When Philippe Clement replaced Todd Cantwell with Scott Wright for Rangers against Hearts, a collective groan could be heard around Hampden and in living rooms across the country.
One was our best player last season whilst the other hadn’t even managed to score during Michael Beale’s tenure despite some 40 appearances.
As it is, the decision was one that played a key role in the outcome of the game proving that Philippe Clement isn’t going to be scared to make the tough calls and put Rangers priorities ahead of his own, as explained via Rangers TV.
Philippe Clement explains Todd Cantwell call for Rangers
In the not so distant past, we have seen Alfredo Morelos and Ryan Kent almost given a guaranteed starting place every week despite consistently sub-par performances.
That the new Gers boss doesn’t even tolerate players taking it easy when games are won suggests that similar levels of effort won’t be tolerated.
When asked post-match why he decided to hook Cantwell, Philippe Clement was clear that it was one he made to give Rangers the best possible chance of success:
“I had several reasons. It was also because of the yellow card – I didn’t want to take risks with that because I knew they would try to irritate Todd more.
“Also Scott, with his specific qualities, can play that role as can young Ross McCausland.
“It’s important to have several players who can play in several positions and if you can bring in fresh ones in the second half, when the other team gets tired, it’s an advantage.”
A lot of managers would have taken the gamble and left Cantwell on.
Philippe Clement saw that the Rangers playmaker was being targeted by Hearts players and decided to be proactive with the game still on a knife edge.
An easy comparison is when Steven Gerrard led us to victory over Ufa in Europa League qualification.
John Flanagan was on a yellow card and was exactly the type of player who was likely to give fouls away, the then Gers boss could have taken him off when it was clear that his next free-kick would result in another card, but he didn’t – Morelos could also have been calmed down a lot quicker.
On that occasion, it didn’t cost us but how many times did we all see it coming from Morelos?
Philippe Clement has more nous than that and could see that Nick Walsh was flashing the cards and that Hearts had a game plan to disrupt Rangers and win free-kicks.
It also shows how much confidence he is willing to put in players who others, including the support, might deem to be not as good.
