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Introduction Well, the much dreaded international break didn't disappoint. It was every bit as tediously boring and excruciatingly long as feared. Tragically, some would eventually succumb to madness as everyone from Paddy Roberts to Alan Power were "linked" with sensational switches to Ibrox as the prospect of even a crumb of a genuine rumour became less and less likely before the end of the break. Fortunately, there was a welcome relief from the deafening silence around Ibrox in the scintillating football played by Steve Clarke's dynamos as Israel were bravely thwarted at Hampden and Czechia's C team were effortlessly brushed aside in Olomouc. But for now, the only thing that matters is that our players came back injury-free. The visit of Dundee United to Ibrox is the first in eight and half years and promises to be an entertaining occasion. On the way back from demotion, a United side very strong at the time put Rangers to the sword twice in the cups and there will be just a little bit of a sense of revenge in mind on this occasion as the balance of power has reverted to the norm. On to this season, both sides will be happy with the start they have made. Rangers have gone six games without conceding and top the league. In early August, spirits were high as the red carpet was rolled out for long term target Kemar Roofe and Swiss striker Cedric Itten. Unfortunately, the green carpet of the Toni Maccaroni put a premature end to their honeymoon period as Rangers toiled to a no-score draw and the usual debates began to rage among the support (Jack and Kamara anyone?). Dundee United may sit in eighth place but they have given their support reason for optimism in the season ahead. The Opposition Tough opening fixtures have perhaps masked the fact that Dundee United have made a comfortable return to the top flight. They have picked up wins at Fir Park and Dingwall and have been very unlucky not to take all three points from hosting St Johnstone and not to take any from the visit of Hibs. The young side took plaudits for holding off Celtic for 83 minutes before cruelly losing the game to a jammy Ajeti strike. But while they have held their own against several top half sides and showcased some good football, their soft underbelly was exposed in a 4-0 humbling at the hands of an experienced, physical and clinical Kilmarnock side. What has not yet been tested is how they can cope with the particular pressures of an away tie in Glasgow. Unlike many Premiership sides, they do not have experience of playing with their backs to the wall and it doesn't seem they have recruited the players to play that kind of system. They normally line up in a 4-1-4-1 with two attack-minded centre midfielders in front of a holding midfielder, but the signing of six foot five centre back Ryan Edwards has given them the option of switching to a 3-5-2 which might give them more of a chance of holding out at Ibrox. Dangermen Despite currently looking like a bottom half side, the Arabs have not one but two strikers who have made a name for themselves as prolific goalscorers. Lawrence Shankland has scored an incredible 89 goals in 106 games and often only needs one chance to score. Nicky Clark has never quite rediscovered the form that saw him score 41 goals in the 12/13 season, but showed his worth last season when he scored or assisted a goal in all but one of the last 12 games of the season and has carried that form into this season. On the creative side, Manchester City youngster Luke Bolton is on loan for the season and possesses devastating pace on the right wing. In a game where the Tangerines' strategy will be all about the counter attack, any chances created are likely to come from the ball being played into space behind Barisic for Bolton to run onto before trying to find Clark or Shankland with a hard and low cross. Rangers Rangers will be looking to pick up where they left off after bouncing back from the disappointment at Livingston to pick up two 2-0 wins. The loss of Aribo to injury for another month is a big blow, and all but confirms that the team will remain unchanged in the middle of the park for the time being. McGregor's injury confirms that Jon McLaughlin will keep his place in goals too. The experienced keeper perhaps hasn't had the praise he deserves for his role in our new clean sheet record and former Hearts boss Craig Levein was keen to point out that Jon McLaughlin broke a 100 year clean sheet record in his time at Hearts too. Further up the park, the returns of Defoe and Itten are a big boost to Gerrard in terms of the options available to him but the two big talking points are likely to be whether Morelos will return and whether Barker will retain his place. Morelos has been training well and, according to Gerrard, is looking sharper. Both questions may be answered in one change with Kemar Roofe dropping into Barker's position behind Morelos, but I think it is more likely that Gerrard will go with the same team. Whatever the line-up, it is of course essential that Rangers pick up three points, but fans will be hoping to see the forwards being far more clinical in front of goal too and taking the opportunity to send a message to Celtic that this season we aren't going to give up the top spot so easily. Verdict Dundee United possess much more danger on the counter attack than St Mirren, St Johnstone and Kilmarnock, but their dismantling at Rugby Park has rung some alarm bells among the Arab support and their first visit to Ibrox after promotion is likely to be one they will want to forget. Rangers 3-0 Dundee United Predicted Line-up

Not to worry - Barkerinho to the rescue. That's really bad news. He's an important player for us, and had started the season so well. I feel like this is Aribo's year -- still will be, I think.

No

It's a Rangers shop in name only. Best advice is to give it a wide berth.

Enough with the humble bragging about being a Medium. XL loyal here ?

St Enoch Square isn't a Castore/Rangers shop - its the store established by Elite, who are now in bed with Sports Direct. They're trying to bounce all of their old stock.

This is a sensible comment. A stark contrast to other contributions.

We always seem to come back with a dip in performance after these international breaks , we need to be on our toes .

Cracking preview that mate ? As a Dundonian who’s mates are 90% Arab this is the game I’ve been looking forward most other than the obvious. Already getting the patter about one more win for them and they’ll equal the 100% win rate they have over Barca! Nothing other than a damn old 90’s style thrashing will suffice!

Let's give this lot a damn good thrashing .

Many thanks for that mate - excellent stuff which I'll publish to the main site shortly! In terms of the team, it wouldn't surprise me to see Balogun come in to rotate Helander out after he played during the week. I also wonder if the manager will be tempted to reinstate Morelos into the starting XI instead of Barker with Roofe moving slightly deeper? Good to have options and it will be another tough match!

Sky Sports News reporting that Aribo will be out for 4-6 weeks with an ankle sprain. That's bad news.

His morning Press conference tempers that news slightly. All three trained today. Barisic is a dead leg but should be ok. He seemed to have reservations over risking Defoe as he has played so little. He also mentioned Hilander had just returned this morning which was not ideal. Just wonder if he might go for Balegon instead? Will he also risk Itten from start? Also Morelos has being putting extra sessions in! Wonder if he will be considered for a start? Roll on tomorrow!

Good news is that Itten, Defoe and Barisic are all available though...

I first read that as "Oh No! Clive Tyldesley for this match!" (My reading not your punctuation.) Do we know why not?

Pretty sure this has been explained to compo already. We can only hope that the message lands this time.

I only watched bits of the Friday Scotchland game and then gave the czech game a miss. Cant be arsed with internationals

Nope. For all his merits - and there were more than a few - buster doesn’t have Malangsob’s novel Arkansan turn of phrase. He had a brilliant one about hot water and frogs. I use it all the time now.

Can't wait to get back to watching proper football after the nonsense last week. I hope we can cut out the nice guy approach and go for the throat with the scruffs from that Tayside slum.

How on earth do you do a market assessment on a club fanbase that is fractured and cant decide if it should buy gear or not ? And then consider that there were boycotts called for where some did and some didn’t ? And given we had Hummel where it was supposed to be a break from Ashley so some bought..... then found out Ashley was still in the thick of things.... Given ALL those variables I’m interested to know just how you “screw this chicken” (whatever the fuck that even means) to work out likely demand for our kit ? Just how would they go about working out “effective, accurate measures for their market” given all of the variable factors I mentioned ? The Information Age means shit when you don’t have a constant. And in the last 7 years the only constant about Rangers is inconstant.

There are financial guarantees with Castore that may not have been there with PUMA. Neither of us know for sure. But the club is highly unlikely to take a deal that isn’t the most financially rewarding to the club. And the deal will still be superior because our fans buy no matter what..... MikeAshley withstanding.

I don't think you have done your homework on recent years of strip sales.

I think they are enjoying a bit of a honeymoon period, due to our desire to support our club and belief that the Castore venture will return much missed revenue . Personally I don't buy the 3 months to prepare fib, the agreement was made a lot longer ago than that but secretly for contractual reasons, sales and demand numbers were available from last season's launch so they should have had little surprises in terms of stock requirements. They obviously lied regarding the 2 shirt quality issues and the school sweatshirt was scandalous. The leisure range is way overpriced cotton printed tee at 35 quid is nearly double the equivalent from our rivals, so for me lots to improve on and not very impressed by any aspect the kit providers performance so far.

Best ever. For a couple of seconds in his career BK surpassed Albertz and Cooper.

I heard on the H&H daily pod from Caroline Morrison who was in attendance last night, where the chat from castore is that we exceeded all benchmarks that came from discussions with the club. Perhaps the reason is simply that our fans have gone crazy to buy kit and put money into the club at levels that almost nobody could have expected. She also mentioned that they had spoken to others too, I presume people in the industry. In short, it’s clear they did market research.

Was Puma who were bidding against Castore IIRC. we rejected the 3rd largest sportswear manufacturer in the world to go with a company who’d never supplied any football club with merchandise let alone one the size of Rangers

Portugal's Cristiano Ronaldo became the first European to score 100 international goals in men's football and then passed that mark with both goals in the Nations League win over Sweden. Quality.