Rangers visit Tannadice Park to take on Dundee United in the first game of the Scottish Premiership season on 31 July.
Derek McInnes has got a good understanding of his squad following a number of pre-season friendlies, mostly played behind closed doors.
They took on quality opposition in St Etienne and West Ham recently at Ibrox, and put in respectable performances.
Rangers beat St Etienne 2-1 and played out a 0-0 draw against West Ham on Sunday.
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Nicolas Raskin to be ruled out while Thelo Aasgaard expected to be fit
Thelo Aasgaard and Cammy Devlin both had injury concerns following the West Ham game, but McInnes confirmed that they should be available for Friday.
Connor Barron, too, returned from his injury as he made the bench in that match, so is fit enough for the matchday squad, but perhaps not to start.
Nicolas Raskin will return to training this week following his post-World Cup break, but will not be available for Friday.
He will be eased into the squad and may be ready to play their next game on 6 August against Jagiellonia Białystok.
Apart from that, McInnes has his full squad to choose from, as he expects to start on a winning note.
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Derek McInnes expected to deploy midfield pivot of Dan Neil and Cammy Devlin
McInnes has played a number of systems in pre-season, including a flat 4-4-2, a 4-4-1-1, a 4-3-3, a 4-2-3-1, a 4-2-2-2 Danny Rohl liked to deploy, as well as a 3-5-2, in the second half of the West Ham game.
He is known to be more pragmatic than some of the past Rangers bosses, and on the opening day of the season away from home, he is expected to take that approach.
Both Devlin and Dan Neil were signings sanctioned by the 55-year-old, and after impressive pre-season campaigns, are expected to anchor the midfield.
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The duo will give the Light Blues solidity in the middle of the park, with Devlin likely being asked to get stuck in while Neil would look to control the tempo of the game.
On paper, this team might look like Aasgaard and Findlay Curtis are playing as wingers, but they could look to tuck in with the likes of Tuur Rommens and Dujon Sterling overlapping them.
Emmanuel Fernandez and Ben Godfrey have been the go-to centre-back pairing in pre-season, while Lawrence Shankland and Youssef Chermiti are two game changers McInnes will want to be starting more often than not.
Where can you watch the game at Tannadice Park?
The game will be live on Sky Sports, with kick-off at 8 pm.
Sky Sports Main Event and Sky Sports Football will be telecasting the game in the UK.
In the United States, kick-off is at 3 pm Eastern, and the game will be shown on CBSSN.
Score prediction for Dundee United vs Rangers
We expect this to be a tight one, but Rangers should edge it out come full-time. Rangers News has predicted a 2-1 scoreline for the game.
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