With the January transfer window out of the way, full focus for Rangers can now return to the football itself and our charge for the Scottish Premiership title.
Livingston will be welcomed to Ibrox today so to be blunt about it, this is a huge chance to rack up a sizeable scoreline against a dreadfully underwhelming opposition.
David Martindale’s side haven’t won a single league game since October against Motherwell [Fotmob] and have never beaten Rangers in Govan – the odds are overwhelmingly in Rangers’ favour this afternoon.
As such, Philippe Clement could make a couple of tweaks to the line-up including at centre-back and his pick to the lead the attack. And will we see new recruits Mohamed Diomande or Oscar Cortes at some point today?
Fabio Silva to be handed No9 chance
Cyriel Dessers has bore plenty of responsibility over the last couple of months and to be fair to the Nigerian, he’s stepped up to the plate amidst criticism from fans and pundits alike.
But recently he has warmed to the Rangers support as a result of his improved scoring rate. Dessers has four goals and three assists in his last seven Gers appearances [Soccerbase] but has played a lot of minutes.
Clement is big on rotating his stars and we expect Fabio Silva to replace Dessers from the start for a game that could really get the Portuguese loanee properly up and running.
Elsewhere, not too much will change from the slender victory over St Mirren last weekend. John Souttar could be selected ahead of Leon Balogun, primarily because Livingston will make themselves hard to break down and the Scotland centre-back’s forward passing could help unlock a stuffy midfield.
Mohamed Diomande and Oscar Cortes could both make the bench today but don’t expect to see too much of them in a Light Blue jersey just yet.
Rangers predicted XI vs Livingston
GK – Jack Butland
RB – James Tavernier
CB – Connor Goldson
CB – John Souttar
LB – Ridvan Yilmaz
CM – Nicolas Raskin
CM – John Lundstram
CAM – Todd Cantwell
LF – Rabbi Matondo
ST – Fabio Silva
RF – Ross McCausland
