The Rangers players who “were not good enough” in the first half of the Scottish Premiership tie with Dundee United have come under fire from Philippe Clement.
After falling 11 points behind Celtic, the perennial opponents in the title chase, the 50-year-old Belgian manager is under tremendous pressure at Ibrox.
Due to a run of poor performances that all but guarantee the team will miss out on the title for another season, Rangers supporters are increasingly demanding Philippe Clement’s dismissal.
A third or even fourth place finish isn’t entirely out of the question however, especially because Aberdeen is eight points ahead of the Gers in second position.
The situation is dire, and the Rangers boss has made it clear that he is prepared to be “harsh” with his underperforming players now that Clement is firmly on the firing line.
It follows halftime hookings by Philippe Clement of Mohamed Diomande’s poor play and Cyriel Dessers’ misfiring.
The Rangers boss continued by praising Ianis Hagi and Danilo, the replacements.
Philippe Clement labels the pair as “inadequate.”
Clement told Sky Sports, “We had some players who performed normally.” However, some of our guys weren’t up to par today.
“Who were not courageous enough today, who weren’t available enough.”
For this reason, I also made some adjustments during halftime with players who made a positive contribution.
“I’m going to be harsh on that because we need to show a lot more like we did in the second.”
The Rangers manager is adamant that he can fire the team.
Even after Rangers’ lacklustre performance against Dundee United, Philippe Clement is adamant that he can turn his squad around this season.
On the eve of the upcoming Scottish Premiership season, Rangers handed Clement a new contract, putting them in a Catch-22 situation with the Belgian.
Rangers’ season is headed for catastrophe, but Clement isn’t giving up on a revamped team that isn’t meeting the demands at Ibrox.
The former manager of AS Monaco and Club Brugge maintains that the goal is to get a 90-minute performance out of the team, which has proven difficult to do thus far this season.
“You’ve seen the second half,” Clement remarked. That’s an excellent illustration of how to influence the players to play the way I want them to.
They also experienced similar situations in the past few weeks, but the goal is to receive that 90-minute break every three days.
“With this new group, we need to establish a culture that will consistently have this quality.”
