It doesn’t take a genius to work out why Philippe Clement is no longer in charge of Rangers.
A series of poor results wasn’t the only factor, it was the manner of defeats against teams like St Mirren that put paid to his time as Rangers manager.
It was the latest in a long line of performances against a physical and defensive team that proved Clement had no idea how to set up a team to break down a stubborn defence with details about Rangers’ training under the Belgian now emerging.
Philippe Clement training questioned after Rangers sacking
What makes matters worse, is that Clement moaned earlier in the season about not having enough time to implement changes to tactics or formation.
An argument that collapses when you consider that Rangers have only been playing on weekends in the whole of February, with performances getting worse.
According to Joshua Barrie of the Rangers Review, training was “repetitive”, restrictive and focused on getting the ball forward as fast as possible, as told by a source behind the scenes.
This is fine in games that are open and there is plenty of space, but it’s painfully obvious that this doesn’t work against teams like St Mirren.
What was Clement’s excuse about training and tactics?
In November, Clement suggested that it was impossible to change tactics or formation mid-way through the season:
“Changing a formation in this moment, I think it will only create more doubts. Also, how are you going to change the formation if you can train on that one time?
“How you’re going to train on that in how you build, how you create chances, how you defend. Everything in a session of one hour. So those are also the things you can build on things.
“If you have some foundations, if you have something solid, you can build on the next step. We’re not that far yet with the group to do that in this moment. So, it’s a difficult one to turn that around in one day with one training.”
He should maybe try telling managers like David Moyes that, who has completely transformed an Everton who couldn’t score goals into one of the Premier League’s in form teams.
Nobody is perfect, but being unable to see his, or his game plans flaws, has seen Clement’s time at Ibrox come to an end.
