Philippe Clement has urged his Rangers team to deliver more consistency as he battles a defensive injury crisis.
The Rangers manager has also been addressing the Ibrox club’s abysmal away form which has all but guaranteed Celtic another Scottish Premiership crown.
Speaking ahead of the trip to face Dundee at Dens Park, the pressure on Rangers to turn things around and record a positive result on the road.
Here’s the big takeaways from Philippe Clement’s pre-match press conference as he urged his young team to learn from their recent mistakes away from home.
Up to seven Rangers players out with injury
“Too much injury news. Jack Butland will still be out. John Souttar will still be out. Leon Balogun will still be out. James Tavernier will still be out. Nana Kasanwirjo will still be out and Tom Lawrence will still be out. And Dujon Sterling is a doubt for tomorrow so we will see tomorrow.
”Of course there is no club in the world who is happy when there are so many centre-backs in it.
”Because it’s a lot the same position that you miss players and that’s the case but it’s about finding solutions and that’s what we’ve been doing the last few weeks.
”For example putting Ridvan on the right full-back and doing a really good job there.
”So we need to be creative in that way to have a good level with the defence and not to concede the goals that we conceded against Hibs.
”That annoyed me a lot that we lost not with open play chances or goals but only set-pieces.
”So that’s what we addressed so I need to make choices around that also towards this game because it’s also one of the strengths of Dundee.”
Philippe Clement shuts down transfer query
”Like I said last press conference Patrick will address that, what the plan is for the club for January.
“So it will be in the next couple of days.”
Rangers injury crisis not the same as last season
”It’s a totally different situation (from the club’s recent injury record). Last season we had in big spells 10, 12 players out.
”Now we have four for sure, OK Jack also, that’s an accident, it’s not really an injury.
“It’s a contact injury and some of the others are also contact injuries, that’s part of football.
”The difficult thing is that it’s all in one position in that way so that’s for every club in the world difficult, you cannot predict that.
”To have seven centre-backs in your selection, that’s not possible.
”So that’s the case because for the rest a lot of players are available and are back.
”We’ve never been this season in a situation that we had 12 injuries at the same time. Never been this season.
”And the club worked also really hard to strengthen some departments.
”So we got a really good physio from Aberdeen with Kevin. We made changes in the performance department.
”So there are really good steps in that way so we cannot compare with the sitauton that was last season.”
Young Rangers team must ‘learn’ away from home
”It’s a normal thing that you guys ask (about the away form) because it’s true about points not won in away games.
”It’s not a story about one thing. It’s a story about a season also, different things.
”Like the Hibs game, I think the team played really well. We scored three really good goals, we had the domination.
”But you take two goals that are avoidable by winning the duels.
”And it’s about duels. It’s not about an organisation, it’s about duels.
”And you get a penalty against where I see also a ref watch for example that people who played football all say, this is not a penalty, like my feeling is about that.
”So that’s also something to take in consideration of course about the end result.
”I was not happy and I told you guys about the St Mirren game and the Motherwell game by starting well and then getting a goal against with an individual mistake and then rushing things.
”In that way we did much better against Hibs and then we kept on playing and a good example for me is the third goal, where we were not rushing things.
”We waited for the right moment to do the right things around the 16 instead of putting these balls in the box like we’ve been doing, for sure against Motherwell.
”It was too much the case and it was in the emotions of wanting to come back and the rush from the players to do it better and to win the game.
”So you need to find a balance in that way in the rush to force it to score but to keep overview and to keep on doing the way we attack.
”So yeah that’s in a young team things they need to learn. That’s decision-making and sticking to the plan and keep on going in that way.“
Leon Balogun, James Tavernier and John Souttar updates
”Trying to get (Leon Balogun) back he got a little bit of a reaction out of that.
”He will be back in the short term but it’s not good enough to play tomorrow but he got some irritation from trying to be ready for that game.
When asked if John Souttar or James Tavernier will be back for the visit of St Johnstone, Clement answered: “No.”
When asked if they are set to be out for longer than expected, Clement answered: “No, it’s not longer than first envisioned.
“I’ve got a date but like I said before also I don’t want to put a knife on the throat of my medical staff.
”If I put one date and I say to all you guys that if that date the player is not there then they are doing a bad job, it doesn’t work that way with getting players back.
”They will not be out for months. Tav will be for sure faster back than John but I don’t want to put that pressure on the medical staff.
”Of course I put pressure on them to get them back as fast as possible and we’re working altogether in the club to do that.”
’No explanation’ over Hibs penalty
“For the moment (I’ve had no explanation). But it’s also not the case, I think there’s a panel at the end of the week about those things.
”In the end we had after the League Cup a reaction and that was really good to be open and transparent about it.
”But it will not give us the points in the end.”
Rangers manager wants ‘positive surprises’
”Football is not only how to pass a ball or where to run or how to run in which moments.
”It’s all those things, it’s also going how to react (when the team loses a goal).
”And that’s from my side the frustrating part.
“So yeah the beginning of the season where you have a lot of new players, you need to get things connected, you need to see that everybody learns the principles, you need to start from scratch.
”We went through a period where we had a lot of stability in the defensive part where we had a lot of clean sheets in a row.
”Where we almost didn’t give away chances and that we were more struggling still with creating a lot of chances.
”We still had enough to win games but not in the amount that we are doing now, the last two months.
”Now the moment that this offensive part is growing and getting better you lose a lot of players in your defence and you need to find their solutions.
”In that way it’s been difficult to create consistency but it creates also opportunities for other people to stand up, who maybe didn’t have a chance if all these players were fit.
”Now they have the opportunity to show themselves and you come in moments in all the clubs in the world that you can get really positive surprises and I count on that tomorrow.
“Like Ridvan was a really positive surprise as a right full-back for example.”
Rangers need to find way to ‘take the points’
”About digging in, there is nothing to say about that.
”They always want it, they always went for it, sometimes with too much rush, what I talked about.
”They showed the resilience in that way. Maybe not in the results all the time in that way but there was not one game when the heads were down and they were not running anymore and they were not fighting anymore.
”Was not the case, not one game.
”But we need to get better results. You need to get all these details more consistently better.
“We’ve seen the potential and that’s a good thing. The potential that everybody in the club believed in before this season in this squad.
”But it’s about getting this consistently together also.
“In that way it doesn’t help that you need to shift all the time things but we need to go through this period and take the points.
”We didn’t take this season one point yet that we didn’t deserve, that the opponent was better and we win the game.
”That you need also in a season.
”So those things we need to take and we’re going to go to Dundee to try to be the best team and to win the points.”
