Tomorrow marks the first anniversary of Philippe Clement’s first game in charge, a four-goal frying of Hibs that offered the Rangers faithful hope their new boss could be the man to cook up something special.
Twelve months down the line and there’s a sizeable but growing portion of the Ibrox support who are growing fed up with the bland menu the big Belgian is serving up. Clement must know by now he’s not to everyone’s taste. There have been enough moments of late when the fans have made their disgust plain. Sunday was one of those.
With the chance to carve into the five-point lead held by Celtic and Aberdeen at the top of the table, Gers choked as Marley Watkins winner saw Kilmarnock tuck into a deserved victory. Clement’s team trudged wearily over to the away end to give their apologies at full-time as that deficit slipped to six, but found their supporters turning their nose up at another flavourless performance.
It’s led some to cast an envious eye to Aberdeen, where Jimmy Thelin has managed to spice things up at Pittodrie without having to plead for the kind of patience Clement has been endlessly appealing for of late. Clement isn’t going to busy himself with that kind of discussion, or even talk about the state of the title race eight games into the season.
But the under-pressure gaffer knows he needs to perfect his Ibrox recipe if he’s to avoid slipping from the frying pan into the fire. “I think the angriness has to do with a lot of things,” said the beleaguered Belgian after the 1-0 defeat at Rugby Park.
“So I will be focused on the sportive side to get the best out of this squad, what the squad is now. We spoke about that. To do that in one transfer window was impossible with the finances at this moment.
“We’re going to work really hard with this squad, and there is a lot of potential in this squad. Much more potential than people see maybe for the moment.
“So a few weeks ago, people spoke also negatively about Jefte after the pre-season – and after he gets the praise also. So it’s about working hard with them and making them better.
“And for sure, getting to know each other on the field in all different circumstances. The only thing that’s important is about winning our own games.
“That we need to do and to focus on that and to get like that a good vibe again. Getting things better, I think a very positive thing last week was our domestic clean sheet [record]. “We don’t get a clean sheet today, so we need to take lessons out of that. Why not? Why we didn’t score more goals also, and to become better.”
Asked if he was worried by the six-point gap that now separates his team from the Premiership pacesetters, Clement insisted: “No, there’s no concern because we need to be focused on ourselves. If you look at the gap all the time, you forget to do what you have to do. It’s about us, we need to win games.”
Clement may not want to address his team’s title chances but former Ibrox hero Kris Boyd could only offer a bleak outlook even before the Killie clash. “A million miles behind Celtic” is how the Sky Sports pundit summed up the current gulf in class between the Old Firm sides.
But Clement said: “I’m not going to go in comments of everybody who’s talking about the team. I’m not happy with the result. I’m not happy with a lot of parts in the first half, so it’s my job to make that better.
“We needed to win more duels, which we didn’t do enough in the first half. The second half was much better. That’s one part. Not only with fights, you win these kinds of games. You need to do much more things than only fight.
“So all credit to Kilmarnock in the way they do it, and that’s why they have also a really good record at home on the pitch here in these circumstances. But we need to adapt. There’s no excuse for us.”
The fans are losing faith but Clement has urged them to stick by his team. Asked what message he’d give to the punters, the former Club Brugge and Monaco coach said: “They’ve seen the last couple of weeks also, and there are a lot of players new here, first time playing at Kilmarnock. So the longer they play here, the more they’re used to the circumstances.
“We get a goal against today where – and I’m not pointing at a player, for sure not, – but it’s just explaining situations where a right full-back steps out, not together with the rest to put the team offside. It’s those details that we paid a price for today. In another moment, we didn’t pay that price.
“So the longer this team plays together, the better they will become. And the more they can learn out of the mistakes made and the good moments also, the good things that they did together, what they did already the last couple of weeks.
“And it’s about working hard, working hard, staying together, digging in, and getting results. And that’s the only way to get fans behind you, not the other way around.”