Rangers boss Philippe Clement will make as many as five changes for the huge clash against Dundee United at Tannadice on Sunday.
That’s according to former Northern Irish international defender and BBC Sportsound pundit Stephen Craigan who can’t see anything less happening this weekend.
Rangers went into the international break in the worst possible shape after a crushing defeat to rivals Celtic in the Old Firm derby.
Fan unrest is growing and growing by the game and Clement is now under massive pressure to deliver good performances and positive results.
And Craigan thinks it’s high time the Belgian shakes up his starting XI for a game against the Arabs that won’t be very easy to navigate given their positive start to the campaign.
Stephen Craigan predicts ‘multiple’ Rangers changes
Speaking on the BBC’s Scottish Football Podcast, Craigan thinks two summer signings will be handed their first full starts for Rangers.
The former Motherwell ace said: “I expect multiple changes from the Rangers side. It’s a shame because we haven’t even touched on Dundee United yet because they’ve been so good, we’re going through the negatives of Rangers first.
“I expect multiple changes because you can’t expect your team to perform as poor as that and not make four or five changes for the game.
“I’d imagine (Nedim) Bajrami will come in, the new Albanian signing, (Hamza) Igamane looked okay when he came on (against Celtic) and had a couple of little glimpses.
“Tom Lawrence, Nico Raskin, Leon Balogun – these kind of guys I imagine would come into the reckoning. So Philippe Clement has big issues on Sunday to make sure they find a way to win the game.
“The fundamentals in the Old Firm game probably weren’t there – the hard work, spirit, heart, desire, courage, bravery – everything that probably Rangers fans expect from their players. I’m not too sure they showed that in abundance, put it that way.”
Craigan explains Rangers worst case scenario
If Rangers fail to win on Sunday after Celtic pick up three points against a struggling Hearts side the previous day – as is highly expected – the title race almost looks like a foregone conclusion.
Craigain is in a similar school of thought, saying: “The pressure on Philippe Clement to simply find a way to win a game of football is absolutely huge. Rangers fans always say ‘you have to win every game’ and you do, I get that to an extent.
“But when you’ve lost an Old Firm game and have been as poor as they were, there’s huge question marks around – not so much the manager because he signed a new deal and he’s here long-term – but it is simply win at all costs.
“If they don’t win that game, they could be sitting eight points behind their city rivals after five games. I’m not saying it will be insurmountable but it’s not far away from that because Celtic look so far ahead of everyone else at this time.”
