While we spoke about the potentially fit again Callum McGregor and Luis Palma being danger men, the big nemesis for Rangers to face this Sunday surely is serial scorer Kyogo.
Sure, there was that one Old Firm in which big Leon Balogun had the winger in his back pocket, with Tavernier and Patterson unavailable and Steven Gerrard giving the Nigerian the RB berth. The Japanese never stood a chance.
But with Tav very much starting this weekend, Kyogo will feel like he’ll get joy on his side again, and in Old Firm matches his record is strong.
He’s faced us 11 times, scoring 7 times, with 9 of his appearances being starts.
But of course, was rendered useless when Balogun stopped him all those years ago.
Against the much more attacking Tavernier, Kyogo is likely to get a tonne more space – indeed that space is why he’s been so dangerous when he’s faced us, why he’s had so much success against our club.
Will Philippe Clement read that and put Balogun at RB to stop him?
We’d imagine there’s zero chance of that.
Which means Kyogo will expose us a lot, and it’s down to how Tavernier manages the Japanese forward, Tavernier and Goldson.
Is it the most important tussle?
In many ways it is one of, yes. Kyogo’s pace is electric, as is his dribbling, and he has no trouble getting behind men and causing damage. Tavernier is not as quick as he once was, at 32, and Kyogo almost certainly has a yard of pace on him.
We’re not going to generalise and say if you stop Kyogo you stop Celtic – they have a lot of artillery such as the potentially-fit Palma and most of their Asian contingent.
Callum McGregor can also pull a lot of strings in the middle.
But Kyogo is a major weapon in this fixture, and Rangers will need a plan to stop him if he starts, or comes on.
Brendan Rodgers has the all-time best Old Firm win record of 80% (albeit against a much weaker Rangers for a lot of it so we’re not sure how valid that is) and he will want to hold onto that.
He’s already won the first two this season, and Rangers cannot allow that to happen again.
And a big part of that is stopping Kyogo.