Philippe Clement might’ve been delighted at the Rangers ’team performance’ in the thumping victory over Aberdeen.
But the Rangers manager had some choice words about one player who did not make the squad let alone the starting XI.
It comes after goals from Hamza Igamane, Leon Balogun and Cyriel Dessers eventually put a desperate Dons side to the sword.
Rabbi Matondo Rangers absence explained
Heading into the game, the absences of several Rangers first-team stars from the matchday squad turned heads amongst the Gers support.
With Rabbi Matondo, Oscar Cortes and Kieran Dowell all excluded from the selection, it had some asking transfer and injury questions around all three players.
Speaking after the match, Philippe Clement moved to clarify the situation first on Rabbi Matondo and explained that it was a purely ‘sportive’ decision.
Claiming the attacker has been demoted, the Rangers manager suggested that both Zak Lovelace and Bailey Rice are ‘performing better’ than the ex-Schalke winger in training.
The comments come after Rangers News exclusively revealed earlier in the day that Matondo is in negotiations to leave Rangers on loan this summer.
“I cannot give any update about loans or not, or players going or not, until something is concrete and it’s not the case for the moment,” Clement said at full-time.
“I can say about Rabbi that I made a choice, a sportive choice today to put two young lads because I think they are performing for the moment better.”
Oscar Cortes suffers ‘small problem’
The situation with Oscar Cortes appears to be a little more complicated and is bound to heap the pressure on the Rangers medical and recruitment teams.
Colombian winger Cortes, 21, joined Rangers on loan from RC Lens in January 2024 and after making a bright start to his Ibrox career suffered a devastating injury in March.
Having undergone surgery and recovered ahead of the new campaign, Rangers had seen enough to agree a £4m loan-to-buy deal to re-sign Cortes in the summer.
But since that deal was struck the winger has spent more time on the treatment table than the pitch and has suffered several back-to-back injuries this season.
With Oscar Cortes only just returning to the Rangers team, Philippe Clement has suggested the winger has sustained another injury problem.
“Oscar would’ve been on the bench but he had a small problem yesterday evening, not in training,” explained Clement.
”We need to assess that in the next couple of days.”
