After their 1-0 victory over Dundee United at Tannadice, Philippe Clement praised his Rangers players for providing him with the response he had been demanding following their Old Firm setback.
Tam Lawrence’s early goal reduced the pressure that had been bearing down on Rangers over the previous two days and brought the team’s deficit to five points. Rangers had to stew over the 3-0 loss at Celtic Park throughout the international break.
Clement remarked, “That’s the only reaction that I demand, that I expect.” “Yes, they were challenging weeks, but that was the only outcome. And the outcome was quite awful. However, it took a while before we could play another game.
“I said it before this game, I would have preferred to play three days afterwards. But it was not the case. It was international week, so a lot of players left. So it’s not easy to come then to Dundee and to play that way with a lot of players who are new in the building and a lot who have been away with national duty. So I’m really proud of the players, what they did today. And you saw already direct back the synergy with them and the fans. So that’s a crucial thing also.”
The victory came just 24 hours after the resignation of chairman John Bennett with Clement revealing that the decision to step down was made for him by his doctor. John Gilligan has stepped in as interim chairman but the Rangers boss does not expect Bennett to be completely out of the picture.
Indeed, that’s not what you want, naturally,” Clement remarked. John told me that I was presumably among the first people to learn about that during the week. He gave me an explanation of everything. It is not his choice. The doctor makes the decision. He therefore had to make the choice with much emotional agony. And I’m hoping for the quickest possible recovery for him. However, he won’t be leaving. He needs to maintain some distance right now in order to heal, but he will be there eventually.”
With the resignation of James Bisgrove in April, the Rangers are currently without two key figures in the organization: the chief executive and the president. Clement made a suggestion that might alter in the upcoming week.
He remarked, “I believe I’ve been the only one talking outside up until now.” Thus, it doesn’t alter all that much. It might be different next week. We’ll see.
“It’s not me who brings the money into the club or the guy who brings in the cash.” It is my responsibility to maximize the performance of the players already on the team, to search for new players with the recruitment staff, and to make the best choices possible given the limited resources at our disposal.
“It is my responsibility, and I shall carry on in that manner. However, I also had a great deal of prior conversations with both John and James over strategic matters concerning the club’s future and how to improve everything within the club as well as in Scottish football. Thus, I believe that when new people take over, it will continue.
Nedim Bajrami, the £3.4 million deadline-day acquisition from Sassuolo, made his debut for Clement as a prearranged half-time substitute for Oscar Cortes, while late in the second half, Hamza Igamane made his second appearance following his eagerly anticipated debut against Celtic.
Clement said, “Nedim is just in the building.” Thus, he met with the team for two brief meetings. He doesn’t even know the names of all of his teammates, as I mentioned earlier. He’s just here, then. However, we are aware of his abilities and what kind of player he is for the team. He demonstrated a few things, but there is still a lot more that he can demonstrate. And as I mentioned earlier, Hamza was a huge talent when we signed him.
We could never have afforded those kind of players if we had waited a year. That’s why we had to act now. He just competed in a Moroccan tournament and experienced Moroccan culture. For him, everything is brand-new. When he arrived, he was hurt as well.
Therefore, getting him more fit took time. We’re going to continue doing that over the coming weeks and months in order to provide him with chances to develop as a young player. However, many positive fundamental traits are already apparent.
Jim Goodwin, the manager of Dundee United, lamented his team’s ineffective first 20 minutes of play, which let Lawrence stroll in unopposed to score what turned out to be the game-winning goal.
He remarked, “It’s obvious we didn’t start the game well.” The team’s early form wasn’t functioning, which is where the objective originates. In the center of the pitch, we were a little bit empty. The annoying issue is that it started with our throw-in.
“Either a cynical foul or anything similar, we have to make a tackle at some point to keep Lawrence out of the penalty box. That’s the letdown.
“You always talk about the first fifteen minutes of a game and staying in it when you play Celtic or Rangers, but we set ourselves up for a mountain to climb after that.”
Read more at;https://sportupdates.co.uk
Leave a Reply