Philippe Clement pleased by ‘synergy’ between Rangers fans and players v Hibernian
Philippe Clement has said that he was pleased to see synergy between Rangers players and supporters in their “dominant” win over Hibernian.
The Belgian had a perfect start to life at Ibrox as his side ran out 4-0 winners over Hibs on Saturday (21 October) with goals from Abdallah Sima, Nicolas Raskin and Cyriel Dessers ensuring all three points remained in Glasgow.
Having only been appointed last Sunday (15 October) the former Monaco boss was pleased with not only the result on his Rangers debut but revealed that he was incredibly impressed by the manner of his team’s performance and their interaction with the home crowd.
Speaking to BBC Sport (21 October) he said: “You see that it was only two days that the players want to do the things like we trained, like we showed them in video, we took a lot of time with that. You see the guys who understand it fast, the guys who need a little bit more time and in every team it’s like that.
“But in general I saw what I wanted to see, what I expected to see, what I hoped to see today, to play dominant attacking, football with a good pressing game. We need to raise our physical levels in the next week, next months is an interesting task to do that with every two-day game, but we’ve done it before.
“I’m most happy about the synergy between the players and the fans. From the first minute, it starts with the players going forward and in the first three minutes, we have two set-pieces, two corners because we push Hibs backwards and the fans go behind the team.
“I think that is one of the biggest strengths of this club that we need to have the next couple of months to win trophies.”
Proper attitude
It’s clear that Clement has bought into what it takes to be a Rangers manager and completely understands that special relationship between players and supporters that very few clubs in Scotland or the rest of the world can claim to have.
Part of what ultimately cost Michael Beale his job at Ibrox was the fact that he lost the backing and love of his supporters and while they are an incredibly loyal fanbase, they will be very vocal in their dissatisfaction, should results turn for the worse.
While one game won’t be enough, first impressions are often the most important and for Clement’s debut to not only provide the supporters with a win but an entertaining, attacking and “dominant” display is almost the perfect start.
Now Clement has to go to Prague and do the same in the Europa League to get the Gers’ European campaign back up and running, after all as Rangers manager, you’re expected to win games, whether that be domestically or abroad.
In other Rangers news, one Sky Sports journalist picked out the most obvious difference between Clement’s and Beale’s sides