With neither defence looking particularly solid, Sunday’s derby could turn into a good old fashioned shoot out – especially if Rangers are missing bodies due to Covid-19.
The first derby of the season is sure to be a manic affair despite both teams facing tricky away trips in the Europa League before the encounter at Ibrox, fatigue and squad depth could yet play a key role in the fixture.
Rangers, and Steven Gerrard in particular, would have wanted his side to put their tie against Alashkert to bed in the first leg, however, a mixture of poor attitudes, poor finishing and poor decision making on the part of John Lundstram saw us happy to escape with a 1-0 win – with eleven men and an improvement in all of the above, the second leg should be more comfortable.
We looked better against Ross County – in attack anyway – but thankfully our defensive problems could be a relatively straight forward fix, by reinstalling two of our most experienced players, Borna Barisic and Filip Helander, to the starting line-up. It’s no real surprise that most of the problems and goals we have conceded have been down our left-hand side in the big Swede’s absence. I’d expect both to start against Alashkert and Celtic.
If Gerrard is really looking to go after Celtic though we should look to reinstall a front line that caused them all sorts of problems last season by pairing Kemar Roofe and Alfredo Morelos up front with Ryan Kent in support, all three have caused them issues in the past and also represent our best chance of scoring goals.
It would be harsh on Ianis Hagi to miss out but I’m a great believer in horses for courses, and against a suspect defence I’d want the clever movement of Roofe to go with the physicality of Morelos, both players are in goal scoring form, there’s a time for pragmatism, this isn’t it.
Edit: I think there is a good chance Hagi will be starting now!