Gio van Bronckhorst is playing Fashion Sakala in the WRONG position at Rangers says former boss

GIOVANNI VAN BRONCKHORST uses Fashion Sakalas pace on the flank.

But the Zambian old international boss says hes playing in the WRONG position for Rangers.

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ljosa Asanovic guided the Chipolopolo to summer gloryin the Cosafa Cup – the trophy for countries from Southern Africa before quitting in a wages wrangle in September.

The Croat haswatched with satisfaction as Sakala has forced his way into the Rangers team but he still believes his protege is better suited to a different position.

Asanovic told SunSport: I’m a big fan of Fashion.

He was a big part of our squad for the World Cup qualifiers, he scored against Equatorial Guinea and Tunisia, as well as getting a hat-trick against Mauritania.

If I was the coach of Rangers, I know where he would play and it wouldn’t be on the wing.

The way Zambia played, Patson Daka of Leicester was my play striker, but Fashion was behind him as a No10.

Listen, Im a coach,I understand the coach of Rangers will see it differently. He sees Fashions pace and uses it wide, I get why he does that.

But for us, he could make his runs beyond the striker and it was hard for opponents to deal with.

On the wing, he has to expend energy going back to help my countryman Borna Barisic on the left, or the Rangers right-back.

Fashion is a good player, though as well as pace, he has a really good shot.

“I watch the Champions League every week and I know it has been disappointing for Rangers. How many did they score? Not many!

Its a great club but sometimes the coach has to take a little risk to see if he can get more from his squad.

Maybe that risk is to give Fashion more freedom in their line-up.

Hes a guy who has something different and Rangers deserve credit for seeing him when he played at Oostende in Belgium.

Modern football isn’t a kindergarten but sometimes you have to find time to nurture players at first.

With a guy like Borna, you dont need to worry, he has that character inside him. Not all players do.

But I loved working with Fashion and I really hope he does well in Scotland.

He plays for a big club in a great stadium and has a nice lifestyle.

But in Zambia hes so proud to play for the national team and people like that about him.

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Former Derby County midfielder Asanovic, 56, worked for the Croatian FA for two years before moving to Zambia in 2021.

That saw him keep tabs on the likes of Sakalas Gers team-mate Antonio Colak for the national side.

He said: Croatia have players in nearly every country in the world and my role was to monitor them guys like Barisic and Josip Juranovic in Scotland, for instance.

With Colak, he had done well at Rijeka then went to Malmo on loan and did well there.

Now hes gone to Scotland and continued to score, which is why hes been put in Zlatko Dalics 34-man long list for the World Cup.

Hes there because he can smell a goal but its difficult to say if he will make the squad for the finals.

Hes up against Ivan Perisic, Andrej Kramaric and Bruno Petkovic, who scored for Zagreb against Chelsea this week he has quality competition.

I enjoyed my year with Zambia, though, and Im sorry I wasn’t able to continue.

We had a bye into the Africa Cup of Nations qualifyinggroups and I was confident wed reach the finals.

Im disappointed but these things happen. Peoplein Zambia love football and it wouldve been good to help them.

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