When Philippe Clement arrived at Rangers, they were a shadow of the team that won an invincible league title and got to a Europa League final.
The were low on confidence, short on form and with too many summer signings not justifying their transfer fees or their place in the starting XI.
Against Sparta Prague, Phillipe Clement, via Rangers TV, is wanting his Rangers team to do something that we haven’t seen since Giovanni van Bronckhorst blazed a trail and instilled a confidence in his team that almost led them to immortality.
Philippe Clement looking for Rangers belief
The former Belgian international has played in numerous games at European level as well as major international tournaments, he is a manager who can draw on his own experiences when leading his players.
Ahead of a must win game, Phillipe Clement has one thing in mind, as reported by Rangers TV:
“I want us to be a team that tries to be dominant every game, even against teams who are better than us.
“We have qualities in the squad. Of course, it is the beginning of the story but I see players with a good focus – in training and in meetings also.
“When we explain which way we want to go, they try to do the right things on the pitch and off the pitch also.
“I hope to create a story as fast as possible together, to make it as strong as possible.
“In the next two weeks we have six games, so it’s going to be hard and we will need the squad fit, need players fit, so we can make good rotation and in every second of the game we can be sharp.”
As we saw against Hibs, Philippe Clement is looking for Rangers to be aggressive and control the tempo of the game, that we won 4-0 and he still wasn’t happy tells it’s own story.
There is a marked difference between controlling possession and dominating a team in terms of territory and creating chances.
A fully fit squad would have been useful but the Gers boss will have to go with what he has and filter players in when they return to fitness.
If Rangers can dominate as Clement demands then a repeat of the memorable ‘21/22 run isn’t impossible.
We thought it was when Gio took over.
