Philippe Clement in stern reaction to Rangers overtaking Aberdeen in Scottish Premiership
Yesterday at 02:00 PM
Rangers manager Philippe Clement was happy his team recorded a narrow win over Dundee but is not getting carried away after overtaking Aberdeen in the table.
Rangers are up to 2nd in the Scottish Premiership after defeating Dundee 1-0, with Aberdeen's 3-1 defeat to Hibs at Pittodrie seeing them slip to 3rd.
The Dons have experienced an almighty collapse since the November international break and are now without a Scottish Premiership win in six games.
Rangers are now a point above Aberdeen in the table with a game in hand on their northeast rivals.
Despite this tangible sign of progress at Rangers, Philippe Clement is not getting carried away and insists the focus, as always, is on his team and his team alone.
Philippe Clement on overtaking Aberdeen
"I don’t like excuses," said Clement when asked about the furore of the Cup Final fall-out.
"I spoke in the beginning of the week with the team about that, it’s about looking forward now. So it’s about that and taking the three points.
"We could have scored, we should have scored more goals and now to look forward to our next game against St Mirren.
"It’s not a target (to overtake Aberdeen). I told you guys and maybe you don’t believe me, but it’s about us, what we do.
"I’m convinced that we can make a good season in that way if we focus on ourselves and not be focused on other teams like we didn’t do in that period.
"And it’s about us taking the points and not looking at other teams.
"So we will continue in that way and making the team better and progress and taking more points than we did in the first couple of months because it was not enough.
"We all know that, we all knew that. So we want to make a better second part of the season."
Manager insists wasteful Rangers still improving
Rangers blew a host of chances and hit the woodwork four times as the Ibrox side failed to kill Dundee off in a wasteful display at Ibrox.
Rangers were far and away the better of the two sides and did create opportunities in the game, only for the club's shot-shy strikers to hesitate or snatch at chances.
With the game being won via Vaclav Cerny's solitary opening goal just after the restart, Dundee manager Tony Docherty is 'proud' of the effort put in by his players.
But Philippe Clement tells a different story and insists given the scale of Rangers' dominance and creativity, the scoreline could've easily been the same as the 6-0 thumping of Kilmarnock a few weeks ago.
"It could have been (like the win over Kilmarnock) and it’s creating stability in that way," said Clement.
"It’s normal with a new squad that in the beginning we started to work from the back, how to build from there, then to the midfield, then to the final third. You need to do that step by step.
"You cannot do everything at the same time with the team and we get better and better consistency in the squad that it’s for everybody more clear what to do together in every situation, in every moment, in all the different situations that you can have in football.
"So you get more stability in that way, but you need time for that. We’re not at the end of learning and making things better. I saw a lot of things we could do better today.
"So that’s our job again with all staff to speak about that with the players, to show them that and that we do it in a better way against St Mirren.
"Of course it’s never a linear line that it goes better and better the more you show things and the more you do things.
"That’s with every team in the world, but our basics are stronger now than they were two months ago. But that’s a normal thing.
"Now it’s about keeping these basics strong all the time and all the details around to make them better."
