So Michael Beale begins Rangers’ European campaign for this season as Swiss cracks Servette come to Govan, with a thoroughly depleted squad we must say. Including political reasons and a borderline diplomatic incident between the UK and Switzerland (we kid you not) they will not be at full strength, but then do they need to be?
Rangers have a tough ask, and Beale will be desperate to get a good result to lift the mood as much as possible going into the weekend and the second leg next week.
So who does Ibrox Noise predict for the starting XI?
Well we’re making the assumption that it’s back to the Tav and Goldson untouchable days, meaning, all predicted lineups will feature these two, no matter what. So with that in mind…
Butland in goal, of course.
Defence will be the same as it was v Killie – Tavernier, Goldson, Souttar and Barisic. Ridvan is injured.
Midfield should surely see the return of Todd Cantwell, and Nico Raskin will certainly be there too, while there could be a major debut for Jose Cifuentes. He’s in the squad after all.
Up front? Lammers, Danilo and Dessers.
Thing is, doesn’t matter if you’ve Messi and Ronaldo up top, if your defence is this frail and neglected you’ll keep on conceding goals and lose more than you win.
So our hopes are just that, hopes, and we have no major expectations of a good result. If Beale can pull something off something better than the mess in Ayrshire, it’ll lift the mood for sure.
So our predicted XI:
Butland; Tavernier, Goldson, Souttar, Barisic; Raskin, Cifuentes, Cantwell; Lammers, Danilo, Dessers
Of course, the reality is the likes of Scott Wright and Abdallah Sima will probably start, so what the heck do we know?