Rangers travel to New Douglas Park to face Hamilton on Sunday. The team go there in decent form and should be high in confidence. Hamilton have struggled a bit since the winter break, but are always difficult to predict.
HAMILTON LAST 5 LEAGUE RESULTS
Partick Thistle (away), 1-0 defeat.
Motherwell (away), 3-1 win.
Hearts (home), 3-0 defeat.
Dundee (home), 2-1 defeat.
Aberdeen (away), 3-0 defeat.
Earlier meetings this season have both resulted in away wins. Rangers were comfortable in their 4-1 win under Caixinha. However, the 2-0 defeat at Ibrox was a frustrating display, a match where Rangers missed a lot of chances but let their level dip significantly when they went behind. There’s been a few changes to Martin Canning’s squad since the game at Ibrox. Most notably, their best player in Greg Docherty has moved to Rangers. They also lost Michael Devlin, who had missed a lot of the season through injury. In February, they signed Kenny Van Der Weg who had been released by Ross County. They also picked up Ross Jenkins on a free transfer. Those were added to a few signings in January. 18-year-old midfielder Lewis Ferguson, son of ex-Rangers player Derek Ferguson, has been promoted to the first team. Rakish Bingham hasn’t been involved in recent matches, so may be injured. David Templeton was also missing from the squad in their last match against Aberdeen.
For Rangers, it would seem there’s only a couple of potential lineups we’ll start with. It’s likely to be either the 4-4-2 seen against Ayr, or the 4-2-3-1 we’ve played in recent league matches. For this match, I suspect we’ll start with the latter.
PREDICTED STARTING LINE UP
Foderingham
Tavernier
Bates
Martin
John
Docherty
Goss
Candeias
Windass
Murphy
Morelos
The suspension for Jason Holt will likely see James Tavernier captain the side. Greg Docherty will make his first league start against his old side, and it’ll be interesting to see how Hamilton fans react to him. As the injured players start to return, the bench looks stronger. Players like Cummings, Halliday and Miller will most likely be used from there. Whilst Alves and Wallace are back in training, they won’t be near fit enough to be involved just yet.
Like many other matches, success for Rangers in this game will rely upon the tempo the team play at. When Hamilton are playing well, they’re very good on the break. If Rangers are slow or loose in possession, there’s a real chance they’ll be punished. If Goss can get on the ball in midfield and move the team forward quickly, that should help towards a good performance. The team have played well of late, and seem to be more confident in each other as well as themselves. Despite being away from home on a surface most players don’t like, they should have more than enough to win. I’m predicting a 2-0 win for Rangers in this match, in a solid performance.
What’s your prediction for the game? Tweet us @rangersnewsuk with your thoughts!