Rangers midfielder Ross McCrorie believes his side are good enough to beat Celtic, and has insisted that their current injury woes will not provide an excuse should they fail to win this weekend’s Old Firm.
Steven Gerrard’s side could be without centre-backs Connor Goldson and Gareth McAuley, as well as Ryan Kent and Scott Arfield for the clash, while Borna Barisic, Graham Dorrans, and Jamie Murphy are all definitely ruled out.
The Gers are three points behind their city rivals, who also have a game in hand over their hosts going into the weekend.
20-year-old academy graduate McCrorie believes that the Ibrox side still have enough quality to record a first win in 13 attempts against the Hoops.
As quoted in the Daily Record, he said: “The injuries aren’t an excuse. We’ve got a good enough squad and good enough players here to go put on a performance against Celtic, so we will just see what happens at the weekend.
“We’re just going to play our own game and focus on ourselves. Obviously we’ll do our analysis on Celtic but after that we’ll see what happens.”
OPINION
McCrorie has to come out and say things like this, but he and the rest of the Rangers squad will be fully aware of just how hard Saturday’s clash will be, and how disastrous a loss could be for the Gers’ title ambitions. In recent weeks they have failed to capitalise on a series of opportunities that would have seen them go into the Old Firm ahead of their bitter rivals, but instead they have squandered their chances and will know that a defeat puts them on the very brink of losing sight of Celtic. The pile up of injuries that the Glaswegians are having to endure will not help their cause, and it will take a Herculean effort to come out of Saturday’s clash with all three points. That being said, if the Gers can pull of the implausible then the momentum swings right back in their favour, and they will feel that one more bad Celtic result will be enough to let them back into the title race.