No mid-week game means one thing, the build-up to the first Old Firm cup final since 2019 is going to be uninterrupted and filled with the usual nonsense about VAR and officials from the other side of the city.
All we can do is concentrate on ourselves and it’s safe to say that we have more than enough problems of our own going into a game that could b a springboard for further success under Michael Beale.
I still think that, had we won the same trophy in 2019, we would have gone on to win the league that season. Of course, there is no way of ever proving this but if the level of dominance displayed in that fixture had been rewarded with silverware, it would have given the squad a massive lift and ended Celtic’s winning mentality sooner. There is no such thing as “just” the league cup any more.
The Rangers boss has almost an entire XI missing just now with Robby McCrorie, Ridvan Yilmaz, John Souttar, Filip Helander, Steven Davis, Scott Arfield, Ryan Jack, John Lundstram, Malik Tillman and Tom Lawrence all on the treatment couch, not that you will hear much about this in the mainstream media, but Beale is content that the players he has at his disposal can get the job done – in particular, new boys Todd Cantwell and Nico Raskin, as reported by The Rangers Review:
“They are two excellent football players, you could see it again today, I thought they both played ever so well but I’ve learned since sitting in the hotseat, it’s alright being an assistant and guiding from the side. I’ve had to take a few deep breaths when we’ve lost centre-backs and when one or two players have gone down injured this week.
“You take a deep breath, you trust your next group of players the boys that you throw in and hope that they do well in the shirt and want to keep it. I thought that was certainly the case today, everything I needed to see today I saw.”
Raskin has made an instant impact and, already, looks like our best midfielder. Cantwell will have surprised a lot of Rangers fans with just how hard he works out of possession and how good he is at winning the ball back, he is far from the lightweight that his frame would suggest he is.
If we have to go with them on Sunday then we shouldn’t be worried, for a start, they aren’t scarred from the defeats of the past and bring an attacking intent that has so often has been missing against our most bitter rivals.