Rangers face an Aberdeen team far from in form tonight, however, they are fresh off the back of a 1-0 win over Hibs at Pittodrie at the weekend.
The win came at a cost though with Calvin Ramsay and Declan Gallagher both going off injured meaning that we should be facing a pairing in the centre of their defence of David Bates and Ross McCrorie.
Steven Gerrard will be emphasising the importance of a fast start and may look to tweak his line-up from the one that started against St Mirren, the Aberdeen midfield has plenty of energy, if not a great deal of quality in possession, and we should look to exploit that to dominate proceedings – Scott Brown no longer has Callum McGregor next to him to bail him out of trouble.
This is the team I hope the gaffer goes with as he looks to build momentum:
Ryan Kent isn’t fit enough to start otherwise he would ave taken up his usual place tormenting Brown in front of the back four, Ianis Hagi may not have his pace but as we saw against St Mirren, he is just as good with the ball at his feet and should be trusted to dominate the former Celtic skipper.
There’s a large part of me wants Fashion Sakala to be given a start against two defenders who aren’t known for their pace but Kemar Roofe and Alfredo Morelos should cause all sorts of problems – if the game goes to plan, Sakala will still get plenty of time on the pitch.
Gerrard has spoken about trying to get consistency for sometime which could see a similar XI picked, however, I’d be surprised if Glen Kamara doesn’t come in for Steven Davis now that we have found a way to play without him.
I’m a great believer in starting strong and then making changes, Juninho Bacuna, Nathan Patterson and Sakala could all have part to play in this game but I suspect that it will be off the bench, hopefully with the three points already in the bag.