It will be the most eagerly anticipated team news of the season, who will Giovanni van Bronckhorst select as he attempts to guide us to the final of the Europa League?
Other than the long term absences that will hinder his decision, the fitness of Kemar Roofe and Aaron Ramsey is the major talking point amongst Rangers fans, they aren’t just two decent players, they are two players who should start if they are even close to being match fit.
Fashion Sakala will never be short of effort when he plays through the middle but neither he nor Joe Aribo should be starting as our central striker at this level, we need Roofe, his movement, his ability to be in the right place at the right time, especially seeing as we will spend more time looking to dominate possession in Red Bull Leipzig’s half – his availability could be the difference.
This is the team I hope takes to the field as Rangers look to create history:
If Ramsey is fit, he starts. He’s not the sort of player that you bring on to make an impact, that role belongs to someone like Sakala who will be very unlucky to miss out on a starting place, yes, he’s inconsistent and sometimes doesn’t look like even he knows what he is going to do with the ball but look at some of the goals he has scored this season.
With John Lundstram and Ryan Jack providing the base, Ramsey is perfect at knitting the midfield and attack together, he’s also the best we have to find Roofe in the box.
Aribo is an interesting one because he just hasn’t looked like himself but his threat at set pieces and ability to win the ball back higher up the park make him a stick on to start, his natural tendency to cut inside also creates space for James Tavernier to overlap either in possession or at the back post with the ball coming in from the other side.
The only other call is in defence and whether or not Leon Balogun will get recalled, on an individual basis he is a better player than Calvin Bassey just now, however, the youngster’s current form means that he should keep his place.
We have seen in our European games at Ibrox since Gio took over that anything is possible, the squad believes that they can make it happen, we should too.