Derek Ferguson is adamant that Rangers fitness levels with Philippe Clement in charge is actually worse than when Michael Beale was manager.
Clement arrived as Rangers boss in October last year and made it his mission to solve Rangers’ injury woes which hampered him across most of 2023/24.
He promised to overhaul the medical department during the summer and indeed, changes were made in that regard as well as how he would manage players’ minutes and recovery from injuries.
But Rangers continue to be plagued with injury issues this season despite the added focus on sports science.
Tom Lawrence is the latest to be ruled out for several weeks as he follows Oscar Cortes, Rabbi Matondo, Danilo and Ridvan Yilmaz as recent examples.
Ferguson thinks Clement is relying too much on sports science and managing player minutes and claims even with the stronger emphasis at Rangers on injury prevention, the squad is in worse shape fitness-wise compared to the team under Michael Beale’s stewardship.
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Derek Ferguson claims Rangers fitness better under Beale than Clement
Speaking on the latest Open Goal podcast, Ferguson said: “There’s too much emphasis put on that (sports science). And that’s when you talk about the character because there’s not one player that goes into a game – well I would assume – that’s fully fit.
“You’re always carrying something, there’s always something, we all know that because we’ve been there and done it.
“But he did say, the manager, when he would come in – because he was very critical of Beale about the fitness of that squad. He’s been in the job a year, I don’t see any difference. In fact, I think it looks worse.”
James McFadden weighs in on Rangers sports science
“This is the thing, there is a place for it (sport science). Guys are fully qualified to do their job but there also has to be an element of a bit of feel from a manager”, says James McFadden who was also on the Open Goal panel.
“The players still need tested mentally to say, ‘right, I’m not going to tell you how much you can do, I’m going to put a demand on you and I want you to hit it. You might be believe you can’t hit it, you might not make it but I’m going to demand you do this and give me your best.’
“Nowadays it’s 60 minutes and ‘you’ve worked hard today, you’ve done enough, calm down because you’re in your red zone, watch what you’re doing.’
“Look, I get it for injuries but it’s not as if Rangers have a clean bill of health, so that part isn’t working. But there has to be an element of listening to the sports scientist with all the data, but you then need to put the challenge to the player.
“Stop telling them that you can’t do this or that or telling them you can only play for this long. Give me what you’ve got.
“How many times have we came back from an injury and the manager’s went, ‘give me everything you’ve got, if you are struggling then I’ll take you off’. You’re not coming off!”
