Jose Cifuentes will make his first Rangers start against Livingston at Ibrox on Saturday after a European cameo in midweek.

The 24-year-old Ecuador international signed a four-year contract from Los Angeles FC last week and is the most recent of nine new Michael Beale recruits.

The midfielder was an unused substitute in the shock 1-0 defeat by Kilmarnock in the cinch Premiership opener at Rugby Park last weekend but came on for Ryan Jack in the 77th minute of the 2-1 Champions League third qualifying round first-leg win over Servette at Ibrox on Wednesday night.

The Gers boss has seen enough to give Cifuentes a start against the Lions.

He said: “He is playing tomorrow.

“He is a prime example, he didn’t get in until late on the previous Thursday, a bit of jet lag but I wanted him to be on the bench just to see Scottish football.

“There’s eight substitutes, let’s just get him there so he can understand the environment.

“He has just only moved into his new place the last couple of days so he is in and out of a hotel.

“I thought he was quite good when he came on the other night in a small glimpse but now I think he is ready.

“He has been playing since January. He knows his team-mates, there is ever such a small language barrier because he speaks decent enough English and he is ready to go now and I am looking forward to watching him tomorrow.”

While Beale has brought nine faces in, a host of players including Alfredo  Morelos, Ryan Kent, Antonio Colak, Filip Helander, Allan McGregor, Scott Arfield and Fashion Sakala have left the club.

The former QPR boss underlined his enthusiasm for the job as he said: “It is a new team. We have re-loaded the squad. There is lots of new faces. The challenge is to get that team really slick as quickly as we can.

“There was  real positive signs in midweek. We would have liked to have scored a few more goals and then it would have been a perfect evening. It doesn’t always work like that.

“The excitement is working with these players every day and building this new Rangers team. There was a lot of familiar faces in the squad last year.

“It seemed that people maybe got a little bit fed up with some of those faces so we have some new ones now so let’s learn and support them and work to build this new team. I am hugely motivated by that.

“I get that we lost the first league game but it was a good performance on Wednesday. It is important we don’t go overboard but it is certainly important that we win this weekend.”

Beale revealed his reasons for allowing 20-year-old midfielder Alex Lowry to go on loan to fellow cinch Premiership side Hearts

He said: “I wanted to keep him as close as possible. This is a loan to come back. This is a loan to go there and do well, play regular football after a broken season.

“He has no promises, like everyone else, he has to earn it but I felt Hearts was the right club.”