The Rangers juggernaut continues to steam forward as Philippe Clement’s side look to stretch their lead at the top of the Scottish Premiership this afternoon.
Victory at Ibrox today will lift Gers five points clear of Celtic who face a tricky trip to Motherwell on Sunday.
However, extending the gap at the summit of the league won’t be easy because third-placed Hearts are in town.
Steven Naismith has got his side winning consistently and it seems with twelve games still to go, the Jambos have already nailed down the so-called ‘best of the rest’ position behind Rangers and the Hoops.
This will be one of the toughest league tests of the season – Lawrence Shankland will pose a huge threat for Hearts – but confidence is running through the team’s veins at the moment and a packed Ibrox will be expecting yet another win.
Philippe Clement confirmed at his press conference on Friday that Todd Cantwell will be out injured for the next three to four weeks. The good news is that Kemar Roofe will be available for selection.
Tom Lawrence has pivotal role to play
Rangers News expects Clement to make four changes to the starting line-up that beat St Johnstone in Perth last Sunday.
With Cantwell sidelined, his natural replacement in the No10 position should be Tom Lawrence. The Welshman replaced Todd last weekend against the Saints on the 60-minute mark and will be tasked with offering the creative spark versus the Jambos.
Elsewhere, Cyriel Dessers should come back into the starting XI for Fabio Silva. While Scott Wright and Borna Barisic are likely to give way to Ross McCausland and Ridvan Yilmaz respectively.
John Lundstram and Mohamed Diomande looked fantastic as a central midfield pairing against St Johnstone so it would be a no-brainer to go with that again.
Clement is a big fan of Leon Balogun who has recently returned to first-team availability. But John Souttar has been in good form of late and we think the Belgian will field him against his former club this afternoon.
Here is our Rangers predicted XI for the visit of Hearts:
Rangers predicted XI vs Hearts
GK – Jack Butland
RB – James Tavernier
CB – Connor Goldson
CB – John Souttar
LB – Ridvan Yilmaz
CM – John Lundstram
CM – Mohamed Diomande
RM – Ross McCausland
LM – Oscar Cortes
CAM – Tom Lawrence
ST – Cyriel Dessers
