Giovanni has today made a statement of intent with the strongest available lineup he could have fielded to face Hearts at Tynecastle.

The Rangers manager went with his tried and trusted defence, a midfield pivot of Arfield and Kamara, a front 3 midfield of Sakala, Aribo and Kent, and Morelos up top.

There are no places for Ryan Jack or Leon Balogun through injury, and Jack Simpson’s Rangers career is definitely over after he couldn’t even make the bench to fulfil the defender requirements.

Indeed, Nathan Patterson is the only defensive player on the bench at all, which does show how much Rangers need to strengthen that area over the next 4 or 5 weeks.

Steven Davis finds himself now being rotated more into the bench, and will be unlikely to be a fixture going forward, and Hagi too is only among the subs with Sakala getting his place.

Scott Wright is back among the reserves too, despite his goal midweek, and this XI is probably, at present, GVB’s vision of the best setup he could have put out there with injuries etc taken into consideration.

In short, this is Gio’s best team, and we can’t say it’s a bad group of players at all.

Game on.