This weekend will see Scottish Premiership sides compete in the third set of futures of the season.

Rangers made a good start with an away win over Motherwell but they came crashing down to earth when they lost to Neil Lennon’s Hibernian side at Ibrox last week.

Some will blame the defeat to Hibs on refereeing decisions but the fact is Rangers once again looked edgy and inconsistent. The loss was a difficult one for Gers manager Pedro Caixinha to take.

The Portuguese boss now needs to get his side back on track and he can do that this weekend against Hearts.

The Jambos have also had a mixed start to the season. After a crushing loss to Celtic, Hearts then went on to beat Kilmarnock 1-0 at Rugby Park.

The Edinburgh club are currently looking for a new head coach, after sacking Ian Cathro just before the season started. They looked poor against Dunfermline in the League Cup and also at Celtic Park.

But they have enough in their squad to make it difficult for Rangers on Saturday.

For the Ibrox side, nothing but a home win will be acceptable.

The Gers fans want to see signs that Pedro can get consistency from his new look squad. They were humiliated when Rangers were dumped out of the Europa League by Luxembourg’s Progres Niederkorn. Things looked brighter after some good preseason results. Against Motherwell and Dunfermline, Rangers looked great in spells and they’ve also looked better at the back.

Then the Hibs result happened and it was certainly a bad one for all associated with the Glasgow giants.

The important thing is how they now react to that slip up.

As a team, they can’t allow refereeing decisions (good or bad) dictate how games go. They need to be mentally prepared for such events and deal with them when they arise.

They still seem to lack firepower up top.

Alfredo Morelos clearly has potential but he’s still young and raw. He will need another hitman in to take on some of the goalscoring responsibilities.

At the moment Eduardo Herrera is finding it difficult to adapt to the Scottish game. Against Motherwell the Mexican just couldn’t really get into the game and wasn’t a focal point to the team’s attack. At times it looked as if Kenny Miller was doing the work of two men in attack.

So I think another forward with British football experience would benefit this Gers squad.

I also feel that the side can win the ball back in earlier opportunities. They need to grab games by the scruff of the neck, dominate them and make teams fear them.

At the moment you still see opposition teams easing their way into games against Rangers. Rangers start with a high tempo but then their opponents come back into it. During those moments you should see the ‘Light Blues’ spring quick counters and constantly have their opposite numbers on edge.

At this current moment, Rangers don’t need to win with style. No what they need is to constantly win games, go on a run and find the confidence that goes with a winning run.

They need to get over the Hibs disappointment straight away and get a vital win over an unpredictable Hearts side! If they can do that then they might have the character to do well this term, if they can’t then more people will be questioning Pedro Caixinha’s credentials.

Posted on August 18th, 2017 by scott
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