Steven Gerrard has drooled over new Rangers signing Lassana Coulibaly and hailed him for offering the team something different to what they had before.
Coulibaly joined on season-long loan from French top-flight club Angers yesterday (Tuesday) as he became the eighth of the Light Blues’ nine summer arrivals.
Speaking at his media conference today, as quoted by the official Rangers Twitter account, Gerrard explained what makes the 22-year-old a special talent.
????? SG: 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.
— Rangers Football Club (@RangersFC) July 11, 2018
OPINION
Gerrard’s comments on Coulibaly are fascinating and instructive. He has hailed all Rangers’ nine summer signings, as you would expect. But his views on the nine-times Mali international make it clear how he regards the player as different to the others and crucial to how he wants the team to play in the forthcoming campaign. Rangers’ other central midfielders – such as Graham Dorrans – want the ball to feet or to drive forward with it and into the box. Coulibaly is from the Claude Makelele school of screening the defence and winning the ball through awareness and physicality. Clearly, the arrival from Ligue 1 is primed for a starting spot in Gerrard’s side once he gets up to speed and acclimatised to his new environment. With the manager’s backing and a playing style that gets the best out of him, Coulibaly is set to be a key man for the 2018-19 campaign.