Philippe Clement has told his Rangers players what they MUST do in order to pick up the big results in Europe.
The Light Blues kicked off their Europa League campaign with an away day win at Malmo on matchday one of the competition as part of a run of results that brought four wins and four cleans sheets for the Ibrox men. However, they were brought back down with a bang on Thursday night as French outfit Lyon fired four past Jack Butland on a night to forget in Govan. Reacting to the defeat on home soil, Clement concedes in order to match opponents with a ‘much bigger budget’ he needs a number of troops in his ranks to rise above their usual levels and make the difference both offensively and defensively in order to taste success.
He told Sky Sports: “You know working against opponents with a much bigger budget that you need to have a few players who rise above their level and make the difference in that way in the offense part, defensive part and probably in both to get the really big results. I think the really positive thing is the football the players brought in many moments of the game. but of course we need to improve still in a lot of other things.
“We had the same chances of Lyon. So that is clear for everybody to see. You see the second goal they scored. They have the quality and a lot of quality in the small spaces to make the difference. So you will have the same problems or other problems or bigger problems in that way. So no, we were all convinced this was the good way to approach the game. They have the individual qualities to kill off the job. We are working on that.”
Next up is St Johnstone at Ibrox for Rangers. It will be a new face in charge with Simo Valakari the man in the hotseat at McDiarmid Park now following the sacking of Craig Levein. Speaking ahead of welcoming the Perth side to Glasgow, Clement told Sky Sports News: “You cannot predict. They had a manager a few weeks ago when we played against them [in a 2-0 Premier Sports Cup win]. He was sacked after so the interim manager did the job and did it in a different way.
“Now, a new manager has come in, so we don’t have any clue how they’re going to approach the game. So the most important thing stays, like we always do, we look first at ourselves to play the game. And I think the main target now is to recover really well after the game on Thursday, to be good again on Sunday, to make the difference against them and to play our football.”
Last weekend, Rangers returned to action after playing on the Thursday in Europe at 12 noon against Hibs at Ibrox. This time they have exta time to prepare with the game live on the TV at 8pm. The Belgian boss hopes to see the benefits of the extra rest time.
He said: “It’s a big difference, of course, when you play eight o’clock in the evening, or you play like last time, 12 o’clock, so it’s a little bit more recovery time for the players. So I expect to see that on the pitch.
“Yes, that’s always the goal (clean sheet). And also in Europe, of course, because then you’re sure of a point, and we did, in that way, a really good job in Malmo with defending well and blocking shots. But the Lyon players are a little bit faster than the Malmo players, so we need to raise our level again.
“And we need to do that and use those qualities also in our league games, to take our level from Europe into the league games and win the games. So it’s about raising the standards week by week, and being ambitious as the group, with everybody.”