Rangers take on Ayr United in the Scottish Cup this weekend as Philippe Clement looks to add the famous trophy to the league cup that is already in the trophy cabinet.
The Gers boss has thrown the odd surprise in terms of selection recently and a home cup tie against lower league opposition at Ibrox could be seen as an ideal opportunity to rotate his squad.
With Rangers competing on all fronts it would be understandable against a team like Ayr United but there is a greater reason other than resting a few legs why he shouldn’t.
Rangers shouldn’t be rotating against Ayr United
Beating Real Betis has bought Philippe Clement some time.
The squad has also had a free week recently too without any mid-week games.
With five substitutes, there is also scope for rotating his team during the 90 minutes.
Philippe Clement has a bigger and better quality squad at his disposal now which means that players who haven’t been involved as much recently can be given game time but not at the expense of those in form.
What it is, is a great opportunity to play Oscar Cortes from the start as well as Mohamed Diomande.
Add them to Borna Barisic and Nicolas Raskin and you probably have enough in terms of rotation.
Ross McCausland has played a lot of football for his first season and could do with sitting out a game or two but Fabio Silva deserves the chance to start against weaker opposition.
In short, it’s easy to bring five players off the bench to give them minutes if the game is already won, it’s a lot harder changing a game that isn’t going to plan.
At this stage of the season, momentum is everything and Rangers under Philippe Clement are ticking along nicely.
By picking a consistent team, the message remains the same for those players that do come in and it is a message of pace, intensity and of being relentless.
