Philippe Clement has been told Rangers’ Jekyll & Hyde displays are a far bigger issue than his Easter Road penalty gripe.
The Belgian was fuming over a spot kick award which led to Hibs’ second goal in a 3-3 thriller in Leith as the Light Blues dropped yet more Scottish Premiership points on the road leaves them trailing Celtic by 13 points in the table. Rangers flew out the traps in the capital and raced into a two goal lead thanks to Hamza Igamane – who went on to complete a perfect hat-trick in the game – and it was similar to spells in their Boxing Day defeat to St Mirren and draw at Motherwell three days later.
Clement’s men have also dazzled at times in Europe and were unlucky not to beat Premier League outfit Tottenham Hotspur at Ibrox as well as thumping Nice away and strolling to victory against Malmo.
And former St Mirren captain Stephen McGinn has been left scratching his head at the inconsistency of the Light Blues and insisted Rangers missed a chance to follow up their Old Firm win to put a bit of pressure on Celtic who started slowly before seeing off the Buddies in the later kick off on Sunday.
McGinn told BBC Scotland: “The bigger talking point for me as the Rangers manager is either side of a brilliant victory against Celtic they conceded seven goals – dropping points left, right and centre.
“They were cruising at 2-0 (against Hibs). I was in Paisley on Boxing Day against St Mirren and for 20 minutes Rangers were outstanding, almost unplayable. They didn’t let St Mirren breathe in the game. They started like that against Hibs and there shouldn’t even be a doubt over the outcome.
“The biggest question is why can Rangers play like that for 20 minutes against St Mirren, 90 against Celtic, Spurs, Olympiacos, Nice – and why for 30 against Hibs? And even at 2-2 they go and win the game again so that just takes the penalty out. Go and win the game 3-2, build on the result.
“But instead they gave Celtic a nerveless day. Celtic didn’t quite fire for the first half an hour. Can you imagine Celtic Park if Rangers had won 3-0 and put on a stunning performance again at Easter Road and Celtic hadn’t really created anything of 25, 30 minutes. It would have put a bit of nerves in the crowd. But what they did was just hand the baton back and say ‘we’re not in this for the long haul’.”