Philippe Clement reveals details of Rangers team meeting after ‘wrong decisions’ v Aberdeen
Philippe Clement has revealed that Rangers had a team meeting following their draw with Aberdeen after his side made several “wrong decisions” at Pittodire.
The Light Blues fell behind after only 11 minutes in their draw on Sunday (26 November) only to be rescued by a stoppage-time penalty from James Tavernier to keep them within eight points of Rangers at the top of the Premiership.
While Clement was pleased with his side’s response following the slow start to the clash, he admitted during his press conference ahead of Rangers’ clash with Aris Limassol that he had held a team meeting to discuss the Gers’ poor start.
As quoted by the Daily Record (29 November) he said: “The first 15 at Aberdeen were not good. We had a really good meeting about this to learn lessons as a group. Intensity and desire were there, but we made wrong decisions and positioning. Later in the match, much better and we created chances.
“We have to be smart in our positioning, running and how we use the ball with our intensity and power. I want to create winners here, those who want to achieve in every competition.
“Playing in Europe after January is important for us as player and as a club. We will make our story stronger and stronger over coming weeks and months.”
Must become stronger
Clement has been insistent that he wants to create a side at Ibrox that are capable of winning and ultimately that is part and parcel of what being a Rangers player involves. Supporters expect you to win every time you step on the pitch and anything less will be viewed as a failure.
If Rangers want to close the gap to Celtic in the Scottish Premiership and be successful in the Europa League, they cannot allow themselves to fall behind early in matches as they did against Aberdeen on Sunday.
Clement’s side gave themselves an uphill battle just to rescue a point, never mind winning all three.
Hopefully, against Aris in the Europa League, they will show that they have learned from their mistakes and start the game on the front foot. In their last European outing against Sparta Prague, they used the Ibrox atmosphere to start excellently and put the visitors onto the back foot.
The same has to happen again against the Cypriot side on Thursday (30 November). Rangers have already dropped points once against Aris and if they were to do so again it could be a disaster, not just for the result but for the remainder of their Europa League campaign.
In other Rangers news, Neil Lennon has offered his prediction for the Light Blues Europa League clash with Aris Limassol