Rangers are responding well to Barry Ferguson’s question

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Pedro Caixinha’s Glasgow Rangers have started playing pre-season friendly matches, which should please former Ibrox midfielder Barry Ferguson.

Rangers were always going to find it tough to progress to the group stage of the Europa League next season.

The qualifiers were going to be hard for the Gers, who finished third in the Scottish Premiership during the 2016-17 campaign.

However, one would have expected Pedro Caixinha’s side to get the better of Luxembourg minnows Progres Niederkorn in the Europa League first qualifying round.

Rangers won the first leg 1-0 at Ibrox last month, but they suffered a 2-0 defeat in the second leg away from home earlier this month.

Barry Ferguson

The Ibrox faithful were bitterly disappointed and so was Barry Ferguson, who told The Daily Record that Rangers “now have the biggest four weeks ever as they lead up to the league opener at Motherwell”.

“They have four weeks to get working on things but the question now is, who are they going to play?” added the former Rangers midfielder.

“All the other clubs have their pre-season tied up and Rangers need to play at least two games a week to get up to some sort of formation and way of playing.

“They need games which will test them but are they going to get that? All the other clubs across Britain and beyond have already sorted their pre-season schedule and that’s a massive problem.”

Ferguson is a Rangers legend and is one of the greatest players in the Glasgow club’s history, and his point about pre-season friendly matches is valid.

However, Caixinha’s side appear to have friendly matches lined up and have responded to Ferguson’s question perfectly,

A Rangers side with a number of first-team players took on Tynecastle FC at the weekend – they lost 2-1 – and then on Monday the Gers won 2-1 against Kilmarnock in a closed doors match at Auchenhowie.

According to The Daily Record, Rangers will face Sheffield Wednesday of the Championship in England on July 30; the report has also claimed that “closed-door fixtures will be hastily arranged” by the Gers.

Rangers may not have planned for pre-season friendly matches before they got knocked out of the Europa League qualifiers, but they seem to be preparing just well at the moment.