St Mirren Vs Rangers preview: Boxing day bout

Morning everyone, hope you all had a nice Christmas yesterday. My 91 year old grandparents were in good spirits, and the food was good, so I can't complain.

For me the greatest gift came a few days before Christmas, when my last match report blew up. Admittedly it was because a lot of people tweeted me disagreeing with my take on the game. But I appreciate the engagement nonetheless. I'm hoping that Rangers are better today so that I can be a bit more positive in my write up.

The opposition today are perched comfortably just above the pack of teams fighting for relegation. They will want to stay out of that fight ofcourse, but they will be targeting games against those teams as their chances to get some distance from the chasing pack. That means there's a chance they view today as a free hit, and try have a go to test our resolve.

As much as we've crumbled under Clement when teams have had a go away from home (Ross County away last season and Aberdeen this season come to mind), we should be licking our lips at all the space that will leave for players like Cerny and Danilo to get in behind.

For personnel, I think Clement has to continue with Diomande over Barron in midfield. I was a fan of Barron's first third of the season. But since he's been in and out of the team, he's not looked the same. It flew under the radar given the bigger stories in the game, but when he was brought on for some fresh legs in the league cup final I don't think he touched the ball. But peaks and troughs are to be expected for a young player stepping up into a team like Rangers. His time will definitely come, his performance away to Olympiacos alongside Raskin really sticks out as a sign of what he can bring to the Rangers midfield in the future.

At the back I imagine Sterling will continue to deputise for Balogun/Souttar. The rest of the team picks itself really. Hagi and Cerny are key to our fortunes in away games. Cerny should continue to "cheat" with his positioning when we don't have the ball, it gives us a front 3 in transition given Igamane and Danilo should also be higher up the pitch.

It wouldn't surprise me if the pitch was a bit of a state, when we won 1-0 here last season it was absolutely terrible. The weather hasn't been too wild overall though, so hopefully it's not a fixture held back by poor quality groundskeeping.

We rather limped past St Mirren at home this season with a 2-1 win. In that game we looked very vulnerable at times, and Butland made some great saves too. This Buddies team can be a threat to us, and given we will likely be fielding our 5th choice partnership at centre back, Sterling will likely need to be aware of the threat they carry in behind.

Aside from that I hope everyone manages to have a relaxing boxing day, and that Rangers don't do too much to ruin that.