Philippe Clement has taken time to explain why Todd Cantwell and Scott Wright were substituted at half-time against St Mirren.
Rangers put in a dogged display to grind out a slender victory in Paisley as they closed the gap on Celtic at the summit of the Scottish Premiership to two points – for a couple of hours at least.
Cyriel Dessers grabbed the only goal of the game as he benefitted from a John Lundstram assist to slot past the Buddies goalkeeper Zach Hemming.
There wasn’t a lot else to shout out from a Rangers point of view as blustery conditions and a poor playing surface – which was slammed by Clement after the game – didn’t help the performance.
But a win is a win and that is all that matters. Sky Sports reporter Luke Chanley spoke to Clement after the game and asked him why Cantwell and Wright were replaced after just 45 minutes by Tom Lawrence and Ross McCausland.
Cantwell has been hooked on more than one occasion by Clement at the interval or even earlier but the Belgian stressed the decision was nothing to do with the Englishman or Wright’s performances.
Philippe Clement on half-time subs
Philippe Clement insists the decisions were tactical and to spread the minutes across the matchday squad, which the manager did to full effect this afternoon after making five subs in total.
The 49-year-old explained: “It’s different things. It was a bit tactical and also to get freshness in so it’s a little bit of both. It’s not about who is starting or ending the game, it’s about who is winning games together.
“And also the two players who came off at that moment (Cantwell and Wright), they played an important part of the first-half. It’s a team performance and it is a team we are building.
“You see it more and more that everybody is doing a job for the team, everybody is celebrating together, everybody is fighting together and that is what I want to see until the end of the season.”
