IF BARRY Ferguson’s return from injury presents Walter Smith with a problem, then it is a pretty nice one to have. The Rangers manager believes his midfield resources are now as strong as they have been since he rejoined the club in January 2007 and it could be argued Rangers are as accomplished in this department as they have been since Dick Advocaat’s team was in its pomp, when Ferguson and Giovanni van Bronckhorst were flanked by Jorg Albertz on the left and Claudio Reyna on the right. Billy Dodds, who played as a striker in that side, made this claim last week and the Rangers supporters, who have been pining for such creativity since that quartet broke up, will hope he is correct.

Smith always saw midfield as the key to the next stage in his team development, moving Rangers on from merely being difficult to beat to a team that can command matches. His summer signings underlined this, although the arrivals came a month too late in terms of the Champions League calamity against FBK Kaunas. Pedro Mendes, Maurice Edu and Steven Davis were acquired for a combined £8.6m in six days starting on August 16. With them, Rangers would surely have had enough ingenuity to advance past the stubborn but limited Lithuanians. Without them, and the injured Ferguson, they glaringly did not.

Smith, Sir David Murray and Martin Bain must dearly wish they could have done the transfer business more briskly, as that outlay would largely have been recouped by qualification for the group stage. Smith envisaged such assignments for his revamped midfield this season. “The players we have in there, we were trying to get them to boost the middle, hoping we would have more games than we have ended up having,” said Smith. “But I’m really pleased we managed to improve our midfield to the degree we have.”

Instead, he must hope this new unit can secure domestic domination. A spell of five games over the next fortnight, starting with yesterday’s against Inverness, will indicate whether the varied elements can become a potent blend. It will be interesting to see how Smith addresses this, particularly in the central core of his team. Can the manager find a way of playing Ferguson, Mendes and Kevin Thomson together, and if Davis provides the natural balance on the right, then who does so on the left?

Ferguson, right, often palpably frustrated by his teammates’ shortcomings, will surely find comfort in the scrupulous and smooth passing of Mendes. Yet will he be able to dovetail with him? Smith sees no reason why they cannot be productive together. “They are similar in that both of them can play as forward midfield players and both of them can play further back,” he said. “So if they are asked to blend together, I don’t think it will be a great problem for either to adjust to the other one.”

Of greater concern to the manager is that his side do not pass themselves to death, rather than the opposition. He cited the damaging 1-0 defeat at St Mirren last month as an example of how a stranglehold on possession is not a guarantee of victory. “I think that gave us a little bit of a warning, a wee reminder that possession of the ball is okay as long as there is an end product. That’s one aspect of play we need to keep hammering away at all the time. We have people now that are good enough to keep the ball but we have to win at the end of it. We have to turn the possession into something tangible in terms of goals.”

The midfield selection also has implications further forward. If Smith plays with three central midfielders, Ferguson is the most likely to be pushed forward in support of a single central striker. The latter is not a role which suits Kris Boyd, who is their most accomplished goalscorer and who, crucially, did not start at St Mirren.

What will become of versatile forwards like Kenny Miller, Kyle Lafferty, Nacho Novo and Lee McCulloch, who can all play wide or centrally? Rangers still lack an outstanding option on the left of midfield. That trio have been asked to play there until a consistent candidate is found, something neither Charlie Adam or DaMarcus Beasley have achieved. This has left Rangers often looking a little lopsided, as Sasa Papac, their regular and defensively-sound left-back, is a converted centre-back who is not eager to overlap.

There is an obvious danger that Rangers will become too narrow, leaving their central playmakers with nobody to spread the play to. It is a possibility Smith is sure to have considered at length, but one which may require another signing to properly address. He may yet be one key piece short of completing his renovation of the club’s midfield.