Philippe Clement takes Europa League risk with questionable Rangers

Rangers next fixture is a great opportunity to put behind the disappointment of failing to close the gap at the top of the Scottish Premiership but Philippe Clement has made an error of judgement in the build up.

There are still a few players missing through injury, particularly in midfield, but the Gers boss will have other factors to contend with at Ibrox.

Connor Goldson won’t be available for Rangers selection after being booked against Sparta Prague which means that Philippe Clement will have to think again.

Rangers and Philippe Clement gamble ahead of must win tie

The frustrating thing is, Goldson was booked in an incident where the Sparta forward was clearly offside.

As per the current guidelines, the assistant referee didn’t flag but Goldson was daft enough to make a challenge that he simply didn’t need to make.

Against Aberdeen, Rangers set up with the same defence that started in a 1-0 win over Aberdeen in 2020 but it was one that Philippe Clement shouldn’t have started despite it’s previous success.

Why?

Not only is Goldson unavailable for Rangers but Leon Balogun isn’t available for selection either after not being picked for the Europa League squad which makes his inclusion by Philippe Clement against Aberdeen a strange one.

Ben Davies wasn’t in the squad for the trip to Aberdeen but there has been no mention of an injury.

John Souttar, Dujon Sterling and Leon King did travel north but none of them saw any game time.

What this means is that we could see an entirely new centre back pairing for a must win game with defenders who haven’t played for weeks and, potentially, never together.

The hope has to be that Davies is fit because, alongside Souttar, they would be the strongest pairing available.

If not, Leon King could be trusted despite not seeing a minute with the first team all season.

A Rangers win guarantees progress to the knockout stages and Philippe Clement will be keen to continue our Europa League campaign where he left off.

A solid defence could be the difference but there are no guarantees given that none of them have played recently, a mistake that could come back to haunt the manager.