The injuries have been the biggest thing [probelm with the team this season] I've seen, I think they've had a big impact in terms of consistency on the pitch and every club needs their best players fit more than not.

Michael Beale speaking on his first day at Rangers.

15 games later, things are only marginally better with preparation for the biggest domestic game of the term disrupted by several players struggling to be ready for the Viaplay Cup final.

A solemn Beale practically repeated himself after the 2-1 defeat, saying: "We’ve had a lot of injury problems this season. Even going into this week we’ve had a lot of uncertainty. We need to get over that and make sure people are fit and healthy and available as that makes a strong squad."

Amid the understandable heat that comes with such a disappointing showing and result, it's an issue that's gone slightly under the radar in the post-match analysis. Nobody wants to be seen to be making excuses for the inexcusable - but if you don't pinpoint problems you can't hope to fix them.

Beale's point ties into what became something of a conversation starter earlier this week when it emerged that while Celtic have completely changed their starting XI - Callum McGregor apart - since the 2019 League Cup final, Rangers' core remains pretty much intact with seven still in situ. This is a sign of poor organisation and a malaise at the top for some, but delve into the facts and a competing counter-narrative also emerges.

Since the summer, the board have stumped up for nine players to be signed. John Souttar, Tom Lawrence, Antonio Colak, Rabbi Matondo, Ridvan Yilmaz, Malik Tillman and Ben Davies arrived. Todd Cantwell and Nico Raskin were purchased in January. Of this group, only ONE showed up at Hampden following a run of unbroken matches - Ben Davies. 

Given Beale is on record stating Cantwell and Raskin have been brought in as starters, the decision to keep the duo on the bench was clearly fuelled by a desire not to throw them in at the deep end.  This was confirmed post-match after our reporter Joshua Barrie asked the manager about his starting line-up. He said: "You’ve got two players [Cantwell and Raskin] coming in who have played two and a half games each against opponents where you’ve got the ball. There was a little bit more in terms of what we needed to do off the ball defensively and also match legs. I just felt at that moment I needed to shake the tree and change something."

Given both were acquired late in the transfer window, how much more valuable would it have been for the club to have moved to sign them earlier? Such a strategy proved successful for Celtic in the way they moved in December for one of the game's standout performers, right-back Alistair Johnston. It's all very well making successful moves in the market, but getting your work done sharply so they can actually make an impact in decisive games is also important. At least Cantwell and Raskin are fit though. The status of the summer purchases is more complex.

READ MORE: Rangers' Viaplay Cup final defeat was decided by these two key errors

Let's look at them individually to assess where they are.

Souttar seems to have been close to a return for a while but it was revealed recently there has been an unspecified setback and medical staff at the club are understandably reluctant to rush anything. He last played on the opening day of the season, which was also his first competitive appearance in light blue.

Yilmaz, a player Beale admits he rates and feels can add a different dimension to the team from left-back, hasn't been seen since October when he suffered a hamstring tear that was "as bad as it could be".

Another the manager feels can add to the group is Tom Lawrence and he's also suffered a setback after looking close to a return. The former Derby attacker had a blistering start to life in Scotland with a goal contribution every 69.8 minutes. If he had kept up that start, he'd have been the signing of the decade, but even a reversion to the mean would make the versatile attacker a mainstay in the starting XI. His absence has been profoundly felt.

Matondo's start at the club was the exact opposite but injury has stifled any opportunity to change the narrative that surrounds him. The pacy winger was last seen in late December. At £2.5m, his purchase will be more closely scrutinised than most given the paucity of return when he was available but the Welshman is still young at 22 and Beale is a known developer of talent.

Tillman played from the start after a week of conjecture over his place following a knock picked up against Ross County. A couple of early reducers in the final didn't help him find his stride and he subsequently looked well off recent levels.

While Colak played the last 14 minutes of the final, he has only recently returned from a calf injury himself and has started one league game since the 9th of November.

In total, the summer septet has missed 78 out of 182 games through injury - 43% of the available games. It goes without saying it's very difficult to settle and merge together an evolved Rangers if the players you buy are unavailable for almost half the time.

Factor in the problems suffered by existing squad members like Filip Helander, Kemar Roofe and Ryan Jack and you can see why Rangers have struggled. 

While it's hard to assess the club's medical department without knowing the ins and outs, it doesn't take an MD to see that there's a potential problem. Far too many players are picking up a wage for performing in the treatment room rather than on the pitch and Beale needs to get to the bottom of it quickly.

The club have a partnership with AI company Zone 7 who use billions of data points to predict injuries and suggest when players should be taken out of the fray to prevent physical damage. Isn't this working or isn't it being utilised correctly? Do the club need to make more hires in the medical department? 

The same beady eye should be cast over recruitment policies. While you can gamble on the odd player's injury record to ensure quality, Rangers seem to have made a habit of it. Souttar, Roofe, Helander and Aaron Ramsay arrived with lengthy issues in their past. All four are proven players of course, but that's not much good if you can't get them fit as each has proven with flashes of quality interspersed with the inevitable frustration of not getting them on the pitch.

Maybe all this comes down to old-fashioned bad luck. After all, Tom Lawrence has barely had an injury to speak of in his whole career. Colak, Matondo and Yilmaz are the same. It's all the more frustrating because for all seven of the summer's signings, only Matondo hasn't looked the part.

It's an issue that ultimately killed Giovanni van Bronckhorst's Rangers career. Beale must ensure he is not the injury curse's second victim and get to the root of the problem before any more damage is done.