Kemar Roofe ready for Rangers run-in SOS as Leon Balogun bug leaves fans sick – Ibrox squad revealed

The Ibrox side must bounce back from their Highland horror show which could see changes made.

Rangers need a change against Dundee but it will have to be more in attitude than widespread personnel which many fans would most like to see.

Philippe Clement’s men are in must-win territory as they head to Dens Park and it will simply have to be third time lucky for the Ibrox men who trail Celtic by four points at the top of the Scottish Premiership with this their game in hand over their fierce rivals who they are desperately trying to stop win a third consecutive league flag.

Conceding three goals to the team sitting 11th in the top flight has set alarm bells ringing over a defence that hasn’t kept a clean sheet in five games – their longest run since 2021. There has been a clamour for veteran Leon Balogun to replace Connor Goldson with Goldson and James Tavernier coming in for stinging criticism and for many associated with repeated failure at the club. However, Clement ruled Balogun out with a sickness bug so it will be much of the same at the back, unless Ben Davies is brought in from the cold, albeit Dujon Sterling could replace Borna Barisic at left back with Ridvan Yilmaz still out.

Cyriel Dessers yet again missed a hatful of chances but that has been a familiar story all season and Clement’s options in that position have been limited. He could opt for fit-again Abdallah Sima through the middle but a preferred choice, if the Gers boss has finally lost patience with Dessers, is to get as much of he can out of injury-jinxed Kemar Roofe in this game and the remainder of the season. He has proved a key player when - and that hasn’t been often enough - not on the treatment table. Mohamed Diomande remains unavailable after surgery on his thumb while Nico Raskin has dropped right out of the reckoning. Whoever takes to the field on Tayside must take maximum points to set them up for the run-in. Anything less and more questions will be asked over the bottle of this team.

Predicted Rangers XI

Provisional Rangers squad

Goalkeepers

• Jack Butland
• Robby McCrorie
• Kieran Wright

Defenders

• James Tavernier
• Leon King
• John Souttar
• Borna Barisic
• Dujon Sterling
• Ben Davies

Midfielders

• Bailey Rice
• Nico Raskin
• John Lundstram
• Tom Lawrence
• Todd Cantwell

Forwards

• Cyriel Dessers
• Scott Wright
• Rabbi Matondo
• Fabio Silva
• Ross McCausland