Ben Davies and Ridvan Yilmaz starts – Confirmed Rangers XI v St Johnstone
Michael Beale has made six changes to his Rangers starting lineup for the SPFL clash against St Johnstone on Saturday afternoon.
Ben Davies and Ridvan Yilmaz make their first starts of the season in place of John Souttar and Dujon Sterling, while John Lundstram and Tom Lawrence start in midfield ahead of Ryan Jack and the injured Todd Cantwell.
Sam Lammers comes into the attack, replacing Rabbi Matondo, while Danilo gets the nod ahead of Cyriel Dessers as the main striker alongside Kemar Roofe.
Must-win
There should be no such thing as a must win game five matches into the season, but such is the pressure on the manager that that’s exactly what this is now.
Beale has lost two of the four league games so far, including against Celtic at Ibrox, and is already four points off the pace at the top of the league after crashing out of the Champions League at the qualifying stage.
Some fans have already turned on him and reports that the club have approached both Kevin Muscat and Graham Potter suggest the board are looking at alternatives.
The only way to relieve that pressure is by winning games and proving that the start was just a blip, and with seven games in the next 22 days this is the perfect opportunity to do that.
He’s picked a strong team despite a European game in midweek, so this performance will tell us a lot about how things are likely to look under Beale going forward.
In other Rangers news, Beale drops Yilmaz future verdict after EL squad omission.