Philippe Clement points to missing piece in his Rangers jigsaw

In one word, manager Philippe Clement described his feelings as follows: disappointment. Rangers, who were written off early in the Premiership season and then managed to claw their way back into contention before being knocked back off course and beaten to the post by rivals Celtic, will play Hearts at Tynecastle this afternoon in their final match of the season.

But next weekend, when his team plays their fiercest rivals at Hampden in the Scottish Gas Scottish Cup final, Clement could be the one popping the final champagne bottles after the green and white bunting is removed from Parkhead after the title celebration this afternoon.

The league championship may have been his top priority, but the showpiece match in Mount Florida gives the former manager of AS Monaco and Club Brugge an opportunity to add another positive aspect to his first term in charge by winning the double cup and, more importantly, his first victory over his city rivals since taking over from Michael Beale in October.

During his tenure at the Ibrox club, Clement hopes to build a team in his image that will be able to compete for more titles based on these foundations.
In his first seven months in charge, the Belgian feels he has already witnessed glimpses of his Rangers team performing at the calibre he has always desired, especially during their Europa League run. The challenge now is to maintain those levels for the duration of the entire season. And a big part of that task is getting rid of the injury problems that have dogged his first tenure as manager.

“Yes, there were times when we excelled, but we miss consistency because we have to switch players so frequently,” Clement remarked.

We add Kieran Dowell, an attacking midfielder, as a defensive midfielder, and Dujon Sterling, a right full-back, as a midfielder. We had a stretch without wingers due to injuries to our older central defenders. In that sense, it’s more challenging.

“Yet there were undoubtedly times in games when we performed well and dominated offensively. That kind of game was played in several.

“There were also some excellent European matches; the opposition played high-pressing attacking football. In some excellent European games, we were able to play a good transition game due to our opponent’s superior quality, but we also had some excellent games, such as the ones we played in Seville [versus Real Betis] and Benfica.

We saw the correct things in a few games, but we would like to see more consistency. The seven or eight players who make up the foundation of your team must be included in that and must play 80 or 90 minutes in each game throughout the course of the season. That is essential for any team in the world to have, or else everyone will constantly step in.
Rangers won their Europa League group stage, defeating teams like Sparta Prague, Betis, and Aris Limassol under Clement’s direction. However, next season, Clement will have the chance to guide his team into the rich Champions League.

However, the Ibrox club must endure the difficult non-champions route through qualifying, starting in the third and penultimate round prior to the newly formatted group stage, after finishing as runners-up in the Premiership. However, he hopes that his experiences of qualifying through this route following his debut season in 2019 with Club Brugge in his home country of Belgium will prove to be beneficial to him in this regard. Clement advanced past the group stage and went on to win the Belgian championship in 2020, earning automatic qualification the following year. However, the 50-year-old is aware of the magnitude of the challenge that awaits him and his Rangers teammates this summer.

“We qualified directly for the Champions League with Brugge in my first season,” Clement remarked.

“Up until this point, I believe we were the only team to qualify via the non-champion road. We were the first.”

We need more changes here, so that will be more difficult. More new entrants into the structure.

Therefore, in addition to the league competition games, we begin those qualifying matches early in August. Thus, these players must act quickly to prepare.

It’s easier but still difficult if you are fine-tuning things with a core from the previous season.

But with Brugge, we succeeded in that year. Since I had been the assistant the previous year, I was already familiar with the core of the team.
Belgian Clement, who only moved to Glasgow a quarter of the way through the current season, has had a steep learning curve when it comes to the expectations of the Ibrox club and its supporters in a city where football rivalries are fierce. However, Clement maintains that he has been accustomed to such extremes throughout his football career and has not shied away from these challenges.

When asked if working for Rangers had been the greatest challenge of his career, he said, “No, I don’t think so.” It’s not more difficult than the job in Monaco or Brugge, where there were plenty of tasks to complete.

Right now, it’s more about things unrelated to football. I mentioned earlier that it could be more broadly assigned at the club, and we are currently working on this because I am not always able to be everywhere at once.

“Yes, [my prior work gives me confidence], but it’s undoubtedly difficult. When you can build more this season, it gets easier. However, you are already in a situation where it is more challenging to do those things because you have six players without contracts.

“A new recruitment model must be developed, and the club must now become more stable. You witnessed it during the January transfer window when we were unable to purchase anyone but continued to bring in young, gifted players. Dio [Mohamed Diomande] has demonstrated his capacity to develop further. Oscar Cortes as well. One topic to discuss is Fabio Silva’s ups and downs, as well as the fact that he hasn’t been playing at his best lately due to numerous injuries.

Therefore, we must keep hiring in that manner while also making sure that the building retains a sufficient level of experience.

“[Experience] is essential because it is useless to be exceptionally talented but unable to meet this club’s expectations. You must possess mental toughness as well as resilience to endure the ups and downs as well as the criticism here. You must be prepared for that.