Anthony Onifade

Tue 8 August 2023 19:10, UK

Michael Beale has confirmed that both Ridvan Yilmaz and Ben Davies will miss their Champions League qualifier against Servette further compounding the Rangers issues in defence.

The Gers kicked off the 23/24 campaign with a disappointing 1-0 defeat to Kilmarnock on Saturday but will be looking to right those wrongs when they host Servette on Wednesday (9 August).

Rangers will have to do without Turkish left-back Ridvan and central defender Davies, who are expected to return to training in the next week, as confirmed by Beale in his pre-match press conference ahead of the game.

“Ridvan Yilmaz will be available for selection before the Morton game (19 August), all going well,” he said.

“Ben Davies should return to training early next week.”

Neither player were involved in Saturday’s opening-day defeat to Kilmarnock so Beale may well be forced to pick a similar team on Wednesday, however, the problems in defence still persist especially at left-back.

Scottish Daily Mail journalist Mark Wilson wrote on 31 July that the Turkish full-back Yilmaz remains a “live” issue ibrox given his sub-par performances in a Gers shirt since his move but the same problems are also emerging with preferred option Borna Barisic, who had a stinker against Kilmarnock but Beale was forced to persist with him in the team due to a lack of cover in the position.

Wilson states: “A year into his Rangers career, however, last summer’s most expensive purchase still faces the same task. For Ridvan Yilmaz, the coming campaign must surely see a sustained push for prominence.

“An uncertain display against Hoffenheim, where he looked defensively vulnerable, has now brought some renewed questions from supporters. It’s up to Yilmaz to step forward and answer them decisively.

“Left-back remains a real live issue for Rangers. Who starts the season in that position is just as intriguing as the impact of recent arrivals.”

The left-back position is now becoming a major squad concern despite the Gers completing some impressive transfer dealings in recent weeks and given Yilmaz’s ongoing struggles to impress and Barisic’s uncertainty regarding his future now coupled with his poor performances in the lead-up to the new season, it remains to be seen whether Beale could dip into the market to address the issue unless one of them leaves which looks an unlikely scenario right now.

Turkish-Football.com reported on (29 July), that Yilmaz had rejected approaches from Besiktas and Fenerbache with the full-back intent on making a name for himself at Ibrox, but still, after a year from his £5m move, he’s still struggling to convince both Beale and the Rangers faithful.

Barisic is now in his 30s – his prime years – and the arrival of Ridvan last summer was supposed to provide the Croatian with a kick-up the backside to raise his performance levels and consistency but that hasn’t happened.

With Yilmaz continuing to struggle, that area of the pitch may well prove to be Beale’s unfortunate downfall with so much expected of his team this season.

As Wilson pointed out in his report, Beale may well be forced to start Dujon Sterling in the role, but what message will that send to both Barisic and Yilmaz about how they can redeem themselves, or could it be a much-needed reminder to improve fairly quickly?

Right now though, Beale faces a pretty clear positional conundrum at Ibrox and it won’t be long before the cracks start to appear so how the former QPR manager plans to paper over those cracks or deal with them permanently before the transfer window closes will be certainly intriguing.

It may just prove to be the critical difference in Rangers beating Celtic to the major domestic titles, or facing another disappointing campaign trophyless.

In other Rangers news, a windfall is on the cards at Ibrox as “lucrative” £25million news emerges.