Rangers manager Steven Gerrard has criticised striker Umar Sadiq after he was booked for simulation in the team’s 1-0 defeat to Aberdeen on Sunday.
The Roma loanee blew a glorious chance to draw Gerrard’s team level late on at Hampden Park, but chose to throw himself to the floor after rounding goalkeeper Joe Lewis rather than put the ball in the back of the net.
And his manager was less than impressed with his antics: “To be fair to Umar, in the last two or three weeks he had shown signs of improvement,” he told the Scottish Sun. “Whether it’s enough, we’ll have to judge that moving forward.
“His performance up until the final bit today was okay. We can’t point fingers and blame Umar. What I would say to him is if you go around the keeper, stand up and put the ball in the net. Don’t dive or you are going to get a yellow card.”
OPINION
Gerrard is right, there’s no excuse for Sadiq’s decision to take a dive on Sunday. It was a bizarre moment because he had a good chance to score if he had just kept his feet – he’d already rounded the goalkeeper. So for him to throw himself to the ground like that under minimal contact was very disappointing and must have frustrated Gerrard hugely. Sadiq was handed a rare start with neither Alfredo Morelos or Kyle Lafferty in the match day squad and you have to say that he blew it. Like Gerrard said, he didn’t have a bad game up until those final moments, he worked hard and tried to get his team back into the contest, but he showed himself up with his diving at the end. He was shown a yellow card but perhaps a return to the first team exile he was experiencing before this fixture would be a more fitting punishment. He needs to learn that stuff like this simply isn’t acceptable, as it’s cost his team a place in the cup final here.