Rangers manager Philippe Clement has been addressing a press conference after the club’s Scottish Premiership victory over Kilmarnock.
The Gers were under pressure to bounce back from the disappointment of defeat at Celtic Park with the Belgian manager’s team registering a 3-1 victory.
Derek McInnes’s Kilmarnock side have been on fine form but the Rangers players overcame the Scottish Premiership challenge with goals from Ross McCausland, Abdallah Sima, and Todd Cantwell.
Kilmarnock star Danny Armstrong netted the Ayrshire side’s only strike from the penalty spot.
Here’s every word from Philippe Clement after the Kilmarnock match at Ibrox as the Belgian talks his Rangers side’s mentality, Fabio Silva and his transfer plans at a post-match press conference.
Philippe Clement post Kilmarnock Rangers press conference
Philippe, Happy New Year.
“Thank you, you also. All of you, not you only haha.”
What were your thoughts on the overall game?
“That it was a really good performance against a team that I respect a lot. They won three out of the four Old Firms until now this season. It’s a difficult team to break also because they play really well organised, well structured with a lot of physicality but in a positive way I mean that, with good transitions, set pieces. So we had to be on our toes but my team did that today and they showed a lot of quality with three good goals, really good football goals, good combination play and good other chances also, we could’ve scored more. So a really, really positive afternoon at the end of a very busy period. Because that was the challenge, we had eleven or twelve games in 37 days. We had a lot of injured players, at one moment it was eleven players out, so I had the feeling in moments that I was pulling this elastic at the maximum and it could break at any moment but the players stick to the story, they worked really hard to their limits, or over their limits in moments maybe. And in the end if you can give this performance, it only means that the team is growing a lot. So I am happy for them that they can have a short break to recover mentally, physically and then we can start a hard month in January with a good training camp.”
You talk about the festive period with so many games, so many injuries. You’ve said to the players that there’s going to be a short break, what have you said to them after this tough period?
“That I’m really proud of them in this eleven weeks together because it’s a really short eleven weeks and everything that happened in that period. That I’m really proud of what they are doing, that they all feel that they’re growing, that they need to relax now and take their time with their families to make a really strong restart in the second part of the season and that they’re are still a lot of challenges for us and that we will have more time also to grow and to come better because we can train more.”
How would you asses your time in charge so far, obviously a great win record, you’ve already picked up a trophy, how would you assess it?
“It’s not about me, it’s about the team. I am happy that everyone is saying they’re seeing a different team now with more winning mentality because that’s what I demand every day. I see also more and more quality that the team starts to understand better and better how I see football, how I want them to run together, how I want them to create spaces for other players, it becomes more ad more fluent. But that are things I know that if the players keep on working and they stay attentive and they stay concentrated then after a while it becomes more natural for them, so there are really positive things and it’s now not being satisfied but being ambitious to become better.”
Philippe, Ridvan Yilmaz was given Man of the Match, got his assist for the third goal. Just wondering what you made of his performance overall?
“I think it was the best performance I saw from Ridvan until now in my period. So he’s also one of the players who are growing. But I have to say that about a lot of players if I compare with eleven weeks ago how they played and how they are playing now, I see a lot of players who are growing and that’s the road we need to take.”
Philippe you always said that this team will hit bumps in the road and it’s about how they react, well the reaction today was very good. Is that one of the overall pleasing things for you, the mentality of the group?
“Yes because those are not easy things. I said it also around the winning in Betis and then three days later being there again and performing and under all the pressure that they have to win, taking a trophy after so many years. So they showed resilience, concentration, ambition. And that they showed today also because these are the dangerous games. You were disappointed not to win, it’;s a few hours away from a break, it’s festive time where all the family, all the people around you, having a good time, and drinks and food, good life. But they had to recover really fast and they had to perform and they are doing that. So they are on the right road, they understand my story, that’s also important. That life is much better when you’re ambitious every day and when you’re ambitious every game and if you go in satisfaction in what you did then you go down. I see a team who wants to become better and players who want to become better and I see also a lot of players making this evolution so now they can switch off, I told them also in the dressing room they can switch off for a few days. Of course they need to do their program, you cannot let your body do nothing for five, six, seven days and then have a hard training camp because then you are at risk again of injuries but outside of that they really need to switch off and enjoy their time with their families.”
Philippe, will you allow yourself to switch off?
“No because I have other things to do, it’s not only trainings. We have a January market to come so I need to watch players also, but I will do things with my family also. I don’t like to switch off. For me it’s not important, my body doesn’t need to do anything anymore and my brain doesn’t explode of doing that all the time so I love it and I will do it.”
How excited are you for the second half of the season and the potential of this team?
“I’m still curious and I’m happy about that because you speak now about the potential of this team. Eleven weeks ago I hear a lot of people saying there was not potential enough in this team to do what Rangers need to do. It’s positive that so many players are growing and that I want to see and I will keep a close eye on that together with my staff, who are the players who are staying ambitious, who are the players who are pushing. And there a lot of good examples in that way. You have a young lad who was just in the Academy, who is playing now really regular because he’s performing. You have players like Kieran Dowell or Dujon Sterling, who play in other positions, but they did it in a good way. I think this team is on a really good way, this dressing room also, if I see the atmosphere every day in the building, with the trainings, their ambition in the trainings, also now after our first defeat, and we knew it would come one day, the reaction was how I wanted it. And to make a good analyse what went wrong, what we could do better for other people and then react directly on the pitch again, and leave everything behind us, win or lose.”
Philippe how active do you expect to be in the transfer window this month?
“How active? I think very active every day by looking a lot of players together with the people in the club. And then we will see how much things you sn make happen. The things we want, we’re not going to sign ten players, don’t worry.”
Philippe you talked about reaction on the pitch, particular today Todd Cantwell. Todd took a bit of criticism after the Old Firm game at the weekend and then he picks up the yellow card in the early stage of the game for dissent. How important was it for him and what role did you play to try and get that reaction out him to then see the goal in the second half?
“It’s difficult to take out one player. It’s a total story and every player has his own working points and that’s my job and the staff to point them out and to work on that with them. So I’m happy with the evolution Todd is making and I prefer to take him out on the 87th minute instead of the 37th minute and I told him also when he came off. He found it funny.”
Fabio Silva got a debut today, how happy were you with the fact that he got time on the pitch before the break? And he came on as a striker, will that be where he plays most or might he be used in wide positions as well during his time here?
“First I think it’s always great if a player does a good thing in training, and he did yesterday, to give him minutes at Ibrox because it’s a magical place to play the first time. And he had to feel it also. So then you go also with that feeling into this break and it’s different to when you were on the bench all the time. He understands the story. We had a lot of talks before he came, about football, about how I see players playing. We spoke about several positions, not only one, that he can play in several positions and how I see that. So at the end he could go to places where he could earn much more money but he came for the football story and for the tradition of the club also and to win trophies, because he’s somebody who is really ambitious. So it was good for him to get this first impression about things and in this 20 minutes you didn’t have this feeling it was a player who didn’t know his teammates. So that’s already a very positive thing because it’s not easy for an attacking player to come into a new team that you don’t know the other guys and how to run and how to play and who gives the decisive balls and who likes to dribble and all these things you need to learn and you need to get connection with them.”
*Question on return of Nicolas Raskin*
“Yes it’s important that we get players back and Nico worked really hard all this time to come back as fast as possible. So it was a little bit of a reward from my side also towards him that he could take a few minutes and get the feeling again to be on the pitch after all the hard work that he’s done. To be here, he could’ve taken one week more to be ready for the training camp but he was hungry to be back as fast as possible so I’m happy that the circumstances were there that I could give him something back.”
