Ibrox View: Gerrard to axe attacker in key change – Predicted Rangers starting XI v Celtic
Steven Gerrard will be hoping his Rangers players come back to Glasgow unscathed from the international break.
Borna Barisic returned to action for Croatia on Wednesday night and played 90 minutes in a 2-1 defeat to France.
Alfredo Morelos played the majority of the second half for Colombia against Chile and is now on an epic 1,600-mile journey back in a bid to play on Saturday afternoon.
The early kick-off doesn’t help there.
If it wasn’t Celtic on Saturday then we could see Morelos starting from the bench. But, given the opponents, Morelos has to start for us unless he comes back obviously flagging.
Gerrard has other issues too, with the Daily Record reporting that Allan McGregor, Kemar Roofe, Joe Aribo and Filip Helander are all doubts for the game.
Given that news, we think Jon McLaughlin will keep his place in goal from the 2-0 win over Ross County.
Barisic, Leon Balogun, Connor Goldson and James Tavernier will make up the backline.
We wouldn’t be surprised to see Steven Davis start in midfield but we’d prefer to see Scott Arfield on the pitch, alongside Ryan Jack and Glen Kamara.
The one change we think Gerrard will make is dropping Jordan Jones.
He could well be favoured for his counter-attacking but we think Gerrard will go with Ianis Hagi and Ryan Kent on either side of Morelos.
We think this is the team that Steven Gerrard will put out on Saturday and we fully believe it’s enough to come back with all three points.
In other Rangers news, Celtic lose yet another player for Old Firm clash v Rangers, face ‘huge challenges’