Considerations for Clement

Rangers’ dramatic injury-time victory against Hearts on Sunday gave rise to much euphoria and ecstasy in the stands, and rightly so.

I mean if you can’t enjoy a last-minute winner to secure all three points and close the gap at the top of the table then frankly you’re in the wrong place. However as the dust settles and some more measured reflection is allowed, the manager has some decisions to make if he wants to keep winning.

In truth the performance on Sunday was as tepid and turgid as much of the Beale and GvB eras. We endured a typically slow start, went behind and then huffed and puffed a lot with little reward. It’s been a script we’ve witnessed with such repetition that it was notable how quickly the atmosphere turned to anger and frustration inside the stadium.

The heart rules the head in these moments and while every one of us knows we have a new manager trying to bring fresh ideas, it’s the same players we’re witnessing making the same mistakes and that’s when the groans and growls emerge from the stands.

In the interest of balance though there was some serious character and grit shown to get the win as late as we did. Tavernier perhaps epitomised that with his penalty goal – after his earlier miss – and then great assist for Danilo despite otherwise having a poor game. So while the manager can lean on the mental strength shown at the end, he should be concerned by the weakness of the performance that meant it was required.

Philippe Clement said that he was still observing the players and learning and after only a few games I think that’s obvious. One of the things he wanted to see was how they’d react to adversity and we certainly had an example of that on Sunday. But while there is still much work to be done to get this team to anywhere near the level we require, there are a few obvious issues that should be in the forefront of our manager’s thoughts.

The first and most obvious matter that has to be attended to is the one that every fan and their granny can see – the Dessers and Lammers situation. Neither have hit the ground running, neither have shown anything that the fans or the manager can cling to and both in truth have become targets for the crowd which is counterproductive all round.

The contrast in Prague and then again at the weekend when Danilo came on was stark. The Brazilian is a striker who acts on instinct and whose movement in the box is natural and threatening. In short, everything that Dessers lacks. Maybe Dessers would benefit from playing in a pair – who knows – but in the absence of that there should only be one player leading the line for Rangers at present and it isn’t him.

On to Sam Lammers. At a brief glance he is a player with skill as he twists and turns in tight spaces. All very good but then after a few weeks you realise that he’s twisted and turned, beaten his man four times but hasn’t actually moved anywhere or affected the game. And the last part is key. Lammers can be on the pitch, he can get on the ball but very rarely does he produce anything that actually matters.

To complicate matters Lammers is also occupying the space that could perhaps be better utilized by Todd Cantwell, a player who is undoubtedly amongst our best but who has suffered from a continual changing of position to accommodate others this season. So for me it is time to take Sam Lammers out of the firing line, for the crowd reaction can’t be doing him any good, and give Cantwell a run centrally in that more advanced area of the pitch. It just makes sense.

Those two simple changes in personnel immediately improve the team and I don’t think that’s remotely debatable. There may come a time where Clement has to get something from these guys as the season goes on but for now the best thing he can do is give them a while on the bench and see how the team does in their absence. It’s only been three games into his reign but the need for this change is glaring.

Moving on then I think the manager needs to find a settled formation and style of player. We’ve already had a few different formations in as many games and even accounting for the enforced alteration in Europe with no recognised left-back, it’s time to settle things down and get some consistency in terms of tactics and selection.

And on that front we really need to decide whether we are a pressing team or not.

Against Hibs it was a notable improvement and particularly second-half we reaped the rewards. Okay when you’re a goal down and the opposition park the bus it may not be as easy but I hope we see a shift to a more aggressive, pressing approach as it’s one that energises the crowd and really gets us on the front foot.

We’ve had two previous managers who allowed the team so slump back and allow opponents territory and comfortable possession. And it simply didn’t work. The manager has already commented on the fitness levels, or lack thereof, and hopefully if he can improve that then he can start to implement a pressing style that domestically seems a fairly obvious route to success. We really don’t need to be sitting off St Johnstone and Kilmarnock at Ibrox, do we?

Looking elsewhere it would appear that Clement also has to consider who is our first-choice left-back. Borna has been favoured for the most part over the last 2 years despite his passing become increasingly backwards but injuries haven’t been kind to Ridvan and I’m not sure his performance on Sunday was one that makes him a cast iron selection when the Croatian returns.

For my money I’d give Yilmaz a run of games – something he hasn’t really had – and see what he can do. We know what we are going to get from Borna, including a superior crossing ability it has to be said, but I’d just like to see a bit more of Ridvan before sitting him back on the bench.

The downside for Philippe Clement is that all of these decisions will need to be made in amongst a run of important games. We can’t drop further behind in the league and still have to secure progression in the Europa League. On top of that we face a horrendous run of away fixtures starting at the end of November so he really needs to find the answers to some of the above questions sooner rather than later.

Training time will be limited with the weekend / midweek fixtures piling up but I hope he can use the rest days to work on his methods and tactical approach.

After three games it’s impossible to judge what he is trying to do but I hope over the coming weeks we begin to see signs of his style and his approach with this team.

It has been heartening to see him turn to the likes of young Ross McCausland even when the pressure is on. He might be young and raw but he’s offered more than some of the more senior players and given us a different dynamic in attack.

Clement has a track record of playing young players at his previous clubs and hopefully we have the talent at Auchenhowie to give him some food for thought with young players coming through the ranks.

In summary then there’s nothing remotely simple about the task facing Philippe Clement as he seeks to rescue this season and thereafter build a team of his own. But in the short-term there are, to me, some simple wins that can be taken – drop Dessers and Lammers, play Cantwell as a ‘10’, decide on our first-choice left-back and whether we are a pressing team or not. This won’t solve all of our problems but it may just be small steps that will take us forward in the short-term.

There are some big games and weeks ahead for big Phil. He’ll need the team to build on the mental strength shown on Sunday but also to accompany that with some more convincing and clinical performances, and he can play his part in delivering them.

Over to the Gaffer.