There is no point in Philippe Clement winning his first Old Firm derby only to follow it up with the sort of lacklustre away performance that has blighted Rangers’ season.
.The manager was quick to play down the result against Celtic knowing that the Scottish Premiership table doesn’t lie and that his squad still needs a lot of work.
With a trip to Easter Road to face Hibernian up next, here is your predicted Rangers XI.
Rangers predicated XI vs Hibernian
Hibs have seen something of a resurgence in recent weeks and are the form side in the league but won’t present the sort of test that St Mirren or Motherwell did.
David Gray has his team playing with width and pace, a low block would be out of character.
Tactics similar to those used against Celtic could be employed with rotation kept to a minimum.
Hibs have been playing with a 3-5-2 formation which could help Rangers in terms of isolating the Cadden brothers in wide areas.
Ridvan Yilmaz had doubts about covering at right back but was one of Rangers best players, that he didn’t resort to throwing hopeful balls into the box helped Rangers game plan enormously.
He also has the pace to deal with Hibs forward line.
Injuries to other defenders make rotation almost impossible, so the same defence that shut out Celtic should start again.
The same should apply to the midfield where Nicolas Raskin knows he will miss the next game due to his ridiculous yellow card against Celtic.
Temptation to make changes for Philippe Clement
Nedim Bajrami is growing in confidence and linked the midfield to the attack alongside Ianis Hagi – both were outstanding in the derby, but for different reasons.
Clement might be tempted to bring Danilo back into the team either alongside Hamza Igamane or to replace him.
Against three centre-halves, the more physical Igamane makes more sense despite Danilo’s incredible scoring record since returning to fitness.
Clement could consider Oscar Cortés and Vaclav Cerny on opposite flanks to stretch Hibs, however, this is how he should set up:
- Kelly, Ridvan, Jefte, Propper, Sterling, Raskin, Diomande, Bajrami, Hagi, Cerny, Igamane.
An unchanged line-up, three points, and up the road.
