da dobrowin： Regardless of what happened the season before, the only way to view the opening fixture of a new league season as a football fan is with hope.
da dobrowin： All negativity is cast aside, all pre-conceptions about the team you cursed in the previous term are put to the back of your brain, there are no pre-mature judgements of players that made you tear your hair out. In fact, the start of season is sometimes often the highlight of an entire season, depending how well or how badly it goes from that point on.
Rangers begin their Scottish Premiership bid on Sunday away to Motherwell and it’s with this expectation and hope that fans look forward to the match.
It’s been a strange summer for the Light Blues with competitive action finishing almost as quickly as it started in late June/early July. Since then they’ve regrouped with friendlies and are now ready to go.
Supporters will be keen to see a new look Rangers this season with a full pre-season behind them but what signs of progress should fans be looking for specifically against Motherwell on Sunday?
Here are four we think fans should keep a close eye on…
A resurgent Josh Windass’ new position
Josh Windass is the player fans are talking about most this week after his excellent performance against Sheffield Wednesday at the weekend. He netted a goal and was deployed in a more unusual position than fans have been used to during his time at the Light Blues.
He’s spent most of his time at the club in a more central midfield role, rarely given license to push up and be a menace in the final third.
Against the English Championship side though he was deployed on the left hand side and with a newfound confidence and with more space on the flank looked a vastly different player.
Pedro Caixinha was certainly impressed, telling the official Rangers website:
“He played more in the wide area and I think it suits him better changing the pattern of playing wide and helping inside, playing between the lines and more connections with the strikers and central midfielders. That is what Josh can give to us and he is doing really well and is going to help us definitely.”
It’ll be interesting to see if that continues against Motherwell and whether it can change the dynamic of the Rangers midfield enough for them to be more of a force away from home this season.
Do Rangers look more like a team than vs Progres?
The most worrying thing about Rangers’ exit to Luxembourg minnows Progress Niederkorn in UEFA Europa League qualifying was how disjointed and unfamiliar Pedro Caixinha’s starting XI looked.
In many ways that was to be expected after such a high turnover in players and just a few weeks on the training ground to bed them in, but it also pointed to perhaps too much of a scatter-gun signing policy from the Portuguese.
He has signed nine first-teamers this summer and let go seven more in the opposite direction. It’s massive upheaval for a team that need to hit the ground running in the new season or risk having even more pressure and unrest piled upon them.
Will Caixinha’s team vs Motherwell look like a unit that know each other well and can play to each other’s strengths? Time will tell, but it’s these on-the-pitch partnerships that will be the biggest sign of whether they are moving in the right direction or not.
Is there still a reliance on Kenny Miller?
Despite signing Mexican Eduardo Herrera and Alfredo Morelos, who has been ripping up the Finnish top-flight, Rangers have shown a worrying reliance on Kenny Miller this summer, pointing to the same old problems in the Light Blues’ attack.
The veteran Rangers star scored their goal in that Europa League tie and was also on the scoresheet against Sheffield Wednesday at the weekend. As of yet, Pedro Caixinha’s new boys have yet to find the net and until they do, the same old questions will plague this Rangers team.
Can they step up and take the pressure off Miller or is this going to be another season of toil and strife? It was their biggest inadequacy last term and fans will be hoping they have new striking heroes on their hands.
A much changed Rangers, but have they really changed?
The Rangers squad of this summer is almost unrecognisable from the one last summer that ‘boasted’ the likes of Joey Barton, Joe Garner and Philippe Senderos amongst its ranks. That can only be a positive for fans, but while there’s been a change of personnel, they’ve yet to prove that they are any better than the team of old and the proof will be in the pudding in terms of results.
The Light Blues badly need a victory away to Motherwell on Sunday, if they fail to pick up three points it immediately puts massive pressure back onto Pedro Caixinha and his team despite some positive friendly results and performances over the last few weeks.
The biggest problem last term was the side’s lack of consistency in winning away matches with dropped points away from home littering their Scottish Premiership campaign.
Can they prove they are changed outfit with an impressive away win to start the season?