Rangers vs Spurs preview: Battle of Britain part 1

Morning everyone, a real test awaits Rangers tonight as we welcome Tottenham Hotspur to Ibrox Stadium. It represents a real litmus test about where we are as a team and as a squad. The last time we played English opposition in Europe was Manchester United in the Champions League in 2011/12.

I don't think anyone expects anything but a very tough game tonight. Spurs might be in a bit of shaky form but they are very capable of blitzing teams as we saw when they beat Manchester City 4-0 at the Etihad. Something that plays into our favour is that the Europa league isn't really a priority for them, and at the moment their squad is looking quite stretched anyway. But equally, Ange is under pressure off the back of some very disappointing results, so a win would do a lot to boost the confidence in their ranks.

We won't be able to approach this game in the same way as our recent league fixtures given Danilo and Hagi's absence from the European squad. So I expect a return to the 4231 shape with Igamane alone up front, in fairness that served us well in Nice.

Nadim Bajrami will be back in the team and he should have a point to prove tonight, given the fee we paid for him and the lack of creativity in the team he won't have expected to be the player dropped to facilitate the 442 shape we've been employing. He's not the kind of player to take that lying down, he knows that he should be undroppable for Rangers. Tonight is a big chance to prove that, he can play a massive role in what would be a big result for Rangers and Philippe Clement.

Aside from that the other big narrative is Ange coming back to Scotland. He will get plenty of stick from the home fans and that will be expected. I've not seen anything from him in the build up to the match, but no doubt he will say something like "every game is a big game for us, mate". Which would be untrue, the big games for Spurs are when they can lose deliberately to stop their rivals winning trophies.

Style wise Spurs are not the kind of team we do well against, they can be relentless in their pressing and we aren't exactly press-resistant. I worry about the backline, particularly if Propper has to play given the volume of games Balogun has been involved in.

In terms of areas where we can find some joy, they are extremely short at the back in terms of personnel, they also commit the full backs high up the pitch, so I think one of Cerny or Bajrami should stay high when Spurs have the ball high up the pitch. It's a bit of a risk but I think against a team that can attack so fluently but struggle to defend, it's better to take a risk than play it safe.

Tonight feels like less of a free hit than the Manchester United game, we have a real chance to get 1 or 3 points tonight. We should only need 4 more to get top 8 in the league phase.

I think if the crowd really get behind the team and we avoid conceding early, we can really get at Spurs and pick some holes in their backline.

We've hit some goal-scoring form at a good time, so let's try and keep that going against the smallest team in London.