What Barry Ferguson did after 'red zone' warning on four Rangers players will delight fans
03/19/2025 05:00 AM
There was lots that did for Philippe Clement at Rangers in the end. But his overreliance on sports science might be pretty high on the list.
The Belgian would regularly rotate his side and rest players and when quizzed on it he would say the decisions were based on the advice the club’s sports scientists were giving him.
Clement took flak from fans and pundits for that but insisted he would be 'stupid' to ignore the experts after leaving Vaclav Cerny and Hamza Igamane on the bench at Motherwell, a game which ended 2-2 after being two nil down.
Not one to beat about the bush, Kris Boyd took aim at Clement and insisted he faced the sack if he carried on letting sports science rule the roost. That turned out to be a premonition.
The now sacked manager continued to defend himself and claimed John Souttar picked up an injury as a result of not being rotated enough.
He ultimately lost his job as results continued to be poor. Barry Ferguson is now in situ and appears to be getting the most out of his players.
Ferguson ignored Rangers sports scientists
It is now being claimed, in the Daily Record, that Barry Ferguson was warned by sports scientists that four players were in the ‘red zone’ ahead of the derby win over Celtic.
Those players were Leon Balogun, Dujon Sterling, Vaclav Cerny and Mohamed Diomande after a tough 120 minutes against Fenerbahce.
But Fergie stuck to his guns and played all four, getting the rewards for his calculated risk. It would never have happened under Clement.
The report from the Record states: “After 120 minutes of graft against Fenerbahce last midweek, he'd (Clement) have turned up on the other side of the city talking about 'managing minutes'.
“But before an Old Firm derby that phrase would never leave Ferguson's mouth. There's no way the former manager would have started Leon Balogun or Dujon Sterling against Celtic after their exertions in Europe.
“It's believed the club's sports scientists told the current gaffer that the pair – along with Vaclav Cerny and Mo Diomande – were in the red zone and in danger of burn-out.
“But Ferguson's only concern was getting his best team out on the park – and getting a result. That's exactly what happened on Sunday. Pragmatism.”
Ferguson’s smart management gets Rangers a derby win
Ferguson has already earned lots of praise for his tactics in the game and his approach of going at Celtic within the opening minutes, opening the scoring through Nicolas Raskin.
But his decision to defy the sports scientists adds to his credit.
Without Balogun and Sterling at the back, Rangers would likely have struggled. Diomande played a key role and scored the second goal and Cerny was involved as always.
None of them would have started under Clement and it all could have been a very different story.
