Football Season Guide

It was a promising debut season for Steven Gerrard at Rangers last year. Performances improved so much that they became the top scorers in Scotland, but defensive woes meant that they once again fell to Celtic in the race for the title. Gerrard has once again ordered a mass clearout of the Ibrox deadwood this summer, however. In terms of improving the back-line, Rangers have signed Swedish veteran Filip Helander and young Englishman George Edmundson, who they will hope will strike up partnerships with each other as well as Connor Goldson and Nikola Katic. Keeping a hold of 30-goal man Alfredo Morelos has been another important piece of business so far, and he will battle it out with Jermaine Defoe for the striking role at Ibrox. But it's down the flanks that Gerrard has seriously bulked up this summer. Joe Aribo and Sheyi Ojo have come in to add some directness, and they both look like regular starters. But strength in depth has been sorted, with the likes of Jordan Jones, Greg Stewart and Jake Hastie all looing like improving Rangers' quality on the bench. Their man weakness last term was the goals conceded. Rangers have made big moves to sort that out, and it remains to be seen whether it continues to be an issue this term. Their main strength is the pace they now have in wide areas, combined with the goalscoring prowess up front. Don't put it past Rangers outscoring everyone else once again, as they look much stronger this season than they did at this stage last year.