Rangers v Livingston – Gers down to bare bones, predicted XI

It’s the last week of the Scottish Premiership season and Rangers stand on the brink of history, just two games away from an unbeaten league campaign.

In the grand scheme of things it’s irrelevant, however, it would be an accurate reflection of how far in front of everyone else we have been this season if we can finish what we started against Aberdeen on the first day of the season.

Livingston are up next though and the infamous plastic pitch could have an influence on the XI that Steven Gerrard picks to avenge the only time his side has failed to score in the league this season. It seems a long time ago that some members of the Rangers support – not us by the way – were throwing their toys out of the pram after dropping two points at the Toni Macaroni Arena but it clearly wasn’t “the same thing happening again”.

With a short turn around to Saturday’s game against Aberdeen, this is the team I think Gerrard should go with to get all three points:

We could see something interesting in this game, Borna Barisic won’t be back despite being down to our bare bones in defence, so, we go with Joe Aribo at left-back and bring Ianis Hagi into midfield. The alternative isn’t quite as attacking and that would be to move Jack Simpson out to the flank and bring Leon King into the centre of defence, personally, I’d rather let Simpson continue to get minutes alongside Connor Goldson with Barisic likely to be fit for the Aberdeen game.

Up front, I’d let Kemar Roofe sit this one out, he is the sort of player that needs regular games but dodgy calf muscles just aren’t a fan of artificial pitches or of changing surfaces in a short period of time, keep the same shape but give Cedric Itten a run out in his preferred position.

Ideally, if we can get the game won, Scott Wright can come on for Ryan Kent in the central number ten role but it wouldn’t surprise me if he starts in Itten’s place and we revert back to the flatter 4-3-3 or 4-2-3-1 with Hagi as the central number 10.

Despite Livi’s recent form, we can’t expect to just turn up and be handed the three points, start well, get in front and then control the tempo – get the job done, as we have done all season.