Barry Ferguson: Aberdeen Is A Must-Win Game For Rangers

Barry Ferguson admits Rangers' midweek trip to Aberdeen is a must-win game for his former club. 

Defeat to the joint leaders will see Philippe Clement's side fall nine points behind the Dons, but football betting sites make Rangers favourites, despite being six points behind Aberdeen.

Ferguson has been pleased with his former club's recent results, if not their performances and he hopes they can close the gap on the Dons, who are joint leaders with Celtic.

"The last two games in Europe they (Rangers) have won pretty convincingly," Ferguson told Gambling.com in an exclusive interview.

"A 2-0 away at Malmo and 4-0 on Thursday night against Steaua Bucharest and they followed it up with a win on Sunday (at home to St Mirren). 

"It wasn't a great performance, but the biggest test comes on Wednesday night against Aberdeen up at Pittodrie.

"Aberdeen are flying high, and what Rangers can't allow to happen is Aberdeen to go nine points clear of Rangers or for the gap to stay at six points. Rangers need to make sure it comes down to three points.

"So it's important that they start picking up victories. They had a disappointing result against Kilmarnock away from home last week. Rangers got beaten 1-0, and to be honest with you, Kilmarnock thoroughly deserved it.

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"Rangers were really poor on the day, so they really need to start picking up results. And it's going to be a big test against Aberdeen."

Another former Rangers player Jermain Defoe admitted recently that it was difficult to watch his former side this season. 

Ferguson agrees but he puts that down to the turnaround of players in the summer transfer window, when the club's number one goal was to reduce the payroll.

However, at this stage of the season, he expects the team to be gelling better than they have.

"It's always difficult," Ferguson said. "There's been a big turnaround in players, there's been a big rebuild.

"A lot of players left in the summer, some of them really experienced. The club had to cut the wage budget as well because it was too high.

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"Rangers brought a lot of players in, and it takes a bit of time for them to settle. But now, it's three months into the season. We need to start to see them click and run over the top of teams. Unfortunately, that's not happened.

"There's been some good performances, but also some below-par performances. So the fans are expecting to see more. If you play at a club like Rangers, there's demands, there's expectations on top of you. And you're always demanded to win games of football. 

"If you draw, it's not good enough. If you suffer a defeat, it's an absolute disaster. So this group of players need to understand that when you play for Rangers, it's all about winning games of football."

Ferguson played for Rangers over 430 times, helping them win five league titles and five Scottish Cups. He also helped them reach the final of the Europa League in 2008. 

The combative midfielder will once again pull on the Rangers shirt in the Scottish Masters at Aberdeen's P&J Live arena on November 14. 

Former players from Aberdeen, Celtic, Dundee United and Rangers will compete and tickets are available to buy here.