Aberdeen manager Stephen Glass is set to ask players to adapt out of position rather than throwing young defenders into an emotional night at Ibrox.
Glass has lost full-backs Jack MacKenzie and Calvin Ramsay and centre-back Declan Gallagher to injury for several weeks ahead of Wednesday’s game against Rangers, who will be paying tribute to late manager Walter Smith.
Central defenders Mikey Devlin and Andy Considine are also long-term absentees so Glass will have to find a makeshift defensive line-up.
Scott Brown dropped into a back three during Saturday’s 1-0 win over Hibernian and the likes of winger Jonny Hayes can also play at the back.
On the new injury blows, Glass said: “It’s disappointing but it gives other people opportunities. It gives us a problem we have to fix like we did on Saturday, but at least we have a couple of days to prepare this time. We are looking forward to it and I’m sure the players that get opportunities are looking forward to it.”
On the option of bringing in young players, Glass said: “It’s difficult because you are bringing in players right at the coal face.
“It’s a difficult position to come into. If you are rolling along at the top of the league and everything is smooth it’s a lot easier to bring defenders into your team.
“We have different ways of coping – young players is an option, moving players slightly out of position is another option.
“Everything we do will be for the benefit of young individuals and also the club. It would be easy to chuck a couple of young boys in at centre-half, take a heavy beating at Rangers and say ‘look, we played young kids’ but that’s not fair to the young players.”
