Philippe Clement issues latest Rangers stance on Hearts captain Lawrence Shankland at Ibrox
Rangers will not have a specific game plan to stop Lawrence Shankland when Hearts visit Ibrox this weekend says Philippe Clement.
The Ibrox boss insisted ahead of the game in Glasgow on Saturday (24 February) that his philosophy is always to focus more on his own players and what they can do, comparing it to facing superstar former Paris Saint-Germain attacking trio Lionel Messi, Neymar and Kylian Mbappe with Monaco last season.
Shankland has already scored twice against Rangers this season, with his goal in the 2-1 Light Blues win on 29 October helping to kick off speculation that he would be a transfer target for Clement in January or the summer.
Clement said, via BBC Sport (23 February): “He’s scored more than 50% of their goals so that’s a lot of points if you see all season. But it’s not [right] to be focused only on him and to forget the rest because then there will be other guys who will make the difference.
“So we never go into games thinking about one player. I played with my team last year against Messi, Neymar and Mbappe in the same game, but we were not focused on them, we were focused on our way.
“How we need to play and how we need to stop them, but also using them to attack, and that worked in a good way, so it’s always my philosophy to be more focused on ourselves.”
Rangers will not have SPFL plans to combat Lawrence Shankland
It is no secret that the Jambos captain is the primary threat in their line up, as his 25 goals this season make it quite plain to see.
They are also the reason that there was great expectation around the 28-year-old last month as the potential game-changing arrival at Ibrox during the transfer window.
With his Tynecastle contract extensions all rejected so far he will remain in the conversation leading into the summer, unless or until he commits to Hearts.
Clement is right that as the favourites on paper his Rangers side need to worry more about themselves, and with three wins from three meetings between the two sides so far this term that has proven a winning formula.
But at a time when the momentum has shifted markedly across Glasgow from Celtic in the title race it would be damaging to suffer a set back, especially if Shankland were the one to cause it, so the Light Blues will still have to be careful.
In other Rangers news, a “massive” £60million change has been tipped at Ibrox amid bafflement at what Celtic have been doing.
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