West Ham vs Rangers predicted XI: Ajala gets pre-season chance, Mavropanos back in

West Ham continue their pre-season preparations against Rangers on Sunday.

Nuno Espirito Santo's men have already played a couple of matches ahead of their Championship return.

Firstly, they drew 1-1 against Southend before they went on to beat Stevenage 5-0 in their second bout since domestic football began returning.

Now, the Portuguese manager will have eyes on what is a much bigger test against Scotland's Rangers.

The fixture is set to take place at the 51,700 capacity stadium that is Ibrox, so plenty of eyes will be on the Hammers.

And ahead of the game, West Ham Zone attempts to predict the line-up selected as we cover West Ham's full-pre-season tour.

Airidas Golambeckis keeps his place in backline

Nuno is not fleshed with options at centre-back, but young talent Airidas Golambeckis played 80 minutes against Stevenage and kept a clean sheet.

With that performance, it makes sense for the 18-year-old to be rewarded by his manager.

Konstantinos Mavropanos was not involved against Stevenage, but he should come back in to face Rangers.

The Greek will help form a back four that is also filled with Kyle Walker-Peters and Ollie Scarles.

Rotation in the middle of the pitch for West Ham

The Hammers supporters witnessed a rare start for James Ward-Prowse in the middle of the pitch.

That may have come down to the fact that Freddie Potts had reportedly been ill heading into the game.

Potts will likely come back into the starting squad, with Ward-Prowse not exactly one of Nuno's favourites in the squad.

Additionally, in the midfield four, captain Jarrod Bowen will continue out wide on the right, while Keiber Lamadrid takes up his role on the left wing.

Joshua Ajala gets Nuno Espirito Santo's backing

Up front is where things get interesting for West Ham. Both Pablo and Taty Castellanos have started in the last two friendlies.

But after Joshua Ajala came off the bench to net a goal against Stevenage, the young forward should be handed another chance at a higher level.

Castellanos will keep his place in the starting lineup, while Pablo will drop out.

Similarly to the last two games, Nuno will likely make plenty of changes during the game, so the minutes will be spread across the full squad.

Nonetheless, for those such as Ajala and Golambeckis would be a major boost of confidence heading into the season.