Philippe Clement to be 'very active' in transfer window as Rangers boss gives verdict on Fabio Silva debut

What the Rangers manager said after the 3-1 win over Kilmarnock at Ibrox

Rangers manager Phillipe Clement believes his team's 3-1 win over Kilmarnock that allowed them to put their Celtic defeat behind them showed his team's growth in his near three months. (Photo by Rob Casey / SNS Group)

Rangers manager Philippe Clement maintained that he would personally be “very active” in seeking to bolster his squad over the January transfer window.

But after watching his team sign off for the winter break with a 3-1 home success over Kilmarnock he considered the perfect response to their derby defeat at Celtic Park last weekend, the Belgian was at pains to stress there would be no wholesale changes to his playing pool in the month ahead. “[We will be] very active every day, by looking at a lot of players together with people in the club,” the Rangers manager said of the recruitment process ahead for him in the shut-down, which will not be akin to the extensive summer overhaul by predecessor Michael Beale. “And then we will see what we can make happen. The things we want. We are not going to sign 10 players.”

A comfortable success thanks to three fine goals from Ross McCausland, Abdallah Sima and Todd Cantwell on a day when Rangers conceded their first league penalty in 75 games, the occasion brought a first Rangers outing for Fabio Silva following his arrival from Wolves on a sixth-month loan deal. Clement commended the striker for earning his chance as a central striker, which came in the 71st minute.

“First I think it’s always great if a player does good things in training – and he did yesterday – to give him minutes at Ibrox,” said the 49-year-old. “That’s a magical place to play the first time and he had to feel it also. Then you go also with that feeling into this break. It’s different to when you are on the bench all the time. He understands the story because we had a lot of talks before he came about football about how I see players playing. We spoke about several positions – not only one. And how I see that.

"He could have gone to places where he could earn much more money, but he came for the football story and for the tradition of the club also and to win trophies because he is somebody who is really ambitious. It was good for him to get his first impression of things and in that 20 minutes you didn’t have the feeling it was a player who didn’t know his team-mates. It is not easy as an attacking player to come in to a new team where you don’t know the other guys or how to run and play or who gives decisive balls or who likes to dribble. You need to get a connection with them and you see already that he is a player who will suit the way we want to play football.”

Clement, who was also able to give a brief run-out to Nico Raskin following the midfielder’s two month injury lay-off, commended Ridvan Yilmaz for his best showing in his 11-week tenure, and the fact his injury-hit squad have pushed through a period with the Celtic loss the only blemish on their record. “We had 11 games in 37 days, we had a lot of injured players – at one stage we had eleven players out,” said the Rangers manager. “I had the feeling at some moments I was pulling an elastic band at its maximum and it could break at any moment. But the players played to their limits and over their limits at some moments. At the end if you can give this performance it means the team is growing a lot.”