Rangers take the short trip to Lanarkshire to face a Motherwell team that hasn’t won a league game since August and is sitting second bottom of the Scottish Premiership.
This doesn’t really paint the full picture though because most of their results have been draws and even in defeat, they usually only lose by one goal.
Rangers manager Philippe Clement is limited in his options but still has enough players at his disposal to name a strong starting XI.
Rangers v Motherwell – team news confirmed
The squad is creaking and, after losing Kemar Roofe and John Lundstram at Ibrox in mid-week, he now has to go even deeper.
Defence is one of the few areas of the pitch that is ok and, after having a rest against St Johnstone, Leon Balogun comes back in but Ridvan Yilmaz keeps his place with no sign of Borna Barisic on the bench.
Not that they would have been over-stretched had the actually played.
In midfield, Rangers are really struggling and down to the last couple of names, and even then, only one of them is a “proper” midfielder.
Kieran Dowell is only just fit and probably wouldn’t have played the full game against St Johnstone but for Lundstram’s injury.
Hopefully, he has recovered well because he is going to be needed over the next 10 days.
Dujon Sterling has impressed adapting to his new role in the engine room and alongside Todd Cantwell will provide energy and dynamism against a team with fragile confidence.
The forward line is similar to the midfield in that there are four options for three positions, with Rabbi Matondo not 100%.
Ross McCausland continues to look the part and Abdallah Sima is one of our biggest goal threats but Scott Wright offers a freshness off the bench that few other players can offer in the final third.
As for who leads the line, there can be only one – Cyriel Dessers.
And, in fairness, even if there was a choice, he deserves to start after his display at Ibrox.
There is still some fine tuning that needs to be done to his game but he is scoring goals and creating chances for others and that matters more than anything.
Rangers need to keep the momentum going and Philippe Clement has to get out of the players he has who are fit with these ones being trusted to get the job done at Fir Park.
