Rangers confirm starting XI v St Johnstone as temporary captain named at Ibrox
01/12/2025 08:45 AM
Rangers have confirmed their starting XI for the Scottish Premiership visit of St Johnstone at Ibrox.
Patrick Stewart has confirmed that Rangers are backing manager Philippe Clement despite the Ibrox boss sitting a whopping 18 points off Celtic by kick off with the Saints.
Rangers can reduce the gap to 15 points but frustrated fans are planning a 55th minute walk-out following the Ibrox side's 1-1 draw with Dundee, Rangers' fourth away game without a win.
Returning to Ibrox against St Johnstone, the pressure really is on the Rangers team to stand up and deliver as the Scottish Premiership's bottom side travel to Glasgow.
Here's how Rangers lineup at Ibrox!
Rangers starting XI v St Johnstone
Liam Kelly continues between the sticks as Jack Butland recovers from a freak internal bleeding injury.
Ridvan Yilmaz continues at right-back for Rangers, with Brazilian left-back Jefte continues in his preferred position.
Clinton Nsiala continues alongside Robin Propper as injury chaos disrupts the Ibrox backline.
In midfield, temporary captain Nicolas Raskin comes back into the team following his suspension against Dundee with Mohamed Diomande starting alongside him in midfield.
Ianis Hagi then gets the nod over Nedim Bajrami in the number 10 role.
Up top Rangers start with a front three of Hamza Igamane, Vaclav Cerny and Danilo.
Rangers team to face St Johnstone: Kelly, Yilmaz, Nsiala, Propper, Jefte, Raskin, Diomande, Hagi, Cerny, Igamane, Danilo.
Patrick Stewart on Philippe Clement
"There's been a lot of talk about results, and there's been a lot of talk about the manager, and I know that the spotlight is on Fraser [Thornton] and myself, but particularly on me. That's the job, I'm okay with that.
"I need to make some tough decisions. It comes with the role, but I am committed to making the right ones for Rangers, not just the popular ones. So cutting to the chase, we are backing Philippe at this time as a board.
"It's about taking a deeper look at the issues, addressing those problems, and staying focused on building a stronger future for the club. Changing a manager isn't a silver bullet solution.
"It's not effective at a lot of football clubs where there's constant change of manager. What I do need to do, and what the board are supporting me with, is uncovering the underlying issues and addressing those.
"If we rush and react every time there's some poor results, we're in danger of just being back in the same place in a year's time or 18 months' time or however long. But I want to be clear, look, I'm not saying everything is fine, and I think the fans are frustrated, I get that.
"We wouldn't make any decision on a manager based on financial reasons, absolutely not. Football is results-based and I'm not offering any guarantees as to length of tenure because it's all about improving results.
"Philippe and I have had that discussion so it would be foolhardy of me to say we retain any employee irrespective of results. Of course it's results-based but equally we all want to work together to improve that and that's what we're focused on at the moment.
"One of the reasons I'm here is I want to speak to supporters to say we're not happy with results, no one's happy with results, but equally we're not happy with the short-term quick fixes that have been applied in the past and not worked. We've got to dig deeper and we're really committed to digging deeper and doing it quickly.
"This is about really taking a step back, digging deep and we're doing this to create long-term sustained success – not just the odd trophy here and there."
