The pressure is on and it’s only the third game of the season, winning isn’t enough, especially at Ibrox. An early goal and a commanding scoreline is all that will send fans home confident that we can overturn Union Saint-Gilloise’s two goal lead on Tuesday night.
What we need to see is a repeat of the second-half against Livingston where we played with pace, intensity and a relentless desire to score goals whilst totally shutting shop at the other end and there are a few players who could well be worried about their place in the team after recent displays.
It might come too soon for both Ryan Kent and Alfredo Morelos to start, however, their shadows loom large over an attack that failed to spark in mid-week, the lack of creativity and supply from midfield and both full-backs didn’t exactly help either.
I’d expect Giovanni van Bronckhorst to be more adventurous and send a team out that looks something like this:
A lot depends on Kent’s fitness because, if he is available and 100%, then he should start and Rabbi Matondo will go across to the other side. We also need to give the likes of Tom Lawrence and Malik Tillman as many minutes as possible because they could be expected to play key roles against Union.
I’d be happy to see Fashion Sakala on the left and Matondo on the right but the Zambian international just doesn’t seem to be getting a look in this season, a surprise considering his creativity and desire to get into the box and score goals – attributes sadly lacking in our last fixture.
I’m not sure who Gio will pick to play alongside John Lundstram, he might stick with Glen Kamara but I hope that Steven Davis comes in. He is one of only a few players that we have that will play balls over the top or find runners in the final third and, against a low block, that is exactly what we will need.
The defence should see a couple of first starts with Ridvan Yilmaz and Ben Davies having already featured and both fit enough to play, we paid good money for them and they will be our first choice left-hand side of defence on paper. There is no better place to give them their proper debuts than at Ibrox.
As well as a good performance, I’m hoping that Antonio Colak not only plays well but gets on the scoresheet to get a minority of fans who have ridiculously written him off already off his back – with an attacking line-up and attacking mindset, I’m sure that he will get the chance to prove what he is really capable of.