Former Celtic striker Chris Sutton believes the Rangers fans won’t forgive Mark Warburton if he repeats the same mistakes from last month’s 5-1 thrashing at Parkhead.
The defeat to Celtic earlier in the season did dent the confidence of the Rangers players and they suffered a mini slump before recovering ground over the last few weeks.
Warburton and his players have spoken about learning from the mistakes they made against the Bhoys and the boss is confident that the team have made progress since then.
However, Sutton feels the proof of the pudding is in the eating and he is keen to see whether Warburton rectifies the errors he made in terms of personnel and tactics on Sunday at Hampden Park.
And the former Celtic striker believes if the Rangers manager makes the same mistakes again in the Scottish League Cup semi-final, the fans won’t be as forgiving this time around.
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Sutton wrote in his column for the Daily Record: “Selecting both Niko Kranjcar and Joey Barton in midfield was taking a huge risk considering the home team’s mobility and speed.
“The Barton equation is solved and the midfield of Jason Holt and Andy Halliday has a better balance. That’s obvious.
“But if Warburton goes with his preferred system, no matter which two of four he picks from Rob Kiernan, Clint Hill, Danny Wilson and Philippe Senderos, they are slow and vulnerable to pace.
“The manager tells his centre-halves to split when Wes Foderingham gives the ball to Halliday, while James Tavernier and Lee Wallace are urged to push right up.
“If Gers give it away, as they did when Moussa Dembele scored Celtic’s second goal last month, it leaves the pair exposed to one-on-ones. It’s asking them to do things which may be beyond them.
“If those same mistakes are made and it resulted in another battering, I don’t believe the Rangers fans would accept that from their manager.”
The Gers have recent happy memories of facing Celtic in cup games as they defeated the Bhoys on penalties in the Scottish Cup semi-final last season.
