Philippe Clement has faced an uphill battle almost since he walked through the doors and put pen to paper on his contract to take over at Rangers.
Last season, the manager proved his tactical nous by dragging his side to the last 16 of the Europa League before going toe-to-toe with Benfica, however, it wasn’t to be against Dynamo Kyiv.
His hands are still tied in terms of quality of options, with the final third of the pitch in particular being a cause for concern which is why eyebrows were raised when there was no sign of Vaclav Cerny in the Rangers starting XI.
Philippe Clement slams Rangers selection critics
Clement explained in his pre-match interview why the Czechia winger was absent, but this wasn’t enough for some who complained about Rangers best individual attacker being missing.
Asked if he had any regrets about not picking the on-form flyer, the Gers boss replied:
“No. We have a lot of very qualified people in the building, in the medical staff, in the performance staff to come with the right things.
“It’s also what the club needed after last season with so many injuries. To make that better. To have the right info. To make the right decisions. To make players better. To make them stronger. To give them the right moments, playing minutes.
“It comes out of four weeks of holidays. I understand that people who have never been a manager or never been a player and don’t know what a human body is that they doubt those things then. But that’s the reality of every manager.
“So, no. Zero. Because it was clearly a decision for the short term and the long term.”
Suggestions that Clement intentionally didn’t pick a player who has looked a step above anything that has been seen for while are wide of the mark.
Almost every comment on X when the team was announced was about Ross McCausland’s inclusion and Cerny only making the bench.
Clement hasn’t picked the academy graduate because he thinks he’s a better player and his decision is entirely justified.
As a manager, he has to trust his subject matter experts.
Clement right to make difficult Cerny decision
Fans can’t complain about the injury rates and then also complain when the manager takes positive steps to rectify it.
Managing the players’ minutes is one approach, but the Gers boss spoke just before the season kicked off talking about the pre-season schedule and some of the work being done to minimise player absences in the squad:
“We have done a lot.
“It is maybe some interesting thing for next time, I can show you things. I have some numbers in my head. We did 15 per cent more distance in the training than the year before, we did 71 per cent more sprint distance in the pre-season, we did 70 per cent more high-intensity runs, we did much more prevention work with the players.
“We saw already less injuries this pre-season. We had several players who in the last couple of years never made a full pre-season who did it now. Does it mean it is a guarantee we won’t have injuries? No, because that is not the situation, you cannot change the human body in five, six weeks. We made them stronger already, several of them, but there is still a way to go.”
He inherited a squad with injury prone players, some have left, others are still kicking around Auchenhowie.
Ridvan Yilmaz is a classic example, clearly talented, but it looks as though he has suffered a recurrence of the hamstring injury that he broke down with shortly after arriving at the club.
His distress on the pitch suggests that he won’t be seen for some time.
There is little that can be done about players who are more susceptible to injury, but as seen with Vaclav Cerny, Rangers adapting to a strategy for the long-term is for the best, whether it is popular or not.
