The Courier & Advertiser (Angus and Dundee)
Caixinha’s anxious wait over left-backs
Wallace and John are injury worries ahead of Old Firm clash
Rangers boss Pedro Caixinha faces a worrying wait after it emerged both of his left-backs are nursing injuries ahead of Saturday’s showdown with Celtic.
Skipper Lee Wallace limped off just 12 minutes into Friday night’s draw with Partick Thistle after aggravating an old groin injury, and was replaced by new signing Declan John.
But the on-loan Cardiff defender has revealed he is also carrying a knock and is not certain to start tonight’s Betfred Cup quarter-final clash with the Jags.
If both players are unable to shake off their problems it could force Caixinha to put understudy right-back Lee Hodson up against Celtic ace Patrick Roberts when they welcome Brendan Rodgers’ rampant Hoops to Ibrox.
However, John insists that if he can prove his fitness, he will be able to handle the derby atmosphere.
Asked if he was ready to replace Wallace, the Wales international said: “Of course, I want to play as many minutes as I can. However, I have got a bit of a niggle as well so we will just have to wait and see.”
Rangers missed out on the chance to draw level with Celtic for a few hours as they were held to a 2-2 draw at the Energy Match Stadium.
That slip-up allowed Celtic to open up a five-point lead on their bitter rivals with Saturday’s 4-0 rout of Ross County, but John was pleased to have returned to action having found himself out in the cold at Cardiff.
“Seeing Lee go down early, I didn’t expect to get a call so early on,” said John, whose last first-team appearance for the Bluebirds was in April.
“But I was really happy to get on and I thought I did quite well.”
Meanwhile, Partick Thistle manager Alan Archibald has refuted claims his side are more aggressive against Rangers than other opponents.
In the wake of Friday’s 2-2 draw at Firhill, Caixinha claimed many of his opponents saved their most aggressive play for his team.
Thistle had Chris Erskine sent off and five other players booked against Rangers after receiving seven yellow cards in total in their previous four matches.
Caixinha claimed that opponents regularly displayed more aggression against Rangers than against other teams.
But Archibald said: “I can only talk about our own team, and I don’t think so. We are probably not aggressive enough.
“I really wish we were a bit more aggressive.
“I don’t think there were the amount of bookings in the game that there was the other night.
“But we treat every game the same, it’s not any different. It maybe just seems like that. When other teams get more of the ball, there are more tackles going in. Maybe that’s something that could be looked into with stats.”
Archibald actually felt his team were too passive in the first half.
“We are probably not aggressive enough. I really wish we were a bit more aggressive. ALAN ACRHIBALD