Brendan Rodgers Leicester City vs Man United
Brendan Rodgers Leicester City

Celtic FC welcome their Glasgow rivals Rangers this Sunday for the season’s first Old Firm Derby and it seems that the Hoops will be setting foot onto the pitch as ‘slight’ underdogs.

And we mean very slight.

But if one has been following Rangers’ performances and their manager’s comments for the past week then you would definitely have noticed something unusual.




We are talking about the 3-3 draw against Motherwell last weekend where Steven Gerrard chose to use a rather odd 3-5-2 formation which resulted in his side conceding three goals.




The Light Blues have played in a familiar 4-3-3 formation since the start of the new season and many thought that this change information was just a one-off thing. But to everyone’s surprise, Gerrard has gone on to back this change claiming that he could use it in the future.

Gerrard said: “It worked in general play, I think the thing that didn’t work was us defending set plays – we’ve been done twice so that’s what we need to learn from.




“I think if you take those two set pieces away I thought the formation and the way we played was good enough to get a result here. But if you concede two from set plays it’s always going to be tough.”




And if Steven Gerrard chooses to play this awkward formation during the Derby then Brendan Rodgers will be in for a treat.

The likes of Katic and Goldson looked wayward in a three-man defence and with the kind of firepower that the Hoops have, Gerrard’s men will be shredded to pieces if they play a 3-5-2.




We expect the Rangers manager to revert back to the normal 4-3-3 but given that this is Steven Gerrard’s first Old Firm Derby it would not be a big surprise if the boss makes a critical blunder on the drawing board.



Read: Steven Gerrard reacts to Rangers’ Europa League draw.

Read: ‘This’ Celtic man has a word of caution for Steven Gerrard before the Old Firm Derby and we cannot agree more.

Read: Former Celtic and Rangers forward vents out his anger at the Gers as he threatens to drop names of who were behind his sour departure.




Read: The 2018/19 Europa League draw.

Read: Steven Gerrard finally makes his 13th signing as Rangers’ boss.