times and he breaks play up and keeps it simple. He will add a bit of power in the engine room for us.”

His excitement for Coulibaly certainly hasn’t dampened as he continues to impress in Rangers opening games of the campaign:

“He’s ahead of where I thought he would be at this time.”

“Realistically he is still in pre-season in terms of match fitness, sharpness and game time.

“So we believe there is still more to come. But he has found his consistency and the fans are buying into him.

“As a player, when you play for a crowd as passionate as the Rangers crowd, if you empty the tank for them, and give everything you have possibly got in your body when you cross the white line, they are going come with you.”

Gerrard’s right, The Gers support have bought into Lassana and they love his passion and endeavour. He’s the type of player that gives his all for the full match and Rangers have been calling out for that kind of midfielder for a few years now!

The player seems to pop up everywhere. He’ll do is upmost to track back when the opposition have the ball and he’s very handy at winning it back for his team. He’s also good with the ball at his feet, his close control and dribbling technique means he can transition play from defence to attack very effectively indeed.

Coulibaly is, as I’ve already suggested, extremely athletic and that allows him to get out quickly and make tackles and interceptions. As soon as his opponent has the ball, it seems to be that The Gers dynamic midfielder is on top of him and inevitably winning the ball. He’s also smart enough to fill in, if the full-back on his side gets caught out of position.

The midfielder can even break forward and get himself on the score-sheet as he showed in last week’s Europa League win over Maribor at Ibrox. He ran into the box and nodded the ball home, showing us that he’s decent in the air too. For confirmation of that he scored this great header for Angers last season:

The Rangers fans have really taken to him, with one in particular (@CoulibalyCartel) practically tweeting Lassana’s every move on the pitch.

See that bit of play when Coulibaly beat 4 of their players and took the ball 40 yards up the pitch?

I’m thinking about legally changing my name

— Coulibaly Cartel (@CoulibalyCartel) 12 August 2018

But he isn’t the only one, search Lassana Coulibaly on Twitter and you’ll be bombarded with tweets from Gers fans praising the new midfield general.

Steven Gerrard has hinted that Lassana’s all action type performances may be taking it’s toll as he’s still to reach maximum fitness. That probably means that the Malian will be rested for the club’s League Cup tie this Sunday.

It’s hard to think that the player can give any more and can still improve but that’s clearly what his manager expects and that’s brilliant news for his teammates and the fans.

It’ll be interesting to see if the battling midfielder can carry on like this for the rest of the season. The games against Celtic will be the real acid test, in the past few years the Premiership champions and in particular Scott Brown have bossed the midfield area in Old Firm games.

Can Lassana Coulibaly break that stranglehold and really send Rangers fans into dreamland? Well that’s the hope.

Posted on August 16th, 2018 by scott
Filed under: Article