Steven Gerrard has shocked Rangers fans again

As has now become a new Steven Gerrard tradition, there was yet another shock in store for Rangers fans yesterday on seeing the starting XI announced from club channels.

As we’ve discussed on Ibrox Noise, Stevie has a new tendency to make a shock selection almost every domestic match going all the way back to Jordan Rossiter’s stunning return at Hamilton in October.

After him it was Sadiq at Hampden v Aberdeen, Foderingham v Killie, Grezda v St Mirren and Middleton v Motherwell before yesterday’s shock news went the other way and saw Alfredo Morelos benched.

If we’re being less strict, we could point to Katic starting v Motherwell, and Grezda holding his place following his poor display in Paisley, plus yesterday’s complete absence of Katic, and Grezda losing his place following his excellent showing v Motherwell.

But nevertheless, Stevie, right now, is definitely getting results as a result of what seems like shock tactics and apparently unnecessary chopping and changing.

We can’t remember the last time the defence was the same four in a row, and attack too is altering by match.

But while most of us hate rotation, and these shock individual selections (Wallace any time soon anyone?) do seem stark, as long as the side is getting the results it’s completely justified.

Indeed, the only domestic side to take points from us recently is Killie last month, and we must admit November has been a very strong month in terms of home-based performance.

Are we sold completely on Stevie – like anyone else we can only judge what we see, and with 15 wins of 28 overall it’s a bit patchy, but it is now 8 wins of 13 in the league with three wins in a row.

So it could be going in the right direction, and we sure want it to, but we’ll also try to remain calm as we can.

But this is football, so fat chance!