One Rangers ace is facing a race to prove his fitness for their upcoming Scottish Premiership clash with Dundee United, it has been revealed, in what could come as a blow to boss Philippe Clement.
Rangers endure tough start
After just four games in the Scottish Premiership, Rangers sit eight points behind early pace setters Celtic and Aberdeen, albeit with Sunday’s game in hand. The Glasgow giants drew their opening game in uninspiring fashion, and the points gap to their Old Firm rivals was extended as the gulf in class between the pair was made abundantly clear in the last game before the international break.
Scottish Premiership table as it stands before gameweek 5 | |||||||
Position | Team | Played | Wins | Draws | Losses | Goal Difference | Points |
1 | Celtic | 5 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 14 | 15 |
2 | Aberdeen | 5 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 7 | 15 |
3 | Dundee United | 4 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 3 | 8 |
4 | Rangers | 4 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 7 |
It summed up a torrid start to the season for Clement’s side, who were also knocked out of the Champions League in controversial fashion after Jefte saw a questionable second yellow card against Dynamo Kyiv, who went on to score twice to knock out their Scottish opponents.
It means that it has been a tough international break for Rangers fans and their team, though they now have a chance to begin making amends against Dundee United, who they will be expected to beat.
That may not be as easy as initially thought though, with Jim Goodwin’s side currently a place above Rangers and yet to taste defeat this season with two wins and two draws in their opening four games. To make matters worse, Clement has been left sweating on several of his players for the clash.
Rangers forward to be assessed
Speaking ahead of the game, Clement revealed that he was still waiting on a few members of his squad, as well as ruling three out of contention entirely.
All of Rabbi Matondo, Ridvan Yilmaz and Danilo will miss the clash, with the Rangers boss explaining that “Ridvan is still out along with Danilo and Matondo.”
Elsewhere, Ross McCausland picked up an injury over the international break, but could still feature: “Ross (McCausland) picked up a knock on international duty, but it shouldn’t be too bad.”
But there is still a decision to be made around new signing Nedim Bajrami, who became Rangers’ 11th summer signing on transfer deadline day when he signed from Sassuolo.
Clement explained that the Albanian forward had only trained with his new team for the first time on Friday, and that as a result a decision would be made on Saturday as to his involvement in Sunday’s clash.
The attacker, who scored the fastest goal in EURO finals history over the summer, is expected to add more verve to the Rangers frontline after it struggled in the early part of the campaign, but may take a week or two to get fully up to speed with the demands of his new side.
