Rapid v Rangers on Thursday is the chance for Steven Gerrard to alleviate the pressure mounting on his side.
It’s been a frustrating capitulation from the Ibrox giants.
Only nine days ago we were singing their praises as the team climbed to the summit of Scottish football. Now, we’re two points off Celtic having played a game more.
How quickly things can change, eh? Against Aberdeen and Dundee we’ve been abject. We’ve been slack at the back and gave away early goals. It’s cost us.
Where things have been up and down at home, abroad things have been quite different. There’s undoubtedly been more ups than downs and now we sit 90 minutes from the knockout round.
If we play anything like we have over the last 180 minutes, then we won’t stand a chance. But we can take solace in the return of some big names to the starting line up for this one.
Rangers need to dig deep and pull a performance out the bag against a team we’ve already beat this season.
Borna Barisic, Scott Arfield and Alfredo Morelos all come back in. Those three returning is huge for the club. I expect Lassana Coulibaly to come back in for Jordan Rossiter too.
At the back, I fancy the much maligned Joe Worrall to keep his place. He’s been Gerrard’s preferred choice in Europe so far.
This might not be the XI that I’d go with, but it’s how I think Gerrard plans to line up in Austria.
