Philippe Clement admits Rangers don’t have the “magic” needed to pull a rabbit out of the hat when they need it.
The Light Blues saw their chances of closing the gap on Celtic and Aberdeen go up in smoke when Marley Watkins struck late on to nick all three points for Kilmarnock at Rugby Park. Rangers registered just three shots on target – their lowest all season – in a sluggish display that will have done nothing to convince fans that the Belgian is on the verge of turning things around and mounting a proper title challenge.
It’s now their seventh defeat to Killie in their last 13 visits to Ayrshire, and the biggest worry will be that Derek McInnes’ men deserved it despite having less of the ball. When he took over a year ago, Clement warned that he wasn’t Harry Potter and had no magic wand to wave to fix all of Rangers’ woes. And a 364 days after his first game produced a 4-0 win over Hibs, he admits his team are unable to conjure up the special moments needed to make the difference.
“You need in these games that kind of magic to open up the defence. They work really hard, we know that and all respect to Kilmarnock for that. That’s why it’s a difficult place to play.
“Also on the surface, you need to be even more precise than on a grass pitch. All these things, you know before you come here so you need to take these decisive moments. What we didn’t take also were the chances we had, so it’s all on us that we were not good enough to win this game.
“It’s a frustration of today because I don’t think this is the phase that the team has shown in the last couple of weeks. It’s a different type of game also, but we have to adapt better.”