His value has risen £12.7m at Ibrox: Rangers struck gold on their own McGregor

Glasgow Rangers face off against their city rivals in the Scottish Premiership at Parkhead this afternoon in their 36th match of the league season.

The Light Blues are going to go more than five years without winning a league title after their losses to Hearts and Motherwell in the last two league matches virtually ruled them out of the race.

Their opponents today, though, still have a chance to beat Hearts to the trophy to retain their crown, and that may provide the Gers with more motivation to get points from this match.

Danny Rohl‘s side will want to win regardless, for their own sake and because it is a derby game, but they now have the chance to ruin Celtic’s chances of winning the title by beating them.

The Ibrox giants will need to win a key battle against the Hoops if they want to come away with any points from Sunday’s Premiership clash.

The key battle Rangers need to win against Celtic on Sunday

When the Gers chucked away a 2-0 lead to draw 2-2 with Celtic at Ibrox in the league in March, the midfield battle cost Rohl’s team because the Hoops finished the game with 55% of the possession and 71 more passes attempted.

Rangers allowed their rivals, and Callum McGregor in particular, to dominate the ball and dictate how the game went in the second half, which ultimately led to them dropping two points on the day.

Rohl cannot allow McGregor, who is one of only three players in the league to complete over 2,000 passes this season, to get on the ball and control the match in possession.

If the Gers can control the ball with their own midfield and quickly pressure and force Celtic to play around McGregor instead of through him, they could win the key battle of the game on Sunday.

In order to win that midfield battle at Parkhead, Rohl should unleash a Rangers star who can be their own version of McGregor in the middle of the park.

Rangers have hit the jackpot on their own Callum McGregor

In the summer of 2024, Rangers signed central midfielder Mohamed Diomande on a permanent deal for £4.3m, after he spent the second half of the 2023/24 campaign on loan at Ibrox.

The Gers have hit the jackpot on the Ivorian star because they valued him at a reported £17m when Besiktas came in with an offer last summer, which means that his value has soared by £12.7m in the past two seasons at Ibrox.

Diomande has not been at his best this season, starting 17 of his 28 appearances in the league, but he has often played as a number ten, rather than in a deep-lying midfield position.

In the 2024/25 campaign, Philippe Clement placed more of an emphasis on the Ivorian being involved in build-up, using the left-footed start to connect the defence to the attack with his ability on the ball.

Diomande, like McGregor, was one of the best metronomes in the Premiership last season, ranking highly for touches, pass accuracy, ‘big chances’ created, and passes made.

However, the misprofiling of his game this season, reducing him to an attacking role, has caused him to fall out of the team, hence why he has only started 17 league matches.

Rohl can change that, though, by unleashing him at the base of the midfield against Celtic to be the club’s own version of McGregor, as he was last season, and to win the midfield battle on Sunday.

Diomande’s performances for Clement showed that he can be a controller in midfield at Premiership level, using his technical quality to dictate play in midfield, and that is why Rohl should play him in that role once again.

The Gers have hit the jackpot with the left-footed star already, because his value has soared by more than £12m, but making him their own version of McGregor once again could take his game to the next level under the German coach.