The three Rangers players holding Philippe Clement back as 'massive' win points to the future
11/04/2024 01:00 PM
What Philippe Clement wants to see from his Rangers team and what is currently happening are two different things.
The manager talked about playing aggressive football and getting the ball forwards quickly, however, it has been anything but in recent weeks from the Ibrox outfit.
Against Motherwell at Hampden, Rangers fans finally saw an improvement with sharper, more technically skilled players on the pitch in what could be a sign of things to come.
Rangers being held back by veteran trio
The most consistent – and valid – criticism of Clement has been his over reliance on under-performing players.
In particular, James Tavernier, Tom Lawrence and Cyriel Dessers, all of whom have come in for the most criticism for stale and turgid displays.
Lawrence and Dessers have chipped in with a reasonable amount of goals, however, when they don’t score, they contribute very little, as seen at Hampden.
Despite scoring, Dessers’ display was still far from acceptable as he botched a series of golden opportunities to put Rangers in front including an “absolute sitter”.
It has been borderline unfair to lump players like Vaclav Cerny, Nedim Bajrami, Nicolas Raskin and Connor Barron in with some of those who are holding the team back, with the gap between those who are performing and those letting the side down growing bigger by the week.
A team will never be cohesive if certain players aren’t capable of delivering what the manager wants.
Clement sees what level can reach after Rangers resurgence
Speaking after the semi-final win over Motherwell, Clement wanted to reinforce that the second half could be the beginning of something, rather than a one off:
“But this needs to be also a reference game for this squad, for this new squad,” claimed Clement.
“To do what we’ve been doing a lot last season and it’s to dig in and in every situation to keep our belief, to keep on going, to keep on fighting and to break the wall if we go behind.
“This can be a massive game at the end of the season to have this one as a reference. I want to see every three days this mentality.
“That’s what we’ve been talking about but talking is not enough. We need to do it on the pitch.”
It could also be a massive game for Clement. Having seen a front three of Cerny, Bajrami and Danilo cause Motherwell all sorts of problems and Dujon Sterling and Neraysho Kasanwirjo shore up the defence, the Rangers boss has been given a glimpse into what the future could hold.
A future where the three 30-somethings aren’t starting every game.
