Rangers vs Celtic | SPFL Matchday 21 | Match preview

As a small group of fans gear up to arrive two hours early, just to get into their stadium, the rest of us will gather our thoughts, sing songs, drink and generally live the battle fever of Old Firm Day. The new year is upon us and first up, our rivals across the city in a vitally important game for the SPFL title race.

Just a few short months ago, nobody expected us to be in a title race. The damage inflicted by Russell Martin seemed terminal and most folk expected this to be another building season. Instead, pragmatist, Danny Rohl has found a way to grind out results, and we go into this game just three points behind Celtic and six behind Hearts.

Danny Rohl has spoken about the belief in the side to get results and it’s something that has been missing for a long time. Too often narrow leads slipped to draws or we couldn’t get going and lost. We’ve oft bemoaned our inability to win ugly, whilst our rivals excelled in last gasp winners or grinding out results.

The league form of the two sides couldn’t be more different. No more do Danny Rohl’s side lie like a cheap rug. Equally our rivals have lost that steel they had. Recently St Mirrens Gogic spoke about the fear factor being gone at Parkhead. If St Mirren players feel this then our players simply must take heed! I expect no fear, no surrender. Nothing else will do.

Over the last six games for both sides, Rangers have a record of W4/D1/L1 whilst Celtic have W3/D0/L3. The only time in the last decade that Celtic have shown this kind of form over a sustained period is the 20/21 season where Rangers won 55. If that’s not a motivation for these players to kick on then frankly, nothing will be. To still have a chance at the league after our disastrous start is nothing short of a miracle.

Since arriving at Celtic, Wilfried Nancy has favoured a back three in every game and in the vast majority of game time, it has been specifically a 3-4-2-1 formation. He has used 3-4-3 as well to provide slightly more width at times. Celtic have struggled to adapt to this change and in reality, don’t really have the players to fully utilise the formation.

Given Nancy has shown himself to be a “philosophy manager” it’s a fairly safe bet that they will continue to use the same formation which gives us a good indication of who and how they will play.

Expect Trusty and Ralston to both start with Tierney (if fit) or Scales on the left of the three. This instantly gives us an area to exploit with Ralston and Trusty both prone to mistakes. This was very effectively exploited by Motherwell for their second goal of the game when Celtic tried to play out from the back.

At the other end of the park Maeda and Nygren will be their main attacking threats. Nygren has been one of their better players this season and Maeda needs no introduction to most Rangers fans with his ongoing battle against Tavernier on the right hand flank.

Looking at the Rangers side, we’ve come into this one in a reasonably good place. We followed up our Hearts defeat with a gritty win against Motherwell and a (mostly) comfortable win vs St Mirren. We’ve got players returning and no new injuries noted in Rohl’s press conference.

It’s much harder to guess the Rangers team these days with pragmatist Rohl altering the setup on a game by game basis. He has often gone with a back three to solidify the defence but has also used the 4-2-3-1 setup as well.

I suspect Rohl may opt for a 4-2-3-1 in this game as he looks to exploit the space on the wings and to occupy the Celtic back three. Looking at defence, Butland will undoubtedly start. Infront of him we will probably see Captain Tavernier, Souttar, Fernandez and Meghoma. In the middle I expect to see Barron and Raskin deeper with Gassama, Aasgaard and Moore interchanging in the attacking three.

Who starts up top will be vital for us and given the physical nature of the game, I would expect Chermiti to start. He is fresh off his best game for us, where he displayed all the linking play and attributes needed to impose himself on this game. I also think Miovski is a wee bit short of minutes to be thrown into this cauldron.

A win by more than two goals will put us above Celtic in our own right but I think this will be a bit closed than that. I’m expecting a 2-0 win with goals in each half. Chermiti and Gassama to get the goals that seal victory.

As the manager has said though, one thing we all need to remember is the league wont be won or lost in this game. It’s vitally important (which OF isn’t!) but it’s just another leg of the marathon of the league title.