Ross McCausland plays himself into Rangers contention

A trip to Livingston isn’t always one either Rangers or Celtic often enjoy.

The plastic pitch at the Tony Macaroni stadium is often a pain for players who enjoy to play slick, possession based football as the Old Firm do.

So coming away at the weekend with a relatively comfortable 2-0 victory will have been the perfect end to a first month or so in charge for Philippe Clement.

And whilst he won’t have learned too much from his squad in Lothian that he didn’t already know from the weeks prior, there was one aspect of the team that will have brought him joy.

That was on the right hand side of midfield where Ross McCausland not only made his first start of the season for Rangers, but was also the stand out player on the pitch.

There had been calls for the 20 year old to have been given an opportunity to impress from the start even before Clement arrived at Ibrox.

Not only down to some really good cameos off of the subs bench in both the league and Europe, but also as a result of a lack of depth on the right wing.

With Scott Wright out just now, using a traditional right sided winger would also allow the likes of Todd Cantwell and Tom Lawrence to be used in their more natural role as a Number 10.

It’s safe to say that everything about McCausland’s game on Sunday screams of a youngster keen to grasp his chance.

He was direct in his running with the ball both on the inside and on the overlap that perfectly meshed with the game of James Tavernier.

He’d also look to get himself to the byline as much as possible and as he showed with his disallowed goal, has a good eye for a shot as well.

Indeed, the timing and impact of McCausland’s display couldn’t have gone any better.

When Clement first arrived at Rangers, he made reference to his record at past clubs in making use of those team’s youth systems to integrate with the first team squad.

For all the talk of how good the facilities at Auchenhowie are, aside from Nathan Patterson, no-one has really used it as a springboard to the first team and beyond.

Given the start he has made, McCausland now has all the factors needed right now to add his name to this short list.

At least a month and a half with little competition in his main position, a good run of form on his side and a manager who backs both youth and him as a player, the only person who could stop him succeeding right now really is himself.

Clement will have some money to spend in January, but he has a few areas of the squad that he needs to address, so if he can make use of his developmental talent to improve one of these as opposed to spending big, it would be a win-win all round.