The words Rangers and title race being paired together is not something we’ve been accustomed to in recent years.
Yet, despite bumbling domestic form all season and a particularly painful defeat to Kilmarnock on Wednesday, we potentially remain in one.
Note the potentially.
Rangers are only three points off Celtic – granted our rivals have a game in hand – and winning a game on a weekend they lose will be enough to swing momentum back to Ibrox.
But there’s three areas of the pitch we drastically need to improve on if we’re to challenge.
Centre half
What a difference 24 hours make. Worrall was a hero after the Old Firm, McAuley looked assured in most of his games even as a 38-year-old centre half. But the reality this season is that Connor Goldson aside, Rangers lack a quality centre half. Or maybe the answer is just to bring Nikola Katic back in from the cold?
Left back
This is a huge problem position, no matter how much Andy Halliday’s Old Firm performance glosses over it. Rangers have one left back, Borna Barisic, and for some reason he finds himself out of the team despite being fit. Halliday was ineffective on the left last night and consistently provided poor deliveries into the box when the pressure was on in the second half. We need some quality here.
Creative midfielder
Rangers desperately need an eccentric, creative, risk-taking number 10 who can carry the ball and slice open defences. We cannot break organised teams down, particularly on the road. Whilst Steven Davis is an interesting option as a playmaker, is he really going to ghost through defences or play that creative final ball? A high profile creative midfielder should be high on our priority list. Any title race might depend on it.
