View: Divisive star out, fan fave in: Rangers and Hearts combined XI

Jack Butland doesn’t make my combined Rangers and Hearts XI, but Mikey Moore does.

The eyes of Scottish football will be on Tynecastle next Monday night, as Rangers travel to Hearts for a clash that is set to have a huge say on who will be crowned champions of Scotland for 2025-26.

Danny Rohl‘s side will need to have finished licking their wounds by then, as they must put the damaging 3-2 loss to Motherwell behind them.

Meanwhile, Derek McInnes’ men must now be feeling like it’s their time, as their dramatic Edinburgh derby win over Hibernian has them on cloud nine.

So, ahead of Rangers’ clash with Hearts on 4 May, I’ve decided to put together a combined XI of the two title contenders, with selections based on what players have done this season only.

Jack Butland misses out of combined Rangers and Hearts XI

Working from the back to the front, let’s kick this team off by sorting out the goalkeeper position.

For me, Hearts’ Alexander Schwolow has been better than Butland this season, with 13 league clean sheets to the latter’s 12 despite having played six games less.

Butland has come in for criticism this season, having made a number of mistakes that have led to goals, whereas Schwolow hasn’t really had those issues, and as per FotMob, has conceded 0.75 goals per 90 compared to Butland’s 0.94.

At right-back, James Tavernier was a no-brainer inclusion here, despite the fact that Oisin McEntee has played well for Hearts this season.

However, Tavernier’s 13 goals and seven assists has seen him have another extraordinary year production-wise, and is hoping to end his Rangers career with a second Scottish Premiership title win.

Over at left-back, another pretty straightforward selection here in my books is Harry Milne, as the 29-year-old has enjoyed a brilliant campaign with a goal and nine assists from 33 total appearances.

Completing the defence, I’ve formed a centre-back pairing of Rangers’ in-demand star Emmanuel Fernandez and Hearts’ Stuart Findlay.

The Fernandez inclusion was easy, but having to decide between Findlay and ex-Gers man Craig Halkett was very tough, but the impact Findlay has had during his season on loan from Oxford United has been invaluable.

Mikey Moore earns midfield spot in combined Rangers/Hearts XI

Now to the midfield, and let’s begin here by filling the most important spot in this area of the pitch: central midfield.

Two slam dunk selections for me here, and that’s Rangers’ Nicolas Raskin and Hearts’ Cameron Devlin.

Raskin is the best central midfielder in the Scottish Premiership in my opinion, and has been pretty much ever since he arrived from Standard Liege in January 2023, and has produced seven goals and nine assists from 49 games this year.

Meanwhile, despite missing two months between mid-January to mid-March in 2026, Devlin’s return of one goal and one assist from 30 appearances really doesn’t tell the story of how good he’s been.

Per FotMob, the 27-year-old completed 86.9 per cent of his passes in the league this season, whilst also winning 212 duels and 108 tackles, both of which no other Scottish Premiership central midfielder has been able to match this term.

On the left wing, Moore is the obvious pick for me here, as the 18-year-old has been one of the brightest young stars in the division, and has been nominated for the PFA Young Player of the Year award.

Over on the right, Djeidi Gassama is the main Rangers contender here, but there’s no way I’m having him over Alexandros Kyziridis.

The Greek predominantly operates on the left, but can and has played on the right wing too, and his six goals and seven assists from 38 games has seen him enjoy an excellent debut season at Tynecastle.

Hearts duo lead the line in Rangers/Hearts combined XI

Now for the two striker positions, and unfortunately for Rangers, this is going to be a clean sweep for Hearts.

Both Claudio Braga and Lawrence Shankland have both been nominated for PFA Scotland Premiership Player of the Year, and it’s not hard to see why.

Braga has 17 goals and four assists from 40 total appearances in his debut season in Edinburgh, whilst the ever-reliable goalscorer Shankland has the exact same amount of goal contributions too, with 17 strikes and four assists from 30 appearances.

Youssef Chermiti has enjoyed a strong inaugural season as a Rangers player too, but I just can’t justify picking him over either of Hearts’ two shining strikers.

Full combined Rangers/Hearts XI: GK Schwolow; RB Tavernier, LB Milne, CB’s Fernandez, Findlay; CM’s Raskin, Devlin, LW Moore, RW Kyziridis; ST’s Braga, Shankland

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