Rangers take on Dundee at Dens park this afternoon looking to put together a complete 90 minute performance for the first time this season.
We saw for an hour against Motherwell – where we should have been out of sight – and in the second half against Livingston, that things are starting to click, however, it was no surprise that, with Ianis Hagi back in the side, we looked infinitely more clinical in the final third.
What might have gone unnoticed though was the return to last season’s frugal defence, not just in reducing chances but in entirely shutting out Livi’s attack, zero shots conceded in the whole game was a regular occurrence last season and it would be good to see it on a more regular basis.
In Dundee, we will be facing a side routed to the bottom of the table, if we play with the same intensity as we have seen recently we should have too much for them, there is also a decent rest between now and our trip to play Sparta Prague on Thursday in the Europa League, with this in mind, this is the XI I think Steven Gerrard will go with:
Managing Leon Balogun’s minutes is going to be the gaffer’s hardest task over the next few months, personally, I think the priority should be getting him available for games rather than being on the training pitch every day.
The experienced full-backs should return and in midfield, despite his best performance in a Rangers shirt, I’d be surprised if John Lundstram doesn’t lose out to Steven Davis although I’d rather he kept his place, worst case scenario is that we should see a 60/30 split in terms of minutes.
Joe Aribo and Glen Kamara have been playing every game so today would be a good chance to give one of them a rest, Juninho Bacuna is more forward thinking so it could be the Nigerian international that sits this one out to keep him fresh for Europe.
In attack, Hagi has to start, it’s just a question of who joins him, the signing of Fashion Sakala means that we don’t need to play Kemar Roofe and Alfredo Morelos in every game, similar to Lundstram and Davis, there’s no reason why all three shouldn’t still get decent time on the pitch though.
There should be no excuses with the players we have available, three points, then back down the road please.