Two surprise absences and a bigger surprise presence – Rangers XI announced

Steven Gerrard has named Jon Flanagan back in his XI to face St Johnstone this afternoon, with Croatian Borna Barisic left out altogether for reasons as yet unknown.

Gerrard has made four changes to his side to take on Tommy Wright’s men, but the stand out is definitely the dropping of the ex-Osijek man in favour of the one-time England cap.

We had conjectured that Flanagan might spend a lot of time on the bench following the signing of the new left back, but with the ex-Anfield man having missed the past two matches, Gerrard obviously feels he’s fresh to bring back in.

There is also no place in the squad for new signing Eros Grezda who is evidently deemed not quite ready yet and not worth risking for this particular match.

Alfredo Morelos returns in Kyle Lafferty’s place, and Croat Nikola Katic returns, but it’s the disappearance of both Barisic and Grezda which may stand out to many fans.