Rangers went second in the Premiership for the first time this term – but Philippe Clement says catching Aberdeen was never their target.
Instead, the Ibrox gaffer now wants to set his sights on Celtic at the top by racking up as many points as possible in the second half of the campaign. Clement’s side beat Dundee 1-0 yesterday to leapfrog the Dons after clawing back a nine-point deficit in the table. They’re now one ahead of Jimmy Thelin’s men with a game in hand – but still trail their Old Firm rivals by eight, with Celtic playing On Sunday.
Clement refused to admit that going second was significant because all he’s focusing on is Rangers’ progress. And he’s adamant that if they continue with that mentality they can still achieve success this season, despite their ropey start. The next Glasgow derby is less than a fortnight away but his side face St Mirren first on Boxing Day then Motherwell at Fir Park.
And Clement said: “It wasn’t a target for us (catching Aberdeen). It’s about us and what we do. I’m convinced we can make a good season if we focus on ourselves and not other teams.
“It’s about us taking points, not looking at other clubs.
“We’ll continue in that way to make this team better and progress. We want to take more points than we did in the first few months because it wasn’t enough, we all know that. So we want to make a better second part of the season.”
Clement was delighted with the win over Dundee, especially after their heartbreaking League Cup Final defeat to Celtic at Hampden last week. Vaclav Cerny’s 10th goal of the season wrapped up the points – but the manager urged his players to be more clinical.
Incredibly, Gers hit the bar FOUR times against the Dark Blues with Clement claiming they could have scored six. He said: “It was a well deserved victory but we wanted to score more goals.
“We also wanted to entertain the fans more than we did. But it was a special game in that we hit the crossbar four times – that doesn’t happen too often.
“We had to be more clinical in the second half. We should have scored the second goal which would have killed Dundee’s belief.
“But the opponent stayed in the game until the last second and something could have fallen out of the sky for them. You can always concede a goal in that situation. But the positive thing is that we didn’t give away chances.
“Liam Kelly didn’t have to make a save. But we should have scored a second and third goal. That’s what I wanted, to score more goals.
“It could have been another Kilmarnock score today (6-0). We’re getting better consistently and stability but you need time for that.
“We’re not at the end of learning – there are still a lot of things we can make better and that’s our job as a staff.
“It’s never a linear line where you just get better and better. But our basics are stronger now than they were two months ago. Now it’s about keeping those basics strong all the time.”
Kelly was drafted into Clement’s line-up after first-choice keeper Jack Butland pulled out before kick-off due to a ‘private matter’. But the Gers boss confirmed his English number one WILL be back in goal to face St Mirren on Thursday.
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