It’s been an eventful week but, hopefully, it will be a straight forward weekend and one that sees us collect three points without any fuss.
The Scottish Premiership is never that simple though and Ross County will have been practicing their shape all week in readiness for causing an upset, how it takes a week to prepare for putting 11 men in the box I’ll never know.
Rangers, on the other hand, will have an entirely different responsibility compared to PSV Eindhoven, although the defensive concentration will have to be just as high, lapses against Livingston and Easter Road have cost us goals that could easily have been prevented – we are controlling games but have still coughed up decent chances.
At Ibrox, there is no reason for us not to be on anything other than the front foot but I’d also like us to continue with a few of the partnerships that have been working. In particular, Tom Lawrence starting on the right and then drifting inside to overlap was successful against PSV and Hibs and he has, so far, looked like our best solution in that position.
With five subs at his disposal, Gio will be wanting an early lead so that he can make changes and utilise a squad that is in decent shape, Glen Kamara’s loss is an unfortunate one but we have plenty of bodies in the midfield and we should have a more attacking approach, particularly over the next two games.
Three points is essential, a good performance a close second but, if I had my way, I’d like to see Ryan Kent get on the scoresheet, he looks like a player who needs a confidence boost despite his usual never-say-die attitude.
It’s not a lot to ask for is it?