Giovanni van Bronckhorst made a positive start to life as Rangers manager, not just in terms of result but also in terms of performance and how the team reacted to the changes that he had implemented over just a couple of training sessions.
He will be looking to consolidate his ideas and philosophy and, as such, it would be a surprise to see wholesale alterations to the starting XI and/or tactics.
The odd tweak could be predicted though to keep things fresh for the short trip to Livingston and as such, I’d expect the following to be the line-up for his first domestic fixture:
Leon Balogun is still out injured so the defence should be the same as the one that played against Sparta Prague, it looked a lot more resolute and only coughed up one really good chance that Allan McGregor did well to save.
Ryan Kent, Alfredo Morelos, Ianis Hagi and Joe Aribo all had big part in our Europa League win and they should be given another chance to continue their promising start to the new formation, with Hagi providing the ammunition, Kent and Aribo should both have added to Morelos’s goals.
The only change might be in midfield with John Lundstram and Ryan Jack both capable of adding aggression for a game that could be considerably more physical, at the least one of them should come in for Steven Davis who – in a midfield two – is being asked to do extra running and more defending than he used to.
Hopefully, we have seen the end of us conceding stupid and early goals and that Thursday night has given us the confidence to kick on and lay down a real statement of intent up until the winter break, as always though, the three points is all that matters.