Rangers are looking to challenge Celtic for the Scottish Premiership title.
Former Celtic player Scott McDonald believes new Rangers boss Steven Gerrard is doing a fantastic job at Ibrox, but says the club won’t have enough to beat the Hoops to the title this season, The Scottish Sun report.
Gerrard took over the Rangers post this summer and has enjoyed an excellent start to his reign as Gers boss, remaining undefeated on both domestic fronts while progressing in the Europa League.
The blue half of Glasgow have every reason to feel confident about the season ahead, yet McDonald feels they will ultimately come up short in the title race as he cites Celtic’s greater firepower.
“Steven Gerrard is doing a fantastic job. He’s made Rangers a solid unit, much more difficult to break down and I think that’s what Rangers needed first and foremost,” McDonald told the Scottish Sun.
“But if you look at it player for player, firepower for firepower, I think that you have to favour Celtic down the long road. But it’s up to Rangers to prove differently.”
Can Rangers dethrone Celtic this season?
While still very early into the campaign, there appears to be evidence of progression at Rangers while the same can’t be said of Celtic – following their mixed results over the past two weeks.
The Hoops have crashed out of the Champions League following their qualifying defeat to AEK Athens, while a 1-0 defeat against Hearts at Tynecastle further highlighted some growing frailties.
Brendan Rodgers’ men have struggled defensively with key player Dedryck Boyata potentially moving on before the transfer window closes (The Sun), while going forward they’ve also struggled to click.
Celtic no doubt boast a stronger squad on paper than Rangers, but momentum is growing at Ibrox and Gerrard has proven with draws at Aberdeen and Maribor how tactically astute he is when facing tough challenges.
The first Old Firm derby of the league season takes place next month at Celtic Park, and a positive result for Rangers could give the players further belief that they can topple their great rivals this term.
The most interesting thing about the debate, however, is that it is now taking place. For many years now, there’s has been no serious suggestion that Rangers could threaten Celtic’s recent supremacy. This year, however, things are different. Rangers appear to be on the up, while Celtic look at bit more fragile than they have for a long time. It will probably be asking a lot for Rangers to win the league this season, but they should be contenders in cup competition. And Scottish football can only benefit.
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