Malik Tillman and Borna Barisic ruled out – Early Rangers team news vs Aberdeen
Malik Tillman has been ruled out for the rest of the Rangers season and Borna Barisic is missing for the game against Aberdeen on Sunday, Michael Beale has revealed
Ryan Kent may also be unavailable against the Dons but the likes of Ridvan Yilmaz and Rabbi Matondo have been backed to take extra opportunities over the final weeks.
The American loanee has been one of the stars of a poor season and is up for the club’s player of the year award, but his campaign is now over.
The Ibrox boss said, as per the club’s Twitter: “MB: Malik Tillman has performed well for the club but he will be ruled out for the rest of the season due to injury. Borna Barisic will miss the game at the weekend, Ryan Kent has had a few issues so we will continue to monitor him.
“Ridvan Yilmaz and Rabbi Matondo haven’t had the chance to fully show themselves yet so there is an opportunity for that in the remaining games.”
Future
There is nothing left to play for this season except pride and jobs going forward, and even that will surely be too late for some.
Beale might have been prepared to stick with some of the old guard into next season if they had come up with the goods in his final shot at silverware in the cup against Celtic last week but his words after the final whistle, promising a significant rebuild [Sky Sports, 1 May], suggested he had abandoned any plans to do so.
So he really needs to stop giving games to players he knows will be leaving, because there is nothing to be gained when he can be evaluating others, meaning the likes of Ridvan and Matondo would likely have got games despite the injury problems.
If this summer is to be used to truly overhaul the squad, in a way that should really have been largely done a year ago, then the manager might as well make a decision now on players who are waiting in the wings.
Clearly it wouldn’t be a great look if changing the team around started dropping points left, right and centre, but that eventuality would at least expose problems.
The run through Europe and the Scottish Cup win last season papered over cracks, but finishing this year empty-handed has shone a light on quite how much work needs doing, so getting as far ahead of the task when the transfer window opens should be the objective now.
In other Rangers news, the club are hoping to avoid writing off £3million after flopping in the transfer market once too many.