One thing we’ve learned about Philippe Clement is, if he gets it wrong, he isn’t afraid to make changes to improve what might be a stuttering Rangers performance.
Against Kilmarnock, things clearly weren’t right, the midfield was being missed out and the front three were feeding off scraps.
He’s done it before, and no doubt he will do it again but, Philippe Clement making two changes for Rangers at half-time shows that he knew he got things wrong from the start.
Philippe Clement makes first Rangers mistake in Killie respect
He is forgiven on this occasion given how quickly he solved some of the issues.
The biggest problem though, is that it was almost entirely self inflicted and I don’t mean picking 2/10 rated Borna Barisic.
We told ourselves it was going to be tough, that it was going to be physical, that the pitch would be a factor and that we’d have to change our game plan.
Clement will have learned not to be so preoccupied with the opposition in the Scottish Premiership because, in the second half, we saw a team that resembled the one that we have seen recently.
One playing with pace, intensity and aggression.
In the first half, we were too direct, played too many long balls and we couldn’t get any control in the final third as a result because the midfield were doing 50-yard shuttles for 45 minutes.
Yes, the pitch isn’t great, but the weather conditions meant that we could still pass the ball about or take players on.
That Clement spoke post match about the result all being on the players says it all.
He knows that the first half was on his instructions and that they dug him out a very deep hole with a tactical tweak or two.
The Gers boss is a fast learner and you would like to think that we won’t see a similar mistake made the next time we are away from the pristine surface of Ibrox.
Credit where it is due though because that didn’t look like the same team in the second half
