
Rangers Vs Ross County preview: Maintain momentum
- Adam Bortkiewicz
- Feb 2
- 3 min read
Morning all, Rangers face Ross County at home today. Last time round we triumphed 6-0 in this fixture, although that was at Hampden. But since then Ross County have struggled as many could see coming from their performance that day.
I mean, they let a team containing Rabbi Matondo smash 6 goals past them, and it was the Welshman pulling the strings that day.
The Staggies have struggled to replace Yan Dhanda and Simon Murray who they lost in the summer. They have stayed in the relegation play off spot most of the season but now have a resurgent St Johnstone breathing down their necks who invested heavily in manager Simo Valakari in January.
That makes Ross County a much more dangerous prospect. A side with nothing to lose who have shown how capable they are of getting goals against the big sides in recent seasons.
John Souttars return to the backline is timely then. I think given how short we are I'd like to see him use today's game to get up to speed. We will need him in the coming weeks and despite the danger County pose, we can certainly outgun them at Ibrox should it be a trickier first start back for Souttar.
Hopefully we see Bajrami drop down to the bench, despite his involvement in Rangers second goal on Thursday. The Albanian hasn't done enough to keep Ianis Hagi from coming back in, and with Cerny fit, we should be slotting Igamane behind Dessers and leaving Bajrami to keep the bench warm.
There hasn't been any kind of movement in the transfer window aside from some nonsense links to a Bobby Clark loan from Liverpool. The English youngster was linked in the summer, but a loan deal with no option makes even less sense now given we have very little to play for and young players of our own who need minutes.
It looks like barring some moves on deadline day we will be playing with the hand we've been dealt for the rest of the season. That's disappointing, we know funds are limited but I think some signings could have been made for the future given we have 6 months to bed them in.
For me the positives have been moving certain players on, atleast temporarily, as I've mentioned before. But that's all well and good unless you replace them. Maybe Clement really has faith in this crop of youngsters and wants them to shine.
Another temporary outgoing announced today was Adam Devine to Queens Park. The right back has been desperate for senior minutes and hasn't found any under Clement. He celebrated his move by playing for the Spiders today and promptly getting sent off for being kicked in the head. An inauspicious start if ever there was one.
Clement has talked a good game about rotation post Europe before. So now I'm wondering if this could be a chance to start Bailey Rice or Findlay Curtis? Maybe even bring in Lovelace on the left and push Igamane upfront with Hagi behind? There's options should the manager want to shuffle the pack slightly. I'd be interested to see Rice start given his very impressive cameos recently.
Aside from that today feels like a bit of a non event given the low stakes in the league table. Hope all those attending enjoy the game.
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