Philippe Clement owns ultimate Rangers title campaign trump card and and is now ready to deploy it.

The Belgian is no stranger to the Premiership’s post-split fixtures system and has excelled in a similar environmen.

Things couldn’t have gone much better for Philippe Clement at Rangers so far and now the Belgian boss will be trying to lean on his past experience to help secure a record 56th league triumph at Ibrox.

An incredible run of nine straight Premiership wins has seen the Light Blues erase a seven point gap between themselves and rivals Celtic to now create a two point lead at the top of the tree, with just five games remaining until the top-flight break. The Old Firm will meet again in the penultimate round of fixtures before the split, with Rangers welcoming Brendan Rodgers’ Hoops to Govan on Sunday, April 7.

For some outside of Scotland, the league breaking in half for the important run in at the end of the season could be something previously unheard of but that surely isn’t the case for former Genk title winner Clement. In the triumphant 2018/19 campaign, the 49-year-old’s club coasted into the post-split phase, amassing 63 points from their 30 matches, losing only three occasions.

In Belgium, the post-split league standings then sees each team’s overall points count halved for their last 10 matches, meaning that Genk’s lead at the top over nearest rivals Club Brugge was slashed from seven points to four.

But that mattered little, as by winning six, drawing two and losing two of the post-split games, Genk secured their first league title in eight years, thereby securing qualification for the Champions League for the first time since 2011. Clement moved onto domestic rivals Club Brugge in the following season and enjoyed even more success, piling up a 15 point lead at the top of the Belgian Pro League after 29 matches.

The global COVID-19 global epidemic threatened to deny the Antwerp-born coach back-to-back league titles with different clubs, but following a meeting with the division’s top officials, Brugge were given the championship with the remaining 11 fixtures annulled. A modest adjustment in the Pro League’s format in the next season saw the number of clubs increasing from 16 to 18, meaning the top four teams in the regular campaign would move into the “championship” phase instead of six.

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