Rangers seem incapable of dragging themselves out of the mire with Philippe Clement lurching from one shambolic display to the next.
There can’t have been a Rangers manager so obviously facing the axe who has been allowed so many poor performances and results with Ibrox in danger of seeing more empty seats as the weeks go by.
Hope is long gone, as is support for a Rangers squad that just doesn’t seem to get what is needed to survive with even the return of Oscar Cortes to full training irrelevant if the status quo continues.
Philippe Clement comments not good news as Oscar Cortes nears Rangers return
The Colombian winger is back in full training and has been seen in the club’s videos and images on X, however, it would be selfish for Clement to throw him back into the team.
Speaking after the game, a resigned Clement suggested that he knows how to turn things around:
“There’s only one way, with performances on the pitch,” as easy as that, claimed the Gers boss.
“When I came into the building, the building was on fire, and there were still people who believed in that team at that moment.
“That team picked up things again by being collective and working hard together. In the end, it’s always about performances on the pitch, and of course, you lose credit with evenings like this and from two weeks ago.
“That’s normal. It’s about reacting. In football and life, it’s always like that. You get knocks. Today was a big knock because we didn’t show our level as a team so it’s now important to react and stand up.”
Clement took a worse Rangers squad, with a chronic injury list, to the top of the Scottish Premiership, this time last year.
Cortes would be a useful addition with his ability to beat players and being a winger with an end product.
What the manager’s comments suggest though, is that he isn’t going to change despite losing the backing of the Rangers fans.
Why would Cortes return be unfair for the player?
If Clement isn’t going to change, Cortes will be going back into a team that is set up to fail – especially in the type of game that Rangers see most weeks against physical, low-block teams.
Cortes would be played out on the left, asked to play in front of the opposition defence and cut inside.
Something that Vaclav Cerny had to do for 90 minutes against St Mirren and was consistently crowded out.
Cerny never got behind the opposition defence or in behind with his only real chance of the game coming after more than an hour.
If Cortes was thrown back in now, he wouldn’t stand a chance of showing what he is really capable of.
