Philippe Clement makes ‘impossible’ Rangers claim as title battle with Celtic heats up
Philippe Clement is planning on making full use of his Rangers squad in the coming weeks as it is “impossible” to stick with the same players.
The Gers’ title battle with Celtic is heating up nicely, while they are also still competing for silverware in the Scottish Cup and Europa League.
Ahead of a busy run of games, Clement will look to rotate in order to keep certain players fresh and others on their toes.
Asked at Wednesday’s (27 February) pre-Kilmarnock press conference if fringe players have asked about playing more regularly, Clement said: “I think almost all of them. They want to play every game.
“When you are winning, all the players want to play all the games. If you start to lose games, you have less players who want to play all the games.
“They have to focus on what they have to do to play a lot of minutes and do the right things for the team, then they will get minutes. It is my job to think who we are going to pick every time and how we are going to do it as a squad.
“In the beginning it is always more difficult. It is not a new thing. It was the same in my other teams also in periods like that because it is the only way to be there on top every time and with the way we want to play football, with a lot of intensity.
“You cannot do it with the same 12, 13 players for months, every three days. It is impossible. The team understands the story now.”
Rangers fixture list looking packed
The games keep on coming thick and fast for Rangers as we approach March, with the trip to Kilmarnock on Wednesday (28 February) the first of six games in the space of 18 days.
That means a game every three days for the next few weeks up to the final international break of the season.
Clement has navigated the fixture list well thus far, as reflected by this run of 24 wins in 28 matches since he took charge, and just the one loss.
Having overtaken Celtic at the Scottish Premiership summit, the aim now of course is to stay there. The 5-0 thumping of Hearts was certainly a good start to that mission.
Another run deep in the Europa League would be lovely, too, while the Scottish Cup presents a chance to add yet more silverware to the collection.
As Clement says, you are not going to be able to play every game with the same set of 14 players. Thankfully, there are plenty on the precipice who are more than capable of stepping up when called upon.
That is a credit to the group, with each player pushing for inclusion and making Clement’s life as tough as possible.
In other Rangers news, Clement also made an admission over the long-term future of Mohamed Diomande.
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