The second leg of our Edinburgh double sees Hibernian come to Glasgow to take on a Rangers team buoyant from scudding Hearts 5-0 at the week – a repeat performance would be greatly appreciated.
Giovanni van Bronckhorst’s squad appeared to have go the message judging by the manner in which they went about their business, we were more aggressive both in and out of possession and it sets the standards for how we should play going forwards.
What would have pleased the manager is that all the subs contributed too and kept the intensity going until the final whistle, there was no let off but I don’t think it will have been enough for him to change his starting XI voluntarily, with that in mind, this is the team that GvB will go with to get the three points:
We have to win the battle first of all, Hibs form going into this fixture is completely irrelevant, we all know that Ryan Porteous will turn into prime Paulo Maldini and Kevin Nisbet won’t miss the sort of chance he missed at Parkhead, if he gets the opportunity.
A team that, on paper, didn’t look the quickest, overpowered Hearts by sheer work rate and determination, Ryan Jack and John Lundstram laying down the base for the rest of the team to build attacks from, it’s such a shame Jack misses out through no fault of his own – Glen Kamara should come in with Aaron Ramsey waiting in the wings.
That in itself is a bonus, we had nine internationals on the bench at the weekend and we should have similar quality again tonight, with five subs available, there should be no drop in intensity throughout the 90 minutes.
The message should be the same again because Hibs won’t sit in and pack the box, they will commit players, getting Ryan Kent, Alfredo Morelos and Joe Aribo 1 v 1 will be key to replicating much of what was good against Hearts, as always, it all starts with the right mentality and hopefully, the corner has been turned – three points though, is a must.