Thursday Football Tips: Beale to enjoy winning start for Rangers

• Michael Beale's first game as new Rangers boss

• Tavernier has six goals and five assists this season

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The Scottish Premiership returns with Rangers having a new manager and a new sense of hope as they take on Hibernian on Thursday night in Michael Beale's first game in charge.

Beale was Steven Gerrard's assistant at Ibrox before the pair left to take charge at Aston Villa, and from there he branched out on his own by taking the QPR job until he left to come back to Glasgow to replace Giovanni van Bronckhorst.

So Beale has a head start on most new managers as he's familiar with the surroundings, the fans and some of the players, and he'll be under no illusion as to the size of the job and the expectation at Rangers.

Part Two | Michael Beale spoke to the media ahead of Thursday's match against Hibernian. pic.twitter.com/m8VDz8X9lh

-- Rangers Football Club (@RangersFC) December 14, 2022

What will be new for Beale will be him being the main man instead of Gerrard's assistant, and he also knows that the honeymoon won't last long if results don't come quickly.

Rangers open the return of the Scottish Premiership trailing arch rivals Celtic by nine points, but a win over Hibs first off would give Beale a flying start to his latest spell back at the club.

Hibs will hope to play the role of party poopers and boss Lee Johnson insists Ibrox is the perfect place to kick-start their campaign after they went into the World Cup break on the back of three straight defeats.

Even with their problems Rangers have won seven of eight at home in the league this season, and have won the last seven home Premiership games against Hibs - so there's no surprises in the hosts being big 1/4 favourites.

The form of 14-goal Antonio Colak was a factor behind Rangers' poor form as he managed just one goal in eight before the World Cup break, but with a new manager, and one vowing to play two up front then he's rightly the 5/6 favourite to score.

James Tavernier is always the man you look to in big Rangers games, and this is a big game make no mistake, and after six goals and five assists so far this season he's sure to have a say.

Beale will want his big players to set the tone and these two will lead the way in getting Rangers off to a flying second part of the season.