Philippe Clement thinks there was only one aspect of Rangers’ performance against Motherwell that was missing.
The Light Blues collected three points at a sun-soaked Hampden after a positive first-half showing was enough to secure victory in the Scottish Premiership.
Rangers weren’t too convincing in the second period but came away with a much-needed win in Mount Florida to get their temporary stay in the south side of Glasgow off to a good start.
Cyriel Dessers opened the scoring early on but Motherwell were level not too long afterwards when league debutant Robin Propper diverted into his own net.
It didn’t dampen the home side’s spirits though because Vaclav Cerny restored Rangers’ lead seven minutes later with a cracking left-footed effort from outside the box.
- READ MORE: Vaclav Cerny explodes on social media as Rangers fans react to his Motherwell performance
Clement on ‘very positive’ Rangers win
Philippe Clement told the media at his post-match press conference that he was happy with the result and performance but lamented the fact his side didn’t score more than two goals for the fans in attendance.
He said: “I saw very positive things today. We started excellent with good football, good running actions with the right choices on the ball.
“And then you need a little bit of luck to score early which was not the case because we had two or three chances in the first minutes already. But we kept on playing with a good tempo on the ball, not giving away transitions.
“Then you get one moment, a cross in the box where you have the worst scenario that you can have. One defender touches the ball, the other defender touches the ball and the ball goes in the corner of the goal that Jack (Butland) cannot save.
“So it was a really unlucky to get against but it didn’t create any doubt in the team to get the victory. The only thing I think we missed today was to score a third or fourth goal that we deserved to make.
“The you kill the belief more of the opponent and now they have the feeling they can stay in the game and you get long balls, long throw-ins and fights for second balls where you need to see you win those.”
Second-half more concerning than goal tally
All the fans wanted today was a win in what was their first outing at Hampden this season due to the delayed construction work at Ibrox.
They got that and a 2-1 win would have been taken before kick-off. What the supporters won’t be too enamoured about was the drop-off in performance between the first and second halves.
Clement doesn’t really mention this in his press conference – he seemed to be more disappointed about only scoring a couple of goals.
But more importantly, Rangers didn’t even look like scoring in the second period after such a strong showing before the interval.
That’s a tad concerning and something the team will need to try and address. Motherwell were ravaged by injury heading into this game but managed to hold their own in the latter part of the game.
The season has only just begun though so there’s plenty of time to iron this issue out. The main objective was three points today after drawing to Hearts last weekend and that was achieved.
