Aberdeen Vs Rangers preview: Priorities

Morning all, Rangers travel to Pittodrie to take on an Aberdeen team that finally seems to have found it's feet again after a tough spell.

Our last meeting with Aberdeen was probably one of the few genuinely good league performances this season. It was 3-0 but that flattered the Dons, we could have been 4 or 5 goals ahead by the closing stages.

Our last game at Pittodrie makes for much grimmer reading. 2-1 to the home side and we were lucky to get away with that. Aberdeen dominated the game for long spells, a very good Nadim Bajrami equaliser was the only positive moment for Rangers. That defeat marked one of the many real low points in this season. Speculation was rife that Rangers would finish 3rd.

Aberdeen went on to lose a ridiculous number of games and manage to drop out of the top 3 entirely. So atleast we won't be finishing behind them.

Since losing to St Mirren in January, the Dons have only lost 1 game in 9 and that was against Celtic. Our form is far more patchy and in terms of the league, you'd imagine Aberdeen will be far more confident.

I'd be surprised if Barry didn't have one eye on the away leg on Thursday. So expect a weakened lineup.

Propper will start given he's suspended for the second leg, hopefully he manages more than 10 minutes. Souttar may play just to stay sharp. Nsiala is another option at the back. Sadly it was announced that Sterling will miss the rest of the season after coming off on Thursday, so we won't be seeing him anytime soon.

There really aren't many options to rotate in midfield. Especially with Rice's injury. Raskin will have to start, alongside Barron I'd assume. Dio might start given Hagi's herculean exertions. Igamane could start upfront with Cerny in to get some more minutes after his recent injury.

If the manager is really keen to rotate, we could see Findlay Curtis in place of Cerny. Which would certainly be a bold call.

From a tactical approach, Aberdeen's formation and approach should work in our favour if we line up in the 3-5-2 shape we've used for big games. I mentioned this potential weakness in my preview of the last game at Pittodrie. When Aberdeen defend/press in their compact shape, they tend to leave themselves massively exposed on the opposite flank as they try and suffocate any potential attacks. As we saw in Istanbul, this team can look very dangerous if they look to switch the ball to the opposite flank.

Out of possession we should look to approach the game similarly to Ibrox, forcing the two Aberdeen centre backs to carry the ball forward and limiting their options to play through. We had alot of joy from picking off the next pass and counter attacking quickly.

Similarly to Celtic and Fenerbahce, the Dons leave lots of space in wide areas when they go forward. When we win the ball, our forwards will need to make runs in that space to allow us to turn Aberdeen quickly and get in behind. This team has been adept at attacking that space quickly in big games.

Given the nature of this game as a dead rubber for Rangers and us playing with one eye on Thursday. I'm not expecting much in the way of a result. Hopefully if the tactical set up is right, we can exploit those gaps and get a few goals today. Hopefully we aren't leaking goals at the back in the meantime.