Glasgow Rangers are back in action just six days after their League Cup final defeat, which was Michael Beale’s first loss in charge of the Ibrox side.
The club now realistically have the chance at winning just the Scottish Cup this season, having slipped nine points behind their Old Firm rivals in the Premiership title race and this will be Beale’s main focus from now on.
A home tie against Kilmarnock awaits this afternoon and gives the Light Blues a chance to close the gap to six points at the top of the table, temporarily at least, although the 42-year-old will need to choose a better starting XI as opposed to the one that took to the field at Hampden last week.
Will Todd Cantwell start against Kilmarnock?
Beale chose John Lundstram and Glen Kamara as the two players to form the midfield axis in the cup final, while Malik Tillman was given a starting slot in the attacking midfield role, however, none of them performed particularly well, with all three players receiving a rating of just 4/10 for their performances at Hampden via the Scotsman.
Cantwell has started off his Rangers career in a positive manner with the 25-year-old, averaging a 7.22/10 rating via Sofascore across his four league appearances so far, and it was a shame that he did not start against Celtic.
In those four games, he has managed to grab an assist, make 1.5 key passes per game, create one big chance, and take 64 touches on average, certainly proving that he has settled into life in Scotland with relative ease by creating opportunities for his teammates on a regular basis.
In only his second match for the club, Cantwell came on as a substitute for the final 14 minutes against Hearts and made his presence felt and this led journalist Jordan Campbell to lavish praise on him, saying: “Cantwell has been superb since he came on. Nearly every time he has got on the ball he has dribble past someone or produced a lovely pass.”
The magician’s former youth coach Gary Cockaday praised him previously, saying: “He did things every week that were just special. It was God-given.”
The 5 foot 10 maestro could unlock the Killie defence should he be unleashed this afternoon and with the cup final defeat scars still healing, it may be a match that needs just one moment of magic to ensure the club gets the three points.
Cantwell is capable of producing these moments and ‘lovely’ passes, as shown by his aforementioned statistics in the Premiership, and, thus, Beale should make up for last week’s mistake by starting the Englishman.