Rangers have four games to play between Christmas Eve and the 2nd of January, to save you the maths, that’s four games in 10 days for Philippe Clement to steer us through.
That sort of congestion is difficult at the best of times but, with a lengthy injury list, it is probably the last thing that the Gers boss wants, even if momentum is in our favour.
Despite being the festive period, there is more bad news for Rangers players with Philippe Clement confirming that there will be training on Christmas Day.
Rangers squad given bad news by Philippe Clement
First up is Motherwell away from home on the 24th, then Ross County at home on the 27th followed by the Old Firm on the 30th in the last fixture of 2023, with the last game before the winter break coming at Ibrox against Kilmarnock.
Scant consolation but, at least there are no long bus trips up to Dingwall or Aberdeen.
One cause for complaint is the extra day’s recovery that Celtic get before the derby though, as they face Livingston, Dundee and St Mirren before the break, their home games being against us and David Martindale’s men.
In fairness to Rangers boss Philippe Clement, he doesn’t have much choice.
The original Motherwell date was the 23rd but it got moved for TV, this now means that a recovery session has to be done on Christmas Day rather than Christmas Eve – the Rangers squad can thank Sky Sports for that one.
Rangers are used to playing every few days and there are players in Clement’s squad that are already on 30 games for the season.
Michael Beale left the Belgian with almost no room for maneuver but he has managed to close the gap at the top of the Scottish Premiership table to just two points – making the next four games massive.
Ideally, he would have liked the Old Firm to be at Ibrox but it is still a decent fixture list.
He’ll just be hoping that he has enough players left standing by the time it comes to 2024.
