GOOD luck to anyone trying to predict just how Kilmarnock and Rangers might line up at Rugby Park tomorrow evening. With both squads hampered by more walking wounded than the series finale of Casualty, it may be a case of just patching up whoever is still available and sending them out there.
Lee McCulloch will spend the next day or so anxiously awaiting medical updates. Only eight players took part in Monday’s training session at Kilwinning, leaving Kilmarnock’s interim manager to wonder aloud - joking, we think - whether he may need to dig out his boots. The hope is that enough make a recovery between now and kick-off to make that unnecessary but it has made preparation for the visit of his old club very tricky indeed.
“We trained with eight bodies today [on Monday] and it could be the same tomorrow [Tuesday],” he said, while pre-empting the inevitable questions about his own situation by insisting there was still no update. “We’ve got slight concerns over a number of key players. So we’ll just need to see what the outcome is come matchday. There’s no scope for calling it off so we hope we’ll have a team. Maybe I’ll have to pull the boots on!
“It’s just players with different little niggles as a result of the quick turnaround in games, playing Saturday and then Wednesday. We’ll give certain players right up until kick-off so they could potentially be going into the game without having trained. We’ll see how it pans out.
“It’s quite common for older players not to train so much towards the end of a long season but the younger ones can handle it okay. Their fitness levels are good enough.”
Kilmarnock concluded the 1-1 draw with Inverness Caledonian Thistle on Saturday with six teenagers on the field and another, Freddie Woodman, who turned 20 just last month. It places a lot of pressure on such a young group but McCulloch felt there was no better way to test their mettle.
“I’d have no qualms about pitching the young players in to a game like this,” he added. “That’s what this club is really about. It’s about blooding the kids. You look back over the years and there were guys like Steven Naismith and Kris Boyd, and more recently Greg Kiltie, Greg Taylor and others. That is something the club will continue to do whoever the manager is. That’s the philosophy of the club.
“Some of the younger ones need protected, and some need to be pushed a bit more to make them believe in themselves. It’s a fine line. But how do you know if they are good enough if you don’t play them? If we have to go even younger [against Rangers] than the very young team we’ve got then we’ll do that. That’s fine. As long as we go out, give 100 percent for the fans and try our best to win the game I don’t think anyone can complain.”
As well as trying to figure out his own permutations, McCulloch will have a job trying to get his head around just what his opposite number may do. Pedro Caixinha’s options have also been restricted by injury ahead of his first away game as Rangers manager, while his half-time tactical overhaul on Saturday also makes McCulloch’s job harder.
“I think they started 4-2-3-1 and then went to a 3-5-2 [against Motherwell] but that was because of injury and illness to a few,” said the former Ibrox midfielder. “So it’s hard to second guess what they will do. But I’m sure it will be a great atmosphere in here and there will be a tempo to the game. We just have to make sure we start the game well and are physical against them.”
This will be McCulloch’s first chance to meet the new Rangers manager and he hopes Caixinha is given time to settle in at Ibrox, regardless of results between now and the summer.
“It’s an interesting choice from Rangers and I’d say it’s far too early to judge the manager,” he added. “They say when a new signing goes into Rangers judge him after six months – regardless of how they start – as that’s when they’ll know the standards and expectations at the club. And it’s the same for a manager so I’ll be jumping to no conclusions at all. I think the Rangers manager needs a bit of time, regardless of results. He needs time to settle in and I’m sure he’ll get that. Give the guy a break. Let him do his job and sign his own players.”
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