Philippe Clement claims it’s up to the Rangers board whether or not they choose to sack him after defeat to St Mirren.
The Rangers manager faced the press after yet another abysmal result against the Paisley club which leaves Clement’s job hanging by a thread at Ibrox.
Describing the 2-0 defeat as the ‘worst he’s seen’ since taking over at Rangers, Philippe Clement faced the music in a post-match press conference.
When confronted with the swell of feeling amongst Rangers fans, Clement once reiterated his belief that he is the man to turn things around.
Here’s what the Rangers manager had to say for himself after yet more Scottish Premiership disappointment.
Philippe Clement Rangers press conference
What’s your reaction to the game?
“It’s terribly disappointing because we were so nervous today,” said Clement.
”On the ball, in the duels, in everything. I don’t know where it’s coming from.
”That’s my frustration also. It’s my responsibility also to put the team with the right mindset on the pitch.
”I didn’t see this one coming, this nervousness, and we were below par almost all game.
”A few better spells during the game but by far not what Rangers should be today.”
Do the players need to take more responsibility?
”It’s everybody and in the first place me,”
”We had a plan for this game, we trained on it, it was a good training week with good quality and I didn’t see it back today in the training.
”So I need to find out what’s the reason for that and to find solutions.”
Are you worried with that amount of fans leaving Ibrox?
”Yeah of course. And I understand.
”We were by far the worst I’ve seen in all the time that I’ve been here.
”So I understand that fans don’t want to see that kind of level.
”It’s about as a team to stand up and to show more quality and to find out where this nervousness came from.”
Does some of that nervousness come from the supporters?
”It cannot be a reason because that’s part of being a player here, that’s part of working here.
”So you know. You know from before after the performance against Queen’s Park, so no excuses.
”If you want to be a Rangers player you need to cope with these things and it’s my job also to prepare players also to cope with those things.”
Do believe there is a lack of leadership in the team?
”I missed that today. I saw the team drifting apart in islands.
”What’s not been the case in the past.
”We also had also difficult moments, difficult spells, going behind but reacting as a team.
”Today it was reacting one on one and not as a team and then we don’t play the football we need to play and then it’s a bad performance.
”Yes leadership is an important one but leadership is a collective one and in the first place it’s my responsibility.”
Can you win the fans back?
“There’s only one way and with performances on the pitch.
”When I came into the building, the building was on fire and there was totally not belief in that team in that moment.
”In time that team picked up things again by being collective, by working hard together, with not pointing at each other but finding solutions together and made a spell of games and good results and good football and the fans went behind them.
”In the end it’s always about the performance on the pitch and of course you lose credit with evenings like this and from two weeks ago.
”You lose a lot of credit. So that’s normal, so then it’s about reacting and in football and life it’s always like that if you get knocks and this day was a really big knock because we totally didn’t show our level that we need to show as a team.
”So it’s now important to react and to stand up and to do it collectively, not one on one.”
Do you understand that you’ve lost the fanbase?
”Those are things that a board needs to decide at the end.
”I believe that these players want to do the right things. I believe I can get results with these players.
”But I’m also very disappointed what we showed today and I’m responsible for that.”
Performances and results are not good enough from start to finish for a club like Rangers.
”No that’s true and that’s what Patrick also said, we need to look to the root of the problems also.“
That doesn’t stop a performance like that on the pitch.
”Today it was by far not the performance that we did in the past and it was like I said by far the worst performance from my time here.”
