Falling to their third straight defeat – each by three goals or more, and all without scoring – Rangers saw their second outing in the Champions League end with a 3-0 home loss to Serie A leaders Napoli on Wednesday.
In an eventful Group A fixture, recalled goalkeeper Allan McGregor twice denied the visitors’ Piotr Zielinski from the penalty spot, while James Sands was dismissed shortly before the Azzurri scored three times in the final half-hour; leaving the Glasgow giants winless ahead of successive meetings with Liverpool.
Following in the footsteps of heavy reverses to both arch-rivals Celtic and European rivals Ajax, Giovanni van Bronckhorst’s side are ailing likely rarely before, and victory from this weekend’s domestic game is now considered essential: Celtic are already five points in front.
With a half-fit Alfredo Morelos back in the side, Rangers put on an improved showing in midweek (managing 10 shots; six more than in their opening group stage match) but they have plenty of rebuilding to do defensively – not least in terms of confidence.
Due to the postponement of all football across Britain last weekend, the Gers missed out on facing Aberdeen at Pittodrie, but will surely relish the chance to put things right against opponents they have beaten seven times on the spin in Glasgow – and by an aggregate score of 21-2.
Even more defensively dubious than their hosts have been of late, Dundee United have leaked goals left, right and centre so far this season: 26 from nine league and cup games.
They arrive at Ibrox with a similarly poor record of shutting Rangers out, as the Tangerines have not kept a clean sheet there in a Premiership fixture since April 2005; conceding 54 goals in 17 visits since.
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However, United’s caretaker boss Liam Fox, who stepped into the breach following an all-too-brief Jack Ross reign, has led the Tayside club to a win and a draw from their two most recent matches, before last week’s meeting with Hibernian was called off.
After getting the better of Livingston in the League Cup at the end of August, they then held Motherwell to a goalless draw, and posting a rare clean sheet will surely have boosted morale in the camp.
While the Dundee United board remain in talks with several candidates over a replacement for Ross – former Everton assistant coach Duncan Ferguson has apparently already rejected an approach – Fox has had his cause championed by several pundits and past coaches.
Certainly, any application for the job would read so much better featuring a shock win over Rangers among its highlights.
