Glasgow Rangers return to Scottish Premiership action in today’s early kick-off, with Motherwell out to end Michael Beale’s unbeaten league record in charge of the Ibrox side.

The Light Blues have dropped just two points from 13 league matches since the start of December in what has been a wonderful start to life at the club for Beale, yet they still find themselves nine points adrift of Celtic.

With their Old Firm rivals not playing until later this afternoon, the Gers have the chance to temporarily reduce the gap to six points and pile some pressure on.

There will likely be a few changes from the side who defeated Raith Rovers in the Scottish Cup last weekend, most notably at left-back, with Beale stating that Borna Barisic is likely to miss today’s match, in what would be a big blow to the squad.

He said:

“Borna’s wife is due to give birth, it’s her first child. She's running a couple of days late, but obviously, then he goes well on international duty, so we're running tight on that one.

“But Ridvan’s fit and available and young Adam Devine and you may see a change of formation where we play with somebody else out there as well.”

Will Ridvan Yilmaz start for Rangers against Motherwell?

It's good to see the young Turkish defender back from injury, having missed 29 matches so far since his summer move from Besiktas.

The 21-year-old made his return to first-team action against Raith in the Scottish Cup victory, playing 24 minutes, and he stepped up his recovery by featuring for the B side in the Glasgow Cup match against Celtic and this was ideal for the player trying to shake off any rustiness.

There is no doubt he is an able replacement for Barisic, with Ross Wilson describing him as a player with “high potential and high quality” upon his arrival in Glasgow last summer and his attacking attributes certainly mimic Barisic.

Last season, Yilmaz scored three times in the league for Besiktas, while grabbing four assists, creating five big chances and making 0.7 key passes while succeeding with 50% of his attempted dribbles and Beale will be looking at him to bomb up and down the left flank today if he unleashes the player against the Steelmen.

The game represents an ideal chance for the Turkish international to stake a claim for a first-team spot, especially with Barisic likely to be involved with Croatia during the international break.

If he starts and performs well, it might be the turning point for the youngster in his Rangers career.