The good thing about Giovanni van Bronckhorst starting his career as Rangers manager off the back of such a poor performance is that he doesn’t owe any of the players that were responsible anything.
There should be no loyalty for past achievements or starting jerseys handed out based on reputation.
It should be a clean slate for everyone.
He will, of course, be analysing recent performances and, in particular, the ones where things have gone well. With this in mind, we could soon see one or two regulars having to make do with a place on the bench.
On the most basic of levels Allan McGregor hasn’t just dropped to the standard of a normal goalkeeper, he is having a bad season, there is no other way to put it, not only has he only made seven saves in the league this season but he is even more hesitant than he used to be in the past and it is costing us, we have a safe pair of hands in Jon McLaughlin waiting to come in and he should be trusted to add more confidence at the back.
In defence, there isn’t much we can do until Filip Helander returns to full fitness, Calvin Bassey could come in for Borna Barisic but this would do little to in terms of making the back line more resolute, what it would do though is add creativity and variation in the final third, on the other side, I just can’t see James Tavernier being dropped for Nathan Patterson, well, not yet anyway.
The midfield has plenty of options available to the new manager. John Lundstram was our best player for several weeks and was then unceremoniously dropped, Steven Davis has replaced him but is yet to show anywhere near the same form of last season.
Ryan Jack’s return will add a freshness and energy to the middle of the park and, as we saw against Ross County, Juninho Bacuna also deserves to get more playing time, he looked sharp, aggressive, and was proactive in possession, something lacking from the players currently starting ahead of him.
There shouldn’t be a debate up front. Ryan Kent, Fashion Sakala and Ianis Hagi have been our most dynamic and threatening players in recent games, bringing Alfredo Morelos back into the starting XI made no sense at all, with a clean slate on the training pitch I’d be very surprised if this three doesn’t start against Sparta Prague on Thursday.