A place at Hampden is on the line as Rangers travel to Dens Park for the first of two trips in a week to Dundee where the home side sits on a record of just one win in the league since we beat them 3-0 at Ibrox in December.
Mark McGhee’s side scraped into the quarter-finals with a flattering 3-0 win over Peterhead, a game that saw one of the most blatant penalty – and red card – decisions you’ll ever see rejected for the lower league team when the scores were level.
They were though, unlucky against Celtic at Parkhead where they conceded a late winner and were denied an even later penalty claim after Jota took part in a bit of basketball to clear his lines but, we should give the Premiership’s bottom club absolutely zero respect as we look to progress to the next round.
Playing for a draw isn’t an option for the home outfit so we might have more space than we’d usually expect, there really is no excuse for not playing one of Kemar Roofe, Fashion Sakala or Amad Diallo on the right-hand side in support of Alfredo Morelos, goals should be the priority over defensive structure.
We also have enough depth in the squad that the likes of Leon Balogun, Ryan Jack and Scott Arfield shouldn’t have to start again after their exertions against Red Star Belgrade.
They have played three different formations in their last three games; 4-4-2, 5-3-2 and 5-4-1, and this is something that we should look to take advantage of, move the ball quickly and there will be spaces, a team can’t be that well drilled changing shape every game.
Our domestic cup record in recent years is, in short, an embarrassment, hopefully it is something that can be rectified this season, starting with a win on Sunday.