Philippe Clement will soon come face to face with Ruben Amorim when Rangers face Man Utd and the Belgian could do with taking a leaf out of his opposite number’s book.
Since walking through the doors to take over as manager in October 2023, Celtic have run roughshod over the Light Blues and certain players continue to let the Gers boss down.
Amorim just guided his team to a monumental derby win over Man City having dropped two players who have previously been guaranteed starters – a lesson that Clement could learn for Rangers.
Man Utd boss sets example for Philippe Clement at Rangers
Two squad players in particular who came off the bench at Hampden could do with looking themselves in the mirror about their efforts and Amorim’s post-match comments tick a lot of boxes for Rangers to make a similar decision:
“Selection,” the Man Utd boss said when asked why the high profile pair weren’t involved.
“We try to evaluate everything – training, performance, game performance, engagement with the teammates, push the teammates up.
“Everything is on the line when we analyse and try to choose the players, so it was my selection. Simple.
“I don’t want to send a message (to the dressing room with this). It’s simply an evaluation, and they know it.
“The players are really, really smart and so everybody understands my decision and I have to choose. It’s just a simple selection.
“Of course the context is difficult – we have to win games and we have a difficult situation now.
“But, like I said, I pay attention to everything – the way you eat, the way you put on your clothes to go the game. Everything.
“I make my evaluation and then I have to decide. I have a lot of players to choose (from) and today I did my choice.”
Who were the Rangers pair who didn’t pull their weight?
Most of the players who played against Tottenham Hotspur were asked to go again against Celtic.
They all, to a man, ran themselves into the ground.
Work rate couldn’t be questioned, neither could the desire to reverse the recent fortunes and prove that Rangers can close the gap at the top of Scottish football.
All, except Kieran Dowell and Cyriel Dessers.
Having come on late in the extra-time, they had no excuse not to be fresh.
Neither of them started or played any real quantity of minutes playing Spurs which made their lacklustre displays against Celtic all the more damning.
They must be world beaters in training because there has been nothing from either of them recently to suggest that they should be trusted on such big occasions.
Effort and desire should be the bare minimum Clement looks for from his Rangers squad, but for two senior players to not show anything when it matters most is unacceptable.
