How Philippe Clement is coping with Rangers pressure and why tactics won't change

As close to ninth place than to the top of the Premiership, Rangers are in the mire. Motherwell, who they take on in Sunday’s Premier Sports Cup semi-final, are just a place and three points behind them in the league.

Rangers have become very ordinary and despite this being the fifth match the Ibrox side have played at Hampden this season, no one is talking about them being advantaged. Instead, the image is of them slouching towards the national stadium. They have already struggled to overcome Stuart Kettlewell’s side at Hampden this season.

As the leader of this seemingly doomed enterprise, Philippe Clement is looking surprisingly undaunted. He knew it was not going to be easy when he agreed to sign up for even longer in June. “The chance was bigger than it would be a smooth ride from the start,” he said, when asked if he knew in his heart there would be some pain along the way as he sought to restore Rangers. “That (chance) was much, much, much bigger.

“But, of course, I would prefer the smooth ride and I work to get it as fast as possible done with all the players and to get them knowing the story really well to make it really successful from the start. So, yes, that you can never predict. But you need time to build things, like every manager does.”

Rangers manager Philippe Clement says he knows exactly what he has signed up for at Ibrox. | SNS Group

Whether he is afforded this luxury might rely heavily on Rangers securing a place in next month’s Premier Sports Cup final. Otherwise, life will get very tricky indeed for the Belgian. Things are already taking a toll to the extent that his wife, Isabelle, is taking notice of what people are saying about her husband. 

Asked if he can go home and switch off from the growing feeling that he might not after all be the right man for Rangers, he replied that it wasn’t his style. He is a 24-hour manager. While his wife might wish it were otherwise, she knows the score.

“It has never been my life to switch off,” he said. “I don't like that too much, to switch off. My wife knows that. Of course, she likes it more when we win games and when everybody's happy with me and that I'm a really good manager. That's normal. But no, I don't want to switch off.

“It's part of my life,” he added, in reference to the high demands and relentless criticism.

“I stepped with my two feet really clearly in June into a project that I knew was maybe the biggest challenge ever with this club, with the expectations here, with everything around. But I did it with my full conviction and my full passion for this club. So that's what I'm going to do also in the next few months.”

He is confident of staying in position. It’s true that Rangers can ill-afford yet more flux. Amid uncertainty in other senior roles, with a new CEO still to be appointed, Clement, it seems, is the chief cook and bottle washer. “I know also that at this moment I am the face of it,” he said. “There’s nobody else talking or there’s nobody else explaining things. So that means everything is towards me.” 

Clement is not planning any tactical changes. | SNS Group

It can be a lonely place. He has sought counsel from others. “I always do,” he said. “With friends who are in football, in this kind of job, with other colleagues, with my staff, with my family.”

But he knows his own mind too. For those fans urging an immediate change in formation from Clement’s currently favoured 4-2-3-1, the manager had bad news. “I think it will only create more doubts,” he said. “How are you going to change the formation if you can train on that for one time?

“How are you going to train on that in how you build, how you create chances, how you defend? Everything in a session of just one hour?

“You can build on things. If you have some foundation, if you have something solid, you can build on the next step. We're not that far yet with the group to do that in this moment. (But) It's a difficult one to turn that around in one day.”

A win over Motherwell will deposit Rangers in another final, their third under Clement. They remain the League Cup holders and retaining the trophy, which would make it win number 29 in the competition, would provide some balm for the club and its supporters. The question is whether Clement can even make it that far. 

A tricky clash against Olympiacos in Athens awaits on Thursday before home matches against Hearts and Dundee United. A trip to face St Johnstone, where Giovanni van Bronckhorst came to grief two years ago, is also looming.

Clement knows that a win on Sunday is not a cure-all remedy. Even lifting the League Cup, which provided his tenure with some early tangible evidence of promise last December, might not quell the grumbles to any significant extent. “It's not about cups or Europa League or League Cup now,” he said. “It's about every game. That's a platform and that's what we need to create is consistency.

Rangers and Motherwell have already met at Hampden this season. | SNS Group

“It's not about one cup or one thing that's important. It's about every three days getting consistency in our basics and not giving that away and out of that, becoming better and growing in the details.

“That's the disappointing thing about the first goal that we lost against Aberdeen. We didn't follow our principles or our basics with one player and it opens up everything. Those are harsh lessons, but those are lessons we need to take for the rest of the season.”

He will hope to still be the Ibrox manager enjoying the value of these lessons come May. Much may rest on Sunday afternoon.